As we have been reading through Matthew, we've been imagining two historical contexts of the gospel. The first is the one in which Jesus originally taught and the second is the one of the early church in the decades after him. The compiler/author of the gospel sought to connect the two, telling the story of Jesus to new followers who did not know him personally or know someone who had known him personally. Matthew is thus a compilation of stories and teachings from and about Jesus that the author believed to be relevant to the churches. Both contexts, Jesus' and the churches', were in play.What did the author think that the churches need to hear? What did Jesus have to offer the people of the Roman Empire in the first century? According to the sermon on the mount, they needed a vision. They had to be instructed that Jesus' way is not easy. They needed to be warned about injurious behaviors that cripple lives. They particularly needed to be warned about false pieties that only make matters worse.
And this brings us to Matthew 7:7-12 and the crux of the matter. Jesus taught that the way forward was to trust God and then do for others what we would have them do for us. That's it.
It may help us to comprehend the power of this passage and of the whole sermon if we imagine a small-ish chamber with a band of a dozen or fifteen first-century followers of Jesus in a city of the Roman Empire, probably in the eastern Mediterranean, listening intently to a reading of the gospel. They were poor and the worries of life burdened them every day. They coped as best they could. What attracted them to Jesus of Nazareth was that his teachings provided them with a better way to cope, a way of living that was something more than a hand to mouth existence. Trust God. Do a better job of treating others with the respect and attention that you want from them. You don't need tons of cash. You don't have to go through useless rituals. You don't have to be educated. Jesus, speaking to them through the gospel, gave them a clear path to walk, one they could place their confidence in; one that, when they thought about it, made a lot of sense—and actually worked. There was more to it than that, but not much. Stay tuned.
