Why is understanding the Gospel of Matthew so vitally important today? How did it become the "Church’s Gospel?"

With eminent scripture scholar Fr. Donald Senior as your guide, explore the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Gospel of Matthew and its enduring power to change lives.

Even though modern scholarship has established the solid supposition that Mark’s Gospel was the earliest of the four inspired accounts of the life of Jesus to be written, Christian custom (and hence the order of texts in your Bible) has long lent Matthew priority of place.

Whatever order of composition researchers may posit, renowned Catholic Scripture scholar Fr. Donald Senior reminds us, there is for us a fittingness to Matthew’s traditional "firstness" that we may glimpse in the many uncanny parallels between the situation of the Church in Matthew’s time and the circumstances that confront Christian faith and witness today. Cataclysmic ruptures in the fabric of civilization, the suffering of the marginalized whom Jesus so loved (and loves), mass population movements, diverse human cultures searching to find their places in the wholeness of the Body of Christ—all those were as familiar to Matthew’s time as they are to ours.

In Fr. Senior’s thoughtful treatment, these parallels appear not as historical curiosities or denials of the transcendence of Jesus’ mission and message, but rather become reminders for us of just how timeless—and timely—this eloquent preaching of the Good News (evangelion) about Jesus in "story form" really is.

By joining Fr. Senior for these 12 talks, you’ll see why the Gospel of Matthew speaks with special resonance to us today—and why it deserves its byname of "The Church’s Gospel."

A Gospel for a Church in Transition

Matthew was written in Antioch, the third-largest city of the Roman Empire, shortly after the Romans crushed the great Jewish rebellion in A.D. 70. Large numbers of Jews and Gentiles alike lived in Antioch, near where modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon meet, and it was there that the first significant number of Gentiles joined Jesus’ followers in the first community to bear the name "Christian" (Acts 11:26).

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul deals with the tension between Jewish and Gentile subgroups in Antioch—a situation that made it difficult for Peter to navigate between the two groups and earned him Paul’s rebuke (Galatians 2:11-14). Nevertheless, Paul would make Antioch the base for his great missionary journeys to the west.

Setting the Scene for Matthew

You will see how this shift from a mostly Jewish Christian community to a mixed community forms a crucial backdrop for Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus as Matthew reveals Him is deeply rooted in Israel’s sacred history, reveres the Jewish Law, and fulfills rather than negates the Old Testament’s promises.

The great ethical teaching of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount draws deeply from the wisdom of the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus shows great love and care for His people and their destiny. At the same time, Matthew’s Jesus turns His face to the future and the mission to the Gentiles. At the conclusion of the Gospel, the Risen Christ sends His apostles to "make disciples of all nations" and promises to be with them till the end of time.

Thus Matthew’s Gospel attempts to bridge a period of great change and even turmoil for the early Church. Retelling the story of Jesus in such a way that the beautiful and wise traditions of Jewish faith are retrieved even as Jesus opens the horizon to a future in which all peoples are called to God’s beautiful gifts of peace and salvation.

A New Story of Jesus

Matthew’s Jesus is an eloquent teacher and a compassionate healer. He is the promised Messiah who perfects Israel’s hopes and the Son of God who gives Himself up to death so that sins may be forgiven.

You will understand how the Gospel groups Jesus’ teaching into five great discourses. In the first and most important of these, the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospel of Matthew has given to the Church the breathtaking ethical teaching of Jesus, climaxing in the injunction to love even one’s enemies. While in Matthew Jesus invites the community to a life of holiness and heroic virtue, the Gospel does not shrink from showing His disciples as human and weak, people for whom Jesus himself has great mercy.

What You Will Discover

This series of lessons will cover the full span of the Gospel, describing its most compelling and characteristic features, and drawing out its message. You will gain a deep understanding of this profound Christian text and new insight into how it continues to offer inspiration and guidance for living a truly Christian life in today’s world.

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Donald Senior, C.P., is president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he has taught the New Testament since 1972. A Roman Catholic priest of the Passionist order, Fr. Senior has served on the Pontifical Biblical Commission since Pope John Paul II named him to it in 2001. In addition to having written books and articles too numerous to list, Fr. Senior is general editor of The Bible Today and The Catholic Study Bible, as well as coeditor of the 22-volume commentary New Testament Message. He earned his doctorate in New Testament Studies from the University of Louvain, Belgium, and completed further graduate studies at Hebrew Union College and Harvard University. In 1994, the Catholic Library Association of America gave him its Jerome Award for outstanding scholarship. In 1996, the National Catholic Education Association awarded him the Bishop Loras Lane Award for his outstanding contribution to theological education.

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1. Introduction: The Nature of a Gospel

2. Background and Context

3. The Infancy Narrative

4. Entry into Galilee

5. The Sermon on the Mount, Part 1

6. Sermon on the Mount, Part 2

7. Discipleship and Mission in Matthew

8. Opposition to Jesus in Matthew's Gospel

9. Confession of Jesus as Messiah: the Gospel's Christology

10. Matthew's Vision of the Church

11. Last Days in Jerusalem

12. Death and Resurrection

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