Twice in his genealogy, Matthew refers to “brothers.” Jacob was the father of “Judah and his brothers,” and at the time of the deportation to Babylon “Jeconiah and his brothers” were born to Josiah.
This initiates a theme in Matthew’s gospel, the theme of the church as a brotherhood. Alongside Judah and his brothers and Jeconiah and his brothers, Matthew talks about Jesus and His brothers.
At the heart of this is a redefinition of what counts as family. When Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are waiting to see Him, He says that His mother and brothers are those who do the will of the heavenly Father (12:50). Later, Jesus says that no one should be called Rabbi because “you are all brothers” (23:8). Family is not blood-based. It’s faith-based, and obedience-based.
Throughout the gospel, Jesus teaches us how we are to behave toward brothers. In the Sermon on the Mount, He prohibits anger against a brother (5:22-24), and tells us to remove the logs from our own eyes before we try to pick out the speck in our brother’s eye (7:3-5).
Jesus gives us a procedure for dealing with our brother’s sins – first rebuking him alone, then taking witnesses, and finally taking it to the church. He warns that the Father will not forgive us if we don’t forgive our brothers from the heart (18:35).
This is not a peripheral issue for Matthew. We are all brothers toward one another because we are all brothers to Jesus and sons and daughters of the same heavenly Father. One key test of our discipleship is how we treat our brothers.
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