Jesus' mission to all of Israel emplotted in Matthew's story

Abstract

The aim of this article is to argue that, although the "crowd" and the "gentiles" do not fulfill the same character roles in the plot of the Gospel of Matthew as narrative, both groups function together as the object of both the mission of Jesus and that of the disciples in the post-paschal period. The article shows that the function of these two groups is related to the exegetical question as to the relationship between a particularistic "insider" trend (cf. Matt 10:5-6) and a universalistic "outsider" trend (cf. Matt 28:19). It argues against the view that there is a discontinuity between the "Israelite crowd" as the object of the Jesus-commission and the gentiles as the object of the disciple-commission on the post-paschal level. The commission reported in both Matt 10 and Matt 28:16-20 alludes to the mission of Jesus' twelve disciples to the "lost sheep of Israel". This commission is emplotted by means of an analogy between two subplots that are integrated by thematic parallels, cross-references, prospect ion and retrospection. The analogy between the two subplots can be understood by means of the "transparency" concept: the pre-Easter narration (level one) can be seen in the story of the post-Easter faith community (level two) and vice versa.