Matthew

Starting with the family tree, because it matters. Abraham to David to the exile to Jesus: fourteen generations each. I counted.

Isaiah, centuries before: “They will call him Immanuel.” God with us.

Joseph@josephofnazareth · BethlehemHe’s here. A son. We’ve named him Jesus.

Years later. There’s a man in the Judean desert in camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey, telling everyone to turn back to God because the kingdom of heaven is close. People are going out from all over Judea.

As he came up out of the water, heaven opened. The Spirit came down like a dove. And a voice from heaven said this is his Son, the one he loves, and he’s delighted with him.

John the Baptist@johnthebaptist · Jordan RiverHe asked me to baptise him. Him. I told him it should be the other way round. He said do it anyway, this is the right thing to do. So I did.

Forty days in the desert with no food. Then the devil turns up with three offers: stones into bread, a jump off the temple, every kingdom in the world. Three times Jesus answers with Scripture. The last: “Away from me, Satan!”

Replying to @matthew

The devil left. Angels came and looked after him.

His first answer to the devil, word for word from Deuteronomy: people don’t live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Moses@mosesPeople don’t live on bread alone. They live on every word that comes from the LORD’s mouth.

He went up the mountainside, sat down and taught. It was long. These are the lines people still quote.

His “You’ve heard it said… but I tell you” list: 1. Murder? Anger already counts. 2. Adultery? Looking with lust already counts. 3. Oaths? Just let your yes be yes.

Replying to @matthew

He wasn’t lowering the bar, either. Unless you’re more right with God than the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, he said, you won’t get into the kingdom of heaven.

The two he started from: numbers six and seven.

Moses@mosesThe Ten Commandments, short version. 1. No other gods. 2. No idols. 3. Don’t misuse his name. 4. Keep the Sabbath. 5. Honour your parents. 6. Don’t murder. 7. Don’t commit adultery. 8. Don’t steal. 9. Don’t lie about your neighbour. 10. Don’t set your heart on anything that’s your neighbour’s.

Before the cheek line, he brought up the old rule everyone knows: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Then he said don’t fight back against someone who does you wrong.

Moses@mosesThree chapters of everyday law. Servants, oxen, fires, loans. The one people remember: eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

Former tax collector. Felt that one.

Jesus@jesus · The mountainYou can’t serve both God and money.

Replying to @centurioncapernaum

Jesus was amazed. Said he hadn’t found faith like that in anyone in Israel.

Replying to @gadarenepigs

The whole town came out to see him. And begged him to leave.

Some men carry a paralysed man to him on a mat. Jesus sees their faith and tells the man to cheer up: his sins are forgiven.

Personal news: I’ve left the tax booth. Jesus was walking past, saw me sitting there, and said “Follow me.” I got up and went.

Liked by Jesus

Replying to @pharisee.capernaum

You asked us, not him. He answered anyway: it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. He didn’t come to call good people, but sinners.

At the house the flute players are already going. He says the girl isn’t dead, she’s asleep. They laughed at him. Then he took her hand, and she got up.

Jairus@jairusMy daughter had just died. I knelt in front of him and asked him to come and put his hand on her, so she’d live. He got up and came.

He looks at the crowds and his heart goes out to them. Like sheep with no shepherd. He tells us the harvest is huge, but there aren’t many workers.

He’s picked twelve of us. Me included, a tax collector. Judas Iscariot too, the one who betrayed him.

Friend of tax collectors. Guilty. Hi.

Jesus@jesusJohn came not eating or drinking, and they say he has an evil spirit. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

The Pharisees walked out and started planning how to kill him. Over a hand being healed.

A man with a withered hand@stretchedout · A synagogueSabbath, synagogue, me with a shrivelled hand, and everyone watching him. He told me to stretch it out. I did. It was as good as the other one.

Replying to @jesus

His mother and brothers were outside asking for him when he said that. He pointed at us.

So many people on the shore he’s teaching from a boat. All stories today.

Replying to @nazareth

They took offence at him. He didn’t do many miracles there, because they didn’t believe.

Why he says that. Herod had locked John up for saying he had no right to Herodias, his brother’s wife. At his birthday Herodias’ daughter danced, and he swore to give her anything. Her mother told her to ask for John’s head on a plate. He was upset. He did it anyway.

Herod Antipas@herodantipasIt is John the Baptist. Risen from the dead. That would explain the powers.

When Jesus heard, he went off by boat to be alone. The crowds followed on foot. He saw them and his heart went out to them.

Replying to @simonpeter

About five thousand men. Not counting women and children.

Yes, we asked that. After the five thousand. Seven loaves, four thousand men, seven baskets left over.

The believers@thebelieversWhere are we supposed to get enough bread out here for a crowd this size?

Replying to @jesus

It wasn’t about bread. He meant their teaching. We got there eventually 😅

Replying to @thebelievers

He called a little child over and stood him in the middle of us. Unless you change and become like little children, you won’t get in at all.

Replying to @simonpeter

Not seven times, he told you. Seventy-seven.

He answered them from the first page of Moses. Hadn’t they read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female?

Moses@mosesDay six is the one that matters for us. God makes people in his own image. Male and female. Then he looks at everything he’s made, and it isn’t just good this time. It’s very good.

People brought their children for him to bless. We told them off. Wrong call. He said to let the little children come to him. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like them.

Replying to @jesus

He looked at us. For people, this is impossible. For God, everything is possible.

Replying to @simonpeter

A hundred times as much, he said, and eternal life. But many who are first will be last.

He’s riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Zechariah wrote this: your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey. Cloaks and branches all over the road.

He’s teaching in the temple courts and the chief priests and elders come up: by what authority are you doing all this? He says he’ll tell them if they answer one question first. John’s baptism: from heaven, or just human? They huddle. Say heaven, and he’ll ask why they didn’t believe John. Say human, and the crowd turns on them, because everyone thinks John was a prophet. So they said, “We don’t know.” Then neither will I tell you, he said.

Replying to @jesus

The chief priests and Pharisees knew he meant them. They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd.

Replying to @pharisees.student

It was a set-up. The Pharisees had gone off beforehand and worked out how to catch him out with his own words. He saw through it immediately. Called them hypocrites and asked why they were testing him.

The second one is from Leviticus. And he said the whole Law and the Prophets hang on these two.

Moses@mosesSame part, from the LORD: no revenge, no grudges. Love your neighbour as yourself. And he signs it “I am the LORD.”

Then he asked the Pharisees one. Whose son is the Messiah? “David’s,” they said. So how can David, speaking by the Spirit, call him “Lord”? If David calls him Lord, how can he be his son? Nobody had an answer.

David@davidThe LORD tells my Lord to sit at his right hand until he makes his enemies a footstool for his feet.

After that day nobody dared ask him anything else.

He compared it to Noah’s day. People eating and drinking, getting married, right up to the day Noah went into the ark. They had no idea, until the flood came and swept them all away.

Noah@noahI was 600 when it started. The springs of the deep burst open, the windows of the sky opened, and it rained for forty days and forty nights. We went in, me, my wife, our sons and their wives, and the animals with us, two by two.

Then a story about ten bridesmaids. Five brought spare oil, five didn’t. The groom was late. By the time the other five got back from buying oil, the door was shut. His point: keep watch.

The line everyone remembers from his story about the servants and the bags of gold: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Replying to @jesus

Hard part of the same story: the ones who didn’t do it go away to eternal punishment. He said that plainly too.

Something we only found out afterwards. That same week the chief priests and elders met at the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, and agreed to arrest him quietly and kill him. Just not during the festival, they said. The city would riot.

This is the part we didn’t know at the time. Judas, one of the Twelve, one of us, went to the chief priests and asked what they’d give him to hand Jesus over.

Replying to @matthew

Thirty pieces of silver. From then on he was watching for his chance.

Replying to @jesus

A covenant is God’s binding promise to his people. That’s the word he used for his own blood.

Moses said almost the same words at Sinai, sprinkling the blood on the people: “This is the blood of the covenant.”

Moses@moses · Mount SinaiRead them the covenant, God’s agreement with them. They said they’d do it all. I sprinkled the blood on them and told them this is the blood of the agreement.

Replying to @simonpeter

Jesus told you that before the rooster crows, you’ll deny him three times.

Judas arrives with a crowd carrying swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests. He walks straight up to Jesus. “Greetings, Rabbi.” Kisses him. And they grab him.

Replying to @matthew

The kiss was the signal. He’d arranged it with them beforehand: the one I kiss is the man, arrest him. We only put that together later.

Replying to @matthew

One of us drew a sword and cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear. Jesus told him to put it away. Everyone who draws the sword will die by the sword.

Then all of us deserted him and ran.

At Caiaphas’ house they’re hunting for false evidence. Nothing holds. Jesus says nothing. Then Caiaphas puts him under oath: are you the Christ, the Son of God? “You have said so.” And he tells them that from now on they’ll see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Replying to @matthew

They said he deserved to die. They spat in his face and hit him.

Morning. They tie him up and hand him over to Pilate, the Roman governor.

Judas threw the silver into the temple and went and hanged himself. The priests used the money to buy a field to bury foreigners in. It’s still called the Field of Blood.

Replying to @pontiuspilate

The chief priests and elders had persuaded them. Pilate asked what he should do with Jesus. “Crucify him!” Why, what has he done? They only shouted louder.

He washed his hands in front of the crowd as he said it. The crowd told him to let the blood be on them and on their children. He released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Pontius Pilate@pontiuspilate · The governor’s courtI am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours.

The soldiers put a scarlet robe on him and a crown of thorns on his head, knelt and mocked him: “Long live the King of the Jews!” They spat on him and beat him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. They crucify him. They throw dice for his clothes. The sign above his head: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Replying to @matthew

The chief priests stood there mocking him. Saying he saved others but can’t save himself.

Then they actually said it: he trusts in God, so let God rescue him now, if he wants him. That’s David’s psalm, almost word for word.

David@davidThey look at me and laugh. If he trusts the LORD so much, they say, let the LORD rescue him. They've pierced my hands and my feet. They're throwing dice for my clothes.

From noon until three, darkness over all the land.

The first line of David’s psalm. Word for word.

David@davidMy God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I cry out all day and you don't answer. All night too.

He cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. The temple curtain tore in two, top to bottom. The earth shook. The rocks split.

Replying to @jerusalem.local

What actually happened: while the women were on their way to us, some of the guards went into the city and told the chief priests everything. The chief priests met with the elders, then gave the soldiers a large sum of money to say that. Told them if the governor heard about it, they’d keep them out of trouble. They took the money.

That story is still going round to this day.

Someone in Jerusalem@jerusalem.local · JerusalemThe soldiers who were guarding that tomb are all saying the same thing now. His disciples came in the night and stole the body while they were asleep.

The eleven of us met him on the mountain in Galilee. We worshipped him. Some of us still doubted. I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

Not enough people get how much of this was written down centuries before it happened. Bethlehem. Egypt. A donkey. Thirty pieces of silver. All of it.

Sitting at my tax booth by the lake. He was walking past, saw me, and said “Follow me.” So I got up and followed him.

Had Jesus round for dinner. Plus his disciples, plus loads of tax collectors, plus a lot of people everyone calls sinners. Full house.

Replying to @mark

A tax collector on the list. Imagine.

Tax collector. Yes, that kind. He walked past my booth, looked at me and said, “Follow me.” So I got up, left the lot, and threw him a huge dinner at my place. Loads of tax collectors came.

Can confirm. He ate at mine.

A teacher of the law on the road to Jerusalem@teacher.roadTax collectors and sinners, all crowding round to listen to him. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

He told us plainly today. Passover’s in two days, and he’s going to be handed over and crucified.

Replying to @simonpeter

Judas asked it too. It’s not me, is it, Rabbi?

He took bread, thanked God, broke it and passed it round. Said it’s his body, given for us, and to do this to remember him. Then the cup. His blood of the covenant, he said, poured out for many, so sins can be forgiven. A covenant is God’s binding promise. This one’s sealed with his blood.

Sang a hymn and headed out to the Mount of Olives, same as every night this week. On the way he said all of us would fall away tonight. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep scatter.

Replying to @simonpeter

He told him: before the rooster crows twice tonight, you’ll deny me three times.

Judas walks straight up to him. Says “Rabbi!” And kisses him.

Replying to @thomasthetwin

Word is they paid him thirty silver coins.

Replying to @tombguard

Some of the guards went straight to the chief priests and told them everything. The chief priests met with the elders and paid them a lot of money to say that. Promised to keep them out of trouble with the governor. That story’s still going round today.

The eleven of us went up the mountain in Galilee where he told us to go. We saw him and worshipped him, though some of us still weren’t sure. He said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. So go and make disciples of every nation. Baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to keep everything he’s told us. And he’s with us always, right to the end of the age.

He’s heard about John. He wants to get away by boat, somewhere nobody is.

Replying to @philip

A denarius is a day’s wage for a labourer. So two hundred is about eight months’ work. For one small piece each.

He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven and blessed them. Broke the bread. Handed it to us to take round.

About five thousand men ate. That’s not counting the women and children.

Replying to @onthehillside

Fair.

Replying to @simonpeter

Not a fisherman. Rowing anyway.

The fourth watch. The last stretch of the night, somewhere between three and six. Still out there.

Replying to @andrew

Everyone’s screaming. Me included.

Replying to @johnzebedee

He’s actually doing it.

They’ve climbed into the boat together. And the wind’s just stopped.

Replying to @thebelievers

All of us, down on our knees in the bottom of the boat.

Now to Joseph, up in Nazareth. He’s engaged to Mary, and an engagement here is as binding as a marriage. And she’s pregnant, and he knows the child isn’t his.

Replying to @matthew

He’s a good man, and he won’t have her shamed in public. So he’s decided to end it quietly.

Replying to @matthew

He’s turning it all over. Then an angel comes to him in a dream. Calls him Joseph, son of David. Tells him not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife, because the child in her is from the Holy Spirit. She’ll have a son, and Joseph is to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Replying to @matthew

The prophet said it centuries ago: the virgin will have a son, and they’ll call him Immanuel. It means God with us.

Jesus. It means the Lord saves. The angel told Joseph why: he will save his people from their sins.

Joseph@josephofnazarethEight days old. Circumcised and named today. His name is Jesus.

Replying to @bethlehem.local

Another dream for Joseph, as soon as the visitors had gone. An angel: get up, take the child and his mother, and run to Egypt. Stay there till I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So Joseph got up and took them, that same night.

They stayed in Egypt until Herod died. The prophet had God saying: out of Egypt I called my son. It had happened once already, with the whole nation.

Moses@mosesFour hundred and thirty years in Egypt. To the very day. And we walk out.

Replying to @palace.staff

They’d been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod.

Four dreams. Every time, Joseph got up and did what he was told.

Joseph@josephofnazarethChange of plan. Herod’s son Archelaus is king in Judea now. I’m not taking him anywhere near that. Had another dream. We’re going north, to Galilee.

Replying to @josephofnazareth

The prophets said he’d be called a Nazarene.

The Twelve of us called everyone together. We can’t drop teaching God’s word to wait on tables. So: choose seven men everyone knows are full of the Spirit and wisdom, and put them in charge of this. We’ll keep to prayer and teaching.