O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

It must be noted that the Father-Son relationship Jesus has with God stands asunique in the history of the world (Green 2000:40). Matthew’s Gospel presentsJesus as God’s son. This seen as Matthew 1:18 teaches the reader that Jesus wasnot conceived by any human Father, but by God.That God is presented as Father has the connective idea that followers of Christ arealso sons of God (Combrink 1983:90). For example Matthew 5:9 records thatdisciples will be known as sons of God. Followers of Christ are also taught inMatthew to relate as brothers. The theme of the “brotherhood” of God’s people is acentral conceptual link in the concept of covenant as taught in Deuteronomy. Thatdisciples are a spiritual family type community united through faith in Christ will beexplored in point 6.2.5 below.In the literary analyses God as a benevolent Father was put in contrast to the godsof pagans. This would appear to be a teaching that goes contrary to the claim ofGod’s Fatherhood being universal. I.e. do all people have claim to God as Father?There is one occurrence in the gospels where Jesus talks to the “general public” andrefers to God as Father (Metzger 1992:146). This is found in Matthew 23:9. Theremainder of the records of Jesus teaching, God as Father is reserved for Jesus andfor Jesus’ disciples (Metzger 1992:146). Thus it seems that only followers of Christhave the privilege to call God Father.Matthew 6:19-34 makes several references to the way God works. The way ornature in which Jesus taught His disciples to relate to God as Father was unique forit’s time. However the providential workings of God in nature and to supply for Hispeople presented in Matthew 6:19-34 would have been a typically Jewish idea.The Jewish community would know from the OT scriptures that material provisionultimately comes from God. Deuteronomy 8 recounts the story of God leading Israelin the desert where God allowed them to hunger and then supernaturally fed themwith manna (Deut.8:1-20). He did this so that they would know “man shall not live bybread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Thepassage also makes the point that even when here is no apparent supernaturalintervention on God’s behalf it is still God who provides as He gives the ability to78