Big Idea: Matthew demonstrates Jesus to be the Messiah, who signals the kingdom’s arrival by his acts of healing and preaching of good news and confounds human expectations by embodying the wisdom of God.

Understanding the Text

This passage begins a two-chapter account of various responses to who Jesus is and to his kingdom message among the Jewish people of Galilee. Beginning with John the Baptist’s wonderings about Jesus, the reader hears of various responses, from the very negative responses of Jewish leaders in Galilee (12:1–45) to the positive responses of those who do “the will of [Jesus’] Father” and so are considered Jesus’ family (12:46–50). The proper response to Jesus is outlined at the end of chapter 11, where Jesus calls his fellow Jews to come to him as they would to the Torah …