The messages of the Community Discourse—embedded in 16:21–20:28, with its focus on defining Messiah and discipleship—center on the need for the messianic community to renounce status concerns, care for their most vulnerable, and pursue restoration and forgiveness of those who stray. The community of disciples must deny self and live a cross-shaped existence (16:24) empowered by Jesus’s presence within the community.

Though possessing a certain seamlessness, Matthew 18 may be divided into two sections, each beginning with a question posed to Jesus (18:1, 21). These narrative moments lead into Jesus’s extended answer in each case. The Community Discourse includes teachings of Jesus for the twelve disciples on the story level as well as addressing Matthew’s audience quite directly (see “A N…