Monthly Message from our Rector - October 2026
The ‘Teacher’s Gospel’
Over the last few months, we have been focusing on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew’s Gospel (his teachings on his calling, the mission of the church and more generally on community life together) and we will be concluding these readings before Advent starts, at the end of November.
Did you know that Matthew’s Gospel contains more of Jesus’ teaching than Luke, Mark or John? The version of the Lord’s Prayer that we learn is taken from Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew’s Gospel also contains the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount that are the greatest summary of his ethical teachings. It should be no surprise then that Matthew’s Gospel is often thought of as the ‘Teacher’s Gospel’.
That’s not to say that Matthew’s Gospel is more ‘advanced’. Rather, Jesus, in his parables, speaks simultaneously at many levels, drawing us all into the worlds that he paints but also leaving threads to draw out deeper levels of meaning and subtle referencing to other parts of scripture that act as hyperlinks to other stories that reframed peoples understanding.
I think that Matthew would be horrified at the notion that these teachings, however profound, were in any sense just theoretical. These words were written as a guide for living – to encourage, provoke and challenge us in the everyday choices we make, showing us what it looks like to love God and our neighbour as ourselves and follow Jesus in the places where he has put us. Matthew is clear that wherever God has put us, Jesus is there in our midst. That theme is bookending the whole Gospel. In the first chapter of his Gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus is Emmanuel (literally: God with us), and the final words he gives us, belong to Jesus ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’.
I pray that, as we come to the end of our exploration of Matthew’s Gospel this year, we might listen afresh to Jesus’ words and recognise what he is saying to us through them. May we learn to live as his disciples in the places where he has put us, strengthened by his promise that he is with us always, to the very end of the age. Amen.
Revd Peter Francis (Rector)