Old and New

Matthew 13:52

And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

For [Jesus], the “new” things are the extraordinary, brand new visions that the kingdom of heaven is bringing. The “old” things are the wisdom of the centuries, particularly the ancient stories and hopes of Israel. The gospel he brings—and the gospel that Matthew is concerned to tell us about—consists in bringing the two together, rooting the new deep within the old, and allowing the old to come to fresh and exciting expression in the new.

Jesus and his kingdom-message are meant to startle us; but part of the really shocking thing is that, when we blink and rub our eyes, we see that they are the true fulfillment of the long story of God and Israel, and indeed of God and the world (176).

A. Orendorff

Jesus’ explanation of what “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like” offers an abiding paradigm for both the church’s proclamation (i.e., its doctrine and theology) as well as its practice (i.e., its mission and ministry). The new, as Wright puts it, must be rooted in the old. Out of this confluence, the gospel must flow as both a truly organic expression of what is old as well as a powerfully fresh expression of what is new. This is where God’s word meets God’s world (i.e., culture) meet’s God’s Spirit.