This brief essay is meant to demonstrate two points:

1. Don't agree with the suggestion of the title unmitigatedly; there are always two sides to a question set.

2. Give two examples of every claim you make.

There can be only one candidate as the climax of Mt's gospel, namely the final pericope on the mountain in Galilee. It concludes the gospel with one lavishly orchestrated chord in which all the instruments of Mt's orchestra play their loudest. Nevertheless, the PN does contribute importantly as the preparation for this pericope, and emphasises many of the themes which are important in Mt's gospel.

The final pericope sums up the themes which have won growing importance throughout the gospel, Christological, ecclesiological and scriptural. Matthew is at pains throughout his gospel to show that Jesus is a more than human figure. By contrast to Mk's human Jesus, to whom the disciples can show their sarcasm and stupidity, Mt's Jesus is hieratic. In the miracle-stories Jesus confronts the beneficiary of his miraculous powers in splendid majesty (Simon's mother-in-law, the woman with a haemorrhage); he walks on the waters and rescues Peter from sinking. In particular Mt's Jesus is a second Moses. Mt 2 is built on a comparison with Moses; in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is seated on the mountain to give his new Law just as Moses did at Sinai.

Now on the mountain in Galilee the risen Christ is not only the second Moses, but also finally the Danielic Son of Man and more, for his power extends over earth as well as heaven.

Ecclesiologically the scene is also the climax of the gospel, and this in two ways, negatively and positively. Negatively, a central theme of Mt's gospel has been the replacement of the Jews as the people of God by a new people 'who will yield their fruit in due season'. Already in the Infancy Narratives the contrast between Herod and the Magi shows who will accept Jesus. In scene after scene throughout the gospel Mt adumbrates this substitution: the centurion at Capernaum shows faith 'which I have found in no one in Israel' (more extreme than Lk's 'not even in Israel'), and Jesus replies that people will come from east and west to take the place of the sons of the kingdom. The verse added at the end of the Wicked Vinedressers points the same lesson. Now, in the final scene, the disciples are to go and teach all nations: the position of privilege of the natural sons of Abraham is no more. Positively, the centre of Mt's developed ecclesiology is the presence of its Lord in the midst of his new community. Mt is always adding little touches which show the importance to him of the community as a socio-political entity: As Bornkamm showed so brilliantly, Mt regards the Calming of the Storm as a symbol of Jesus' protection of his community. The structure of the community is laid down with the promise to Peter, the power of decision given to the community (Mt is, of course, the only evangelist to use the word ekklhsia), and the promise of judgement of the 12 tribes given to the disciples. The gospel opens with the presage of Emmanuel; in the middle (Mt 18) the presence of Jesus is promised when two or three are gathered together. Now this presence is to inform the community for all time, even until the end of time which features so prominently in Mt's thought and expectations.

Scripturally the final pericope is the climax because from the beginning Mt has seen the gospel as the fulfilment of the promises made in scripture. This is the meaning of his formula-quotations, of the completion of the Law in the six antitheses, of his insistent respect for many aspects of Jewish observance. Now at the end Mt's message is again expressed by means of scriptural allusion, through the mountain of Moses and the Danielic Son of Man.

Nevertheless, the quotation at the head of this essay is not far wide of the mark, for the PN prepares for the final scene in a highly significant way, and underlines the themes which have been important throughout the gospel, reaching their climax on the mountain in Galilee.

The Christology of the PN is dominated by Jesus' clam foreknowledge of what is to happen. At the very beginning of the PN he again repeats a prophecy of the Passion, and only then do the authorities begin to prepare. At the Anointing again Mt inserts a gnouj. At the Supper Jesus points out the traitor, instead of merely saying that it is one of them, with a typical Matthean outoj estin. At the Agony Jesus shows his willingness by using one of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. At the Arrest he shows Judas clearly that he knows his mission and its consequences, and only tote do they come to arrest him. By this constant series of retouches Mt confirms that Jesus goes willingly and almost in majesty to his death. His dignity at that moment is made amply plain by the stress on the immediacy of the 'blasphemous' vision of the Son of Man sharing the merkabah throne of God. So in the mockery on the Cross he is challenged specifically as the Son of God.

The guilt of the Jewish authorities is stressed constantly, e.g.

Pilate's handwashing.

His guilt be upon us...

Jewish authorities join in the mockery on the Cross, and actually have the effrontery to quote the words of mockery of the Just Man by the wicked.

Their dedicated hostility even after his death, over the tomb and the body. 'The Jews' used in a Johannine sense, at the bribery of the guards.

Fulfilment of scripture, e.g. 26.54, 56; 27.9. Perhaps the most dominant of all is the fulfilment of OT eschatological prophecies at the moment of death: the earthquake and the dead going into the Holy City.

The community sharing with Jesus: met emou thrice in the Garden.