Many scholars believe that the Gospel of Matthew was written about 90 A.D. It is one of the Synoptic Gospels, following the outline of the Gospel of Mark, but going into more detail of the story of Jesus. Jesus was crucified some 60 years earlier, so these words were written down by the aged, people who had known Jesus, but were now getting old. The stories of Jesus were passed around orally for all of those years and not written down, for the followers of Jesus’ traditions were sure there would be a quick return of Jesus. He had not returned quickly as they hoped, so they wrote down the oral traditions so that future generations could know the storied.
Studying Matthew 24:14 was an important verse to be included by the writer of Matthew, because it is telling the world what must happen before the return of Jesus. Making this Matthew 24:14 commentary is very important. Earlier in the chapter he stated that there would always be “wars and rumors of wars” and oh how true that is. Innocent people are being slaughtered. But these days will not cause Jesus to return. One would think that His great compassion would cause him to return, but Matthew 24:14 says Jesus will not return “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world”. Then and only then will Jesus come. The Matthew 24:14 commentary sounds so sad, and almost hopeless. Yes, the Word is being preached in many places in the world that we might not imagine. Yet here in the United States, is that Word being preached. Is it being preached in the pulpits of our churches? Is it being preached to the homeless and hungry that would never think of setting foot in a church. Is it being preached to those young people who are throwing their precious lives away on crack cocaine, marijuana? Is the word being heard by victims of domestic violence and other forms of battering?
Oh Lord, forgive those who have heard the word and have done nothing. We will never see the sweet face of Jesus come back to this place and reign in peace, because people have not responded to the call of Matthew 24:24 – “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
