A reflection on Matthew 13:51-53
Sunday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)
©️2023 Gloria M. Chang
“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 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.”
Matthew 13:51-53 (ESV)
Hermeneutic of Continuity
The enlightened scribe radiates a holistic wisdom that integrates truth from end to end. Rising above sectarianism, the Spirit of Truth harmonizes the mind and heart of the sage in union with God’s actions in every time and place.
Many of the Church Fathers interpreted “the new and the old” in terms of the New and Old Testaments or the New and Old Laws of Israel (a.k.a. Zion).
In modern terms, Jesus’ portrait of the learned scribe transcends the division between the “conservative” and the “progressive” in a hermeneutic of continuity rather than rupture. Saints renewed in Christ move with the living Spirit, who breathes new life into old forms without destroying them.
A learned scribe in kingdom norms
Treasures Zion’s new and old forms.