Kim Paffenroth, «Jesus as Anointed and Healing Son of David in the Gospel of Matthew», Vol. 80 (1999) 547-554

Matthew handles his material in order to relate Jesus’ anointing, healing, and his title "Son of David". Matthew does this in order to present Jesus as the uniquely anointed "Christ", the Son of David who has come to heal, and who is in that respect (and others), greater than his father David.

Unlike the previous example, nothing in the context would seem to make healing more appropriate than teaching at this point. If anything, the fact that this is the introduction to a controversy story (Matt 19,3-12 // Mark 10,2-12) would seem to make Mark’s context the more sensible. Third, and perhaps most importantly because of its placement, both Mark and Luke have Jesus teach in the temple after casting out the money-changers there (Mark 11,17 // Luke 19,47). Matthew, on the other hand, omits any reference to Jesus’ teaching and instead says that "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them" (Matt 21,14). It is the last time that Jesus heals in the Gospel¹⁹. Jesus’ time in the temple has been transformed by Matthew into the climax of Jesus’ healing ministry²⁰.

        Matthew shows the same interests and tendencies in his redactions of Mark’s summaries. When Mark summarizes Jesus’ ministry, he focuses on the two activities of preaching and exorcisms: "And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons" (Mark 1,39). These two activities are also what the disciples are empowered to do: "And he appointed twelve to be with him, and to be sent out to preach, and have authority to cast out demons" (Mark 3,14-15). For Mark, the ministry of Jesus and his disciples is best characterized by their preaching and exorcistic activities, though Mark is much more detailed in recounting the latter²¹. As for Matthew, he has obviously greatly expanded Jesus’ teaching activities in his five large discourses or sermons²², and while he retains (with the modifications noted above) Mark’s depiction of Jesus as an exorcist, when Matthew summarizes Jesus’ activities, he adds or substitutes references to Jesus’ more general healing activity, as in his parallel to Mark 1,39: "And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people" (Matt 4,23). This is at the conclusion of the first narrative block in Matthew, and he concludes the second narrative block with an almost identical summary: "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity" (Matt 9,35)²³. And in his summary of the disciples’ activity, Matthew also refers to their healing activity: "And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity" (Matt 10,1).