Saint Matthew in The Battle for Jesus

Saint Matthew, the chief editor of The Washington Truth, is an important character in the 21st Century story, The Battle for Jesus.

At the beginning of the novel Jesus is writing a column for The Global Star in New York. Jesus loves New York and his column is gaining some traction when one of his articles clashes with the aspirations of Mr Muchmore, the proprietor of the newspaper, and he loses his job.

Saint Matthew salvages the situation by offering to take Jesus and his column to Washington.

On the left is a European picture of Saint Matthew. The painting is called ‘The Evangelist St Matthew and the angel’, by Guido Reni in 1620; courtesy of the Pinacoteca Vaticana Collection, Rome. Via Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. 

In this picture Matthew is depicted as a kindly, dedicated, old sage scribing his gospel. In the book he is a fifty year old, 21st century executive with the bearing of a competent chief-editor of a major newspaper.

We know very little about Matthew’s physical attributes in the Holy Land two thousand years prior to the time of this story, so we can only define his character by his occupation and actions:

In the Holy Land Matthew was a taxman which meant that he collected taxes for the Romans. In the eyes of many, tax collectors such as Matthew were despised as collaborators and Jesus was chastised for befriending him. However, Matthew introduced Jesus to his family, entertained him and gave up a comfortable life to follow him as a Disciple. Matthew was looked upon as a sinner who had repented.

From this we can deduce that Matthew was a single-minded, determined person willing to sacrifice his career for Jesus. He obviously overcame any concerns that his colleagues may have had about him and he was accepted into the fold. In fact, in the end Matthew suffered the way of a martyr.

Fast forward 2000 years to the 21st Century and Matthew has chosen to return as a ‘volunteer’ to support the Archangels and Jesus in their mission to avert the perils of global warming. (See blog on website headed: ‘the worlds within the story’ within the ‘Behind the Scenes’ column, under ‘Associations’ which explains ‘volunteers’ from the Holy Land.)

The Souls in Heaven recreate Matthew as purpose-fit for his job as a chief-editor of a major newspaper in Washington. We see him as an affable people-person in his fifties, highly educated and deeply interested in local and worldly matters.

Mrs Eastman, a life-long friend of Mary Magdalene and the proprietor of the Washington Truth, knows who he is and makes him his chief editor. The two of them get along splendidly. Matthew is respected by all in the newsroom as a remarkably informed person and great journalist. And, Both Mary Magdalene and Jesus accept him as their boss.

Matthew heads up a great newsroom at the Washington Truth where Mary Magdalene has worked for many years. Matthew gets a pass for Jesus to the press room of the White House and is more than aware of Jesus’s love for Mary Magdalene. He supports the Archangels, in particular St Michael at the Chapel on the Orchard Road and is (off the page) good friends with Martha Bethany, Thomas and the Mother Mary.

Matthew is an intrinsic part of the story helping to knit it all together.