Disciples and crowds (potential disciples) gather round him, as he calls into being a new community of doers of God’s will. But powerful critics, scrambling to retain their own influence over the people, attempt to silence his words and halt his progress. The tensions in Matthew’s plot are not resolved in a typical happy ending, nor does the plot rest with the complete destruction of Jesus on the anvil of his enemies’ power. Jesus does not escape crucifixion, but in the very act of crucifying him,