Some of the things I noticed while reading the text right through:

• There is not the same sense of urgency we noted in Mark. Why should there be? This is quite a different story. Fair enough!
• Jesus is very much a teacher. It’s not just that the crowds say that he is might in word and deed, but here we are exposed to the teaching – e.g. in the Sermon on the Mount and the chapters on parables.
• He groups together blocks of teaching interspersed with narrative in a way that attracts attention but defies easy explanation.
• The teaching blocks are often brought to an end by a “formulaic wrap up” like “When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he …” (e.g. 7:28, 26:1).
• The early part of the story shows patterns and events that seem to owe a lot to the Hebrew Bible – e.g. a patterning of the young Jesus on the young Moses.
• There is a strong sense that events happened in order to fulfill scripture. This tends to be expressed using various formula such as “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet …” (e.g. 1:22).
• The characters “the Pharisees” do not fare well, especially in chapter 23 and we know about “that remark” put on the lips of “the people as a whole” in 27:25. We wonder if this reflects contemporary hostility between young church and young synagogue as they compete for the same client base.