Matthew: The Jewish Gospel

Matthew is a very Jewish Gospel. It has a genealogy of Jesus that goes all the way back to Abraham. This genealogy proves that Jesus is qualified to be the Messiah, and Matthew goes on to prove that He is the Messiah, the “anointed one”. Matthew included the story of the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, and their presentation of frankincense, myrrh and gold to the King. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah and King, even while He was yet a baby. The gift of the Magi shows the providence of God, because these gifts most likely funded the family’s trip to Egypt, as they fled from Herod.

The writer of Matthew was very detailed, especially when it came to the words and teachings of Jesus. Matthew has perhaps more detailed teachings of Jesus than any other gospel. The book of Matthew is a wealth of knowledge about Jesus and His message. Because we see so much of Jesus’ teaching, we get greater insight into His moral character and His relationship with the Father. In this Gospel we can see the workings of the mind of Christ. There is so much knowledge in this one book that a million sermons could be preached on these teachings of Jesus alone. He came not only to save us, but to teach us. Because we have the teachings of God Himself, it goes without saying, that they are perhaps the most important thing in the Bible. We can be like Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus, learning from Him and hanging on His every word. For any true disciple of Christ, the book of Matthew is indispensable.

Much of the book of Matthew is written to show the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Much of the fulfillment of prophecy can be understood as typological fulfillment, as well as literal fulfillment. There are also many analogies made to things that happened in the Old Testament. Since the Old Testament was the “Bible” to the first century Christians, they used it the way we use the Bible today when we try to describe spiritual truths. As always, the Bible can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the context. Many things in the Bible teach more than one thing. It is not only to be understood on the surface level, but to be searched for the great depth of knowledge, wisdom and insight it contains. This is the reason the Bible can be studied for a life time and new things may still be learned from it year after year.

Matthew was trying to explain to his audience that Jesus was/ is the Jewish Messiah. He was also trying to authenticate the new movement of Christianity in the first century. In the beginning, the movement of Christianity was called “the Way”.  It seemed at the time to be a strange new sect of Judaism, even dangerous to the "true" Jews. Matthew was trying to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messiah that was spoken of in the Old Testament. Jesus was/is the fulfillment of every promise from God. Matthew was written to show the “new wine” of Christianity compared to the “old wineskin” of Judaism. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. Many Jews could not understand this “new wine” because they were so wrapped up in tradition and the law. Most likely many of the Pharisees and Sadducees at the time of Jesus had fallen out of relationship with the living God. Their religion dried up like the fig tree that Jesus cursed in Chapter 11. Any religion without a close relationship to the living God will always be a dry and pleasure-less religion. We are living in a time where the revelation of God has come through Christ. Our salvation and redemption has come in the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us on the cross and glorious resurrection afterward. We are living in a great time. Many Old Testament saints wished they could live to see the day when the Messiah came. They longed for the day when they could know Him as we do today in Spirit. Any religion without intimacy with Christ is an empty religion. Any time we fall out relationship with Christ our religion dries up as well. Without Christ, Christianity becomes unrewarding, nothing but a bunch of rules and regulations.

We learn from the Gospel of Matthew that the things of God many times look very different from what we have seen in the past, and/or what we expect to see in the future. With God all things are made new.  He is constantly pushing us forward into the new and unknown. To God nothing is unknown, and that is why we must put all of our trust in Him.