Matthew: Jesus is King
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The Gospel of Matthew is one of the four Gospels that tell us about the Lord Jesus’ ministry and time on earth. Matthew’s goal when writing his Gospel is to present Jesus as the long awaited Messiah of Israel. Because of this, Matthew has many themes that the other htree Gospels don’t that would be easily understood by Jewish readers - because the Jews were Matthew’s primary audience.
For non-Jewish readers, these themes aren’t as easy to spot, but as we walk through the Gospel hopefully we can start to see these themes more clearly. A major point for Matthew will be showing us how Jesus fulfils the Old Testament Scriptures.
Of the four Gospels, Matthew was probably written second, or third. Traditionally it is thought that Mark was written first, then Matthew and Luke, and finally John.
There were several traditions in the early church that said Matthew was originally written in Hebrew (since it was so obvious that he was writing to the Jews). However, many of those were speculative and no such manuscripts exist (if they ever did) - the earliest manuscripts are very much written in Greek.
Matthew 1:1-17: Geneology of the Messiah
Matthew 1:1-17: Geneology of the Messiah
Since Matthew wants to prove that Jesus is the promised Messiah, he decides to start his Gospel with the genealogy of Christ. This is one of two geneologies found in the Gospels. The other is found in Luke.
Genealogies were extremely important to the Israelites. When reading the OT it doesn’t take long to find a genealogy! The Israelites were very mindful of knowing who was related to who. This was of course going to be true for the Messiah.
Even how Matthew describes this as “The book of the genealogy of...” is reminiscient of many of the introductory sections of the OT, especially Genesis.
Unlike Luke who goes “up” from Jesus to Adam in his genealogy, Matthew goes “down” from Abraham down to Jesus. The two most important names in this list are found right in verse one: David and Abraham.
According to the OT, the Messiah was to be an Israelite, so therefore he had to be descended from Abraham. But, according to the Scriptures, he was also to be a descendent of David - a king.
The genealogy as a whole is admittedly strange. Among the names we find four women listed, which was very uncommon for a Jewish context. On top of that, these four women were hardly models!
It wasn’t just the women though - many of the people in this genealogy were far from perfect. It’s almost like Matthew wants to tell us, “The Messiah came from a very messy family, just like all of us.”
Unlike Luke, Matthew condenses the genealogy into three main sections: Abraham to David, David to the exile, exile to Christ.
Because of this, Matthew naturally exludes several names in order to boil down each section to 14 names. This also wasn’t uncommon - OT lists often omitted names with a ‘big picture’ in mind.
For Matthew the big picture is pointing out that each period can be neatly condensed down into 14 generations each. The astute observer will note that the third section only contains 13 generations though.
There are a couple reasons to explain this but seems like Matthew might be giving a subtle hint that Mary is in fact the 14th generation - every other person in the genealogy is “fathered”, until we come to Jesus. Joseph is not listed as the “father” of Jesus, but instead the husband of Mary “of whom Jesus was born”.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the entire genealogy is Matthew’s ‘fourteen generations’ from each period. He explicitly tells us this which means he found it significant....but he doesn’t tell us why it was significant.
In Jewish cricles at the time, the number fourteen would have been noteworthy for how it corresponds to different parts of the OT. For example, there were 14 high priests from Aaron to the establishment of Solomon’s temple.
If Matthew is trying to convince the Jews that Jesus really is the Messiah, this would have been another way to produce an argument that might have impressed even their leaders like the Sadduceas and Pharisees.
As far as Jewish history is concerned, the three time periods that Matthew is including here are easily recognizable as the three major periods of the Israelite people. Matthew is making a point that they all have lead to a new era - the era of the Christ. And this really is the purpose of Matthew’s genealogy. Jesus is the fulfilment of Israelite history.
With that in mind, Jesus of Nazereth is the only Jew with a legitimate claim to the Davidic throne and the genealogy to back it up. I would think that would be a troubling reality for the Jews even today who continue to reject Jesus as the Messiah.
As evidence of this significance, I once heard a story of Jewish man who came to believe in Christ after he meditated on Matthew’s genealogy and ultimately came to the conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah because of it!
It’s worth noting that Matthew and Luke’s genealogies actually differ significantly if you look closely. This is particularly true after both mention King David. Several explanations have been given for this, but the most common is that Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy through Joseph, whereas Luke traces it through Mary.
Matthew makes it a point to refer to Jesus as “the Christ”. This is signficiant. It is the Greek equivalent of “Messiah” (which is Hebrew). It means “annointed one” and it was applied to kings, priests, and prophets in the OT. It is only fitting that the Chosen One of God would fulfil all three offices and be the true “Annointed One”.
I think this also shows that by the time Matthew had written his Gospel (perhaps the 50-60s?), Jesus was already being referred to as the Christ, but the Jewish audience he’s writing to is now a generation removed from the events and might have been asking, “Who is this man ‘who is called Christ’?”
Matthew 1:18-23: The Birth of the Messiah
Matthew 1:18-23: The Birth of the Messiah
Like we see in the OT, the genealogy naturally leads into the story of the “main character”. Think of how Genesis the genealogy from Adam to Noah immediatley leads into the story of Noah and the flood. Then after from Noah to Abraham leads right into the story of Abraham. Here, the genealogy of the Christ now leads into His story.
Matthew tells the story of Christ’s birth from the perspective of Joseph. This is in contrast to Luke who tells it from Mary’s perspective.
According to both Gospel writers, Mary and Joseph were engaged. The custom was different from ours, and for all intents and purposes they were married but an official ceremony had not yet taken place and therefore they had not consummated their marriage.
The only detail we’re told about Mary here is that she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Here we first learn about the uniqueness of Christ - He was not conceived by ordinary means.
Since He was conceived by the Holy Spirit we get the first indication that the Messiah is no mere man. He is in fact God in the flesh.
I think this fact was also important because it showed that the Messiah was not conceived by “accident” or on the whim of passion (marital or not). In fact it reminds me of how John describes Jesus making us “children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Jesus conferred upon us what He first conferred upon himself.
St. Athanasius points to Christ’s conception as the Word building his own body - truly His first demonstration that He has power of all bodies, just as raising from the dead demonstrates His power over death, healing over sickness, ect.
For Mary’s part she is blessed to have been able to carry her own Creator. The Church later described this paradox by calling her the “Theotokos” which means “Mother of God”. The focus is less on Mary’s role as ‘Mother’ and more on Christ’s identity as God!
Because she was apparently pregnant out of wedlock, it put Joseph in a precarious situation to say the least! At best he could have her ostrocized, but at worst she could be potentially put to death!
And yet, Joseph wanted neither. Because he was a “just”, or righteous, man. I wonder if Matthew is making a point here. The OT clearly establishes that “the righteous shall live by faith” and that Abraham was “credited as righteous” because of his faith. When God was choosing the man to father His Son, he chose one who had demonstrated his faithfulness.
Joseph demonstrates that righteousness by trying to protect Mary and divorce her quietly. It was admirable, but it wasn’t God’s plan.
Instead, the Lord sent an angel to confirm the truth of what Mary had no doubt told him: the baby really is from the Holy Spirit!
Notice what the angel says: she will bear a son. No matter what Mary and Joseph were going to encounter over the next 9 months they had confidnence that they would be safe because God had promised that she would give birth to Jesus.
We’ll learn later about how Herod attempted to kill the baby after He was born, but there would have been plenty of questions and maybe even threats to Mary for her being pregnant.
In Revelation John sees this whole story play out from a heavenly perspective where the “dragon” (devil) did his best to try and stop Mary from having the baby. But he couldn’t.
“You shall call his name Jesus.” Since in that culture fathers named their children, this is God’s way of making it clear that Joseph had a major part to play in this story. It was his responsibility to name the child. In doing so, he would establish himself as Jesus’ earthly father.
Can you imagine how this might have made Joseph feel? Mary might have been the “Mother of God” but Joseph was tasked with being the “Namer of God”!
The song The Carol of Joseph (by For King & Country) is a Christmas song that explores the emotions Joseph might have had. I think the bridge captures this beautifully:
“Breathless, trembling, wondering what's gonna happen next
Questions upon questions, this little heart beatin' in my chest
How can I be the one, the one to father the fathers son?
How can I raise a kid, when this humble life is all I bring?”
The name that Joseph is to give is “Jesus” which means “Yahweh saves”, hence “he will save his people from their sins”. This is a common naming convention in the OT - names mean things!
Interestingly, “Jesus” wasn’t all that unique of a name though. In fact it seems to have been a common name in the 1st century. This doesn’t take away from the signficance of its meaning. But I also think it aligns with the fact that Jesus, despite being King of the Universe, “emptied himself” even taking a an unremarkable name (and making it remarkable!). The fact that He had to be distinguished as “the Christ” shows this!
After recounting this dream that Joseph had, Matthew then gives us the first explicit fulfilment of Scripture - Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Matthew is trying to convince his Jewish audience (and us!) that this Jesus really is the Messiah, and in order for Him to be the Messiah he must fulfil the Scriptures.
OT prophecies are interesting. Sometimes they are explicit, and other times they are not. Did Isaiah know he was prophesying about the Messiah? That’s hard to say, but nonetheless the Holy Spirit inspired him to utter those words which were later fulfilled by Jesus!
Fulfilment of this particular Scripture isn’t the only thing Matthew cares about. He goes one step further to let us know that “Emmanuel” means “God with us”. This is Matthew explicitly telling us Jesus’ identity: He is God!
The name of Jesus refers to His mission & work, and the name Emmanuel refers to His identity.
The chapter ends by telling us that all the things that the angel said did in fact come to pass: Joseph took Mary as his wife (but did not have sexual relations with her), she gave birth to a son, and Joseph named Him Jesus. The plan that God set forth “in ages past” came to fruition exactly as He declared it would.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This all leads us to one universe shattering event: Christmas! The birth of Jesus Christ, God taking on flesh and dwelling among us. But make no mistake, everything leading up to that moment was set in place by God himself from before time began. For Matthew it started with Abraham, and the entire history of the Israelite people led to this very moment. It’s why the Church celebrates this period leading up to Christmas called Advent. They had prepared for Christ’s first advent, and now we celebrate that first advent as we prepare for His second.
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