One of the earliest accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. The author is anonymous, but the earliest church traditions link it to Matthew, the tax collector and disciple of Jesus. He designed the book to highlight certain themes about Jesus’ teachings and ministry. He is the Messiah in the line of David. He is a great teacher, greater than Moses, of Israelite history. And he is “God, with us” (Emmanuel), the fulfillment of the Messianic prophesies.
1-3 – Matthew starts off with a genealogy of Jesus, being a son of Abraham and David, and how all these things work together to fulfill the old testament prophesies about the messiah. Matthew details Jesus birth, with attention to the Magi, and how Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt. He then describes the ministry of John the Baptist, and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness/desert. Matthew provides these details to show how Jesus is much like Moses, but greater. They both spent time in Egypt, went through trials by water (Red Sea / Baptism), spent time in the wilderness, etc. But Moses only received the law, and Jesus IS the giver of the Law, who was born of a virgin to be with us.
4-25 – Mathew has five main sections which detail Jesus’ teachings, similar to how Moses had five books of the law. Jesus details how God’s people are to live in a fallen world and describes the Kingdom of Heaven. There are many descriptive parables, the sermon on the mount (which is actually spoken only to his disciples), and clear explanations that he has not come to abolish the Torah, but rather to fulfill it. He then goes through nine stories of how heaven is touching earth, and Jesus’ Kingdom is brought into each of the lives he encounters, through miracles and healing. Jesus heals lepers, a centurion’s servant, calms the stormy seas, casts out demons, heals a paralyzed man, raises a girl from the dead, gives sight to the blind and makes it possible for the mute to speak. He calls the people continually to follow him, and eventually sends out his 12 disciples to tell others of the good news. Next are a series of stories of how people respond to Jesus’ message. Many respond and follow Jesus as the Messiah. Some are neutral, and some (The Pharisees) are aggressively negative towards his message. He describes these reactions through parables such as “the Sower and the wheat,” the mustard seed,” “the pearl of great price,” ect. After that we see more miracles like the feeding of the 5000, and a continual battle between Jesus and the religious establishment of the day (the Pharisees and Sadducees). He withdraws and preaches to his disciples on themes from Isaiah and the Old Testament, teaching them that he will be a different type of king than they are expecting. Peter confesses Jesus as the Messiah, but still has a wrong view of the type of king he has come to be. Jesus teaches how he is a servant king, different than what they were expecting. He has flipped the script, and many are too steeped in religion to notice and follow him. Finally, in the last part of this section, we see Jesus triumphal entry to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey with palm fauns waiving (palm Sunday). We see his overturning of the tables in the temple where the religious people have turned Gods house into a place of commerce and profit. Matthew then details his final days of ministry in Jerusalem, where he eventually withdraws again and teaches the disciples about what is to come, his pending death and resurrection.
26-28 – The last section of the book details Jesus and the disciples having the Passover meal, recharacterizing it forever from the Passover story of Exodus into his own story of laying down his life for the people. His body will be broken, and he will shed his own blood for us all. Judas betrays Jesus, and Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane. He is arrested and tried before the Jewish priests. Peter denies him three times. Judas kills himself. Jesus is tried before Pilot (the roman leader in the area) and he is crucified as a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies. Just like in the law of Moses, there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood, and Jesus becomes the scapegoat for us all. When he dies, the sun turns dark, the dead are raised, and the temple curtain is torn in two from top to bottom. He is buried in a tomb with guards watching over it. Finally, the book concludes with Jesus’ resurrection, and his interaction with the disciples afterwards. He gives them the Great Commission to go forth into all the land proclaiming the Good News of what he did. He then ascends into heaven in full view of many people, saying again that he is with us until the end of the age.
