Matthew

Author: Matthew

Matthew presents Jesus as Israel’s promised king and writes for a church that must live his teaching among the nations.

Outline

  1. Origin of the king (1–2)

    A genealogy from Abraham and David leads to the birth in Bethlehem and the flight into Egypt.

  2. Galilee: words and works (3–16)

    After baptism and testing, Jesus announces the kingdom, teaches on the mountain, and sends the Twelve.

  3. On the way to Jerusalem (17–20)

    The transfiguration and the journey include teaching on greatness, forgiveness, and the cross.

  4. The last week (21–28)

    Jesus enters the city, disputes in the temple, is crucified, and sends the disciples to all nations.

Key verses

  • Matthew 1:23

    The birth is tied to the name Immanuel, God with us.

  • Matthew 5:17

    Jesus says he came not to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.

  • Matthew 28:18–20

    The risen king claims all authority and sends his disciples to make disciples of all nations.

Matthew opens with a genealogy rather than a scene. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, places the story inside Israel’s promises before it places it in a town. The names run in three fourteens, and they include Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah, so the line of the king is not a cleaned list of the respectable. Joseph, a just man, is told in a dream not to fear to take Mary, because the child is of the Holy Ghost. The name Jesus is explained as the one who will save his people from their sins, and the birth is read as Immanuel. Wise men from the east come to worship a king of the Jews. Herod kills the children of Bethlehem. The family flees to Egypt and returns to Nazareth. Matthew keeps quoting the scriptures that these events fulfill. The infancy is already a reading of Israel’s story, not only a set of birth details.

John the Baptist appears in the wilderness of Judea, calling for repentance because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is baptized, heaven opens, and the Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tested. He then withdraws to Galilee and begins to preach the same kingdom. The first large block of teaching is the sermon on the mount. The beatitudes bless the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. Jesus says he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them. Anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and the love of enemies are taken past the minimum a court could enforce. Prayer, fasting, and giving are moved out of public display. The disciples are told to seek first the kingdom and not to judge with a beam in the eye. The sermon ends with two builders. Hearing these sayings and doing them is the difference between a house on rock and a house on sand. Matthew’s Jesus is a teacher whose words are meant to be practiced.

The works match the words. Healings, the call of a tax collector, the sending of the Twelve, and parables of a sower, weeds, and a net fill the Galilean chapters. Cities that saw his works and did not repent are warned. Peter confesses, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus speaks of his church and of a cross. Peter’s rebuke is answered with Get behind me. The confession and the cross are not allowed to come apart.

From that point the book walks toward Jerusalem. The transfiguration shows a glory the disciples are told not to publish yet. A child is set in the midst when they ask who is greatest. Forgiveness is numbered past what a bookkeeper would offer. Teaching on marriage, riches, the laborers in the vineyard, and two sons of Zebedee who want the chief seats all sit on the road where Jesus has already said he will be delivered and killed. Greatness is serving. The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The last week begins with the colt, the branches, and the temple. Jesus weeps is Luke’s scene; Matthew’s entry is the king coming meek, and then the cleansing, the fig tree, and a day of disputes about authority, taxes, the resurrection, and the greatest commandment. Woes fall on scribes and Pharisees. The Olivet discourse speaks of the temple’s fall, of tribulation, and of a watchfulness that does not know the hour. The supper identifies the bread and the cup with his body and blood of the new testament, shed for many for the remission of sins. Gethsemane, the arrest, the council, Peter’s denial, Pilate, the scourging, and the cross follow. The title over him is Jesus the king of the Jews. He cries and yields up the ghost. The veil tears. Joseph of Arimathea lays him in a new tomb. On the first day of the week the women find the angel and the risen Jesus. The book does not end in the garden. It ends on a mountain in Galilee, where the one who has been given all authority sends the eleven to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that he commanded, and promises to be with them until the end of the age. Matthew’s overview is that promise read backward through a king who fulfilled the scriptures by teaching, serving, dying, and sending.

Chapters