Mark doesn’t explicitly state the purpose of his gospel, but he reveals it in the first verse, when he says: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In a similar way, Matthew doesn’t explicitly state the purpose of his gospel, yet he begins with these words: “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Such an opening tells us that Matthew expects his audience to be Jews who either have become believers in Jesus, or those who might be persuaded to become believers. That audience would want verification of Matthew’s claim, and to that end he provides a genealogy which goes back through David to Abraham.
This was particularly important to 1st century because the Herodians ruled over Judeah. The Jews resented the Herodians for many reasons, but they really resented that they posed as Jews, but were really Idumeans, which is to say, Edomites. In other words, the Herodians descended from Esau, not from Jacob. They could trace their lineage back to Abraham, but not to David.
Chapter 2 brings in the wise men, the Magi, who declared Jesus to be king, and worshiped him as king. They bring him royal gifts: Gold, the king of metals; Frankincense, used in royal ceremonies such as the coronation of a King, or at the inauguration of a temple; and myrrh, used in funerals. Only Matthew mentions these royal visitors and their gifts.
Next, in order to remove any challengers to his throne, Herod sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years of age and under in and around Bethlehem. Only Jesus survived because an angel had warned Joseph. Matthew expects his target audience to recall that Moses alone survived Pharaoh’s murder of Israel’s infant boys, making Jesus the new Moses.
Next, Jesus and his family go to Egypt, as Jacob and his family had done to escape famine. And when Joseph returns after the death of Herod the Great, Matthew quotes Hosea 11.1: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” And again, only Matthew reports this.
When Israel left Egypt, they passed through the waters of the Red Sea. Following his return from Egypt, Matthew tells us of Jesus’ baptism. After the Red Sea, Israel went into the wilderness, where they would eventually wander for 40 years. After his baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness, where he would spend 40 days—a day for a year. While there Jesus answered Satan’s temptations not just with scripture, but with passages from Deuternomy, where Moses recounted the history of Israel’s 40 years of wandering. Where Israel had failed, Jesus prevailed.
While in the desert, the Israelites spent a year at Mt. Sinai, where Moses ascended and received the Decalogue. In Matthew, after his temptations, Jesus “went up on the mountain,” (Matthew 5:1), and gives a new law: ““You have heard . . . . But I say to you.” He does not contradict previous law but rather extends and clarifies it.
Thus Matthew begins his gospel by demonstrating that Jesus re-enacted everything that Israel was meant to be, because Jesus symbolically repeated the history of Israel, and succeeded. If that weren’t enough to establish Jesus as the Messiah, we will encounter the words “the Kingdom of Heaven” repeatedly throughout the gospel.
If we are alert to how he tells the story, Matthew communicates in very clear terms what his Gospel is about. This mirrors a common practice in all the books of Scripture: the author rarely declares his purpose but communicates what he wants us to understand by the way he tells the story: what he includes, what he excludes, the characters that are named, and so on. We will see more of this as we go through how to read the Bible as it was meant to be read.
Next we will turn to Luke.
