The Good News according to Matthew.
 
Why four Gospels? Perhaps the best answer is that Jesus is too glorious a Person to be readily captured by just one writer from a single perspective (cf. John 21:25).
 
The Gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the four Gospels. Written by a born Jew and employee of the Roman Empire (Matthew 9:9). This book was written for the Jewish mind and as such presents Jesus as the fulfilment of the Old Testament (Luke 24:27; John 5:39&40).
 
The Old Covenant, for our current purposes, can be seen as ‘the preparation’ and the New Testament as ‘the fulfilment’ with Christ as its fulcrum and focus, as such the Gospel of Matthew acts as a bridge which carries the reader from one to the other (Matthew 13:16&17).
• The prophets lived and ministered during the period of anticipation.
• The original apostles and the Church lived/live in the period of fulfilment/realization (11:13; Luke 16:16).
 
What must be borne in mind here is that Matthew does not portray Jesus as another prophet in a succession of prophets, but rather as the fulfilment of all that the preceding prophets spoke of and looked forward to (I Peter 1:10-12). It is interesting to note that Matthew uses the following line some eleven times in his gospel: “now this took place that it might be fulfilled what was written …”
 
Matthew was at pains to show that in Christ the long awaited Kingdom of God had finally come.
 
All of the Gospel writers speak of the Kingdom of God. Matthew refers to it some fifty times. In deference to Jewish tradition of not pronouncing or writing out the name of Yahweh (in its place the Jews used what is called the tetragrammaton ‘YHWH’, i.e. its Hebrew equivalent = יהוה‎), he refrains from using the God and replaces it with “heaven”, i.e. The Kingdom of Heaven.
 
Matthew’s central intent is clearly manifested through the use of a genealogy to open his account (1:1-17). In so doing, Matthew traces Jesus (natural) ancestry back to Abraham the father of faith and the progenitor of the so-called chosen people.
 
This list contains major prophetic links:
1. Abraham.
2. David, the greatest of Israel’s kings and an oft used type of Christ.
 
This genealogy then traces the royal line – the tribe of Judah. In fact, Matthew uses the title “Son of David” more than the other three Gospel writers. In so doing, he establishes Jesus’ right to the throne of Israel.
 
It is interesting that Matthew sees the life of Jesus as a ‘rerun’ of the history of Israel:
• Israel had been held captive in Egypt – Jesus was a refugee in Egypt (2:13-15).
• Israel passed through the sea during the Exodus and then spent forty years in the wilderness –
 
Jesus was baptized by John and then spent forty days fasting in the wilderness (3:13-4:11).
• Moses delivered the Law from Mount Sinai – Jesus delivered the so-called Sermon on the Mount (the ‘new’ law – i.e. the Constitution of the Kingdom) from a hill top (Chapters 5-7).
 
Matthew makes the important observation that the reality of the Kingdom is both a now and future reality (12:28; 25:31-46).
 
So, in terms of genealogy, the rerunning of the history of Israel, and the coming of the Kingdom; Matthew sees Jesus as the fulfilment of prophecy.
 
Matthew also records Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law (5:17-20).
 
Probably the most potentially controversial fulfilment, for many modern commentators at least, is that of Jesus being the fulfilment of Israel itself. When reading Matthew this truth is very difficult to miss:
• Here in we see Jesus confronting the nation with a final invitation/summons to repent (10:6; 15:24).
• Later, Jesus would give His Great Commission that would open up the entire Gentile world to the Gospel (28:19&20).
• Israel persisted in her rebellion and Jesus consequently wept over Jerusalem, the ultimate symbol of the nation (23:37-39) – [N.B. cf. 21:12&13 – “My house”, compared to 23:38 – “your house”]. This persistent rebellion would exact a price which was the sack of Jerusalem in AD 70 (24:15-28).
• Jesus saw Himself as the sole surviving member of authentic Israel. As such, He was to begin a ‘new’ (perhaps regenerated/renewed) Israel by establishing twelve apostles as the equivalent of the twelve tribes of Israel as the nucleus of the new Kingdom (21:43).
• This new Kingdom would be populated by a counter-cultural community called the Church (16:18; 8:11) governed by the ‘new’ Law as delivered in 5:1-7:29.
 
Matthew wrote the most Jewish of Gospels. Having said that, he commences his account with the visit of the Magi, representatives of the Gentile nations, and closes the same with a commission to preach the Gospel to every nation under heaven (cf. 8:11).
 
An interesting observation:
As we have observed Matthew’s Gospel is the most Jewish of the four. Although it has a global reach, it is most definitely in possession of a strong Jewish accent.
 
Being a Jew, Matthew would have had great respect for the Pentateuch (i.e. The first five books of the Old Testament otherwise known as the Books of Moses). Moses stood as a type of Christ (Hebrews 3:2), so it would make sense if Matthew crafted his Gospel along the lines of the Books of Moses:
• 5:1-7:29 – The Sermon on the Mount.
• 9:35-10:42 – Instructions to the specially chosen Twelve.
• 13:1-52 – Parables of the Kingdom shared with the multitudes.
• 18:1-35 – Instructions on community given to the disciples.
• 24:1-25:46 – The so-called Olivet Discourse given to the disciples.
 
In other words, Matthew’s Gospel stands as a kind of Christian Torah or Pentateuch.