Matthew

Reading Matthew after just finishing the Old Testament put a bit of a different spin on it for me. For example, the genealogy right at the getgo actually means something. Matthew listed Jesus ancestors, and established that he was from the line of Abraham and David. In doing so, he draws attention to Judah and Tamar, Rahab, and Solomon and Bathsheba. He also notes some of the Kings who were part of his line, such as Ahaz and Manasseh. Had I not just finished the Old Testament, I would not fully appreciate the evil that these people committed. Ahaz and Manasseh were evil Kings. Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law, who pretended to be a prostitute and Judah got her pregnant. Solomon slept with Bathsheba while her husband was still alive and then had her husband killed. Rahab was a prostitute and also a liar.

When I first read the line of David in Chronicles, it occurred to me then that Jesus family line was really screwed up. I realize Matthew was trying to establish his heritage, but it seems he also established that Jesus was coming as a regular person, with all the crazy baggage that any one of us might have.

Matthew also took every chance he could to say that something Jesus said or did was in fulfillment of or according to a prophecy. He seems to have wanted to prove to his readers that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the prophesied one.

In reading it through yesterday morning, I was struck by how Matthew just went from one miracle to another in his telling if the story of Jesus. Then, he'd interrupt the miracles with a teaching session from Jesus. Matthew's first recorded teaching of Jesus was the "Sermon on the Mount," which was to the general public Matthew's second recorded teaching was Jesus lesson to the disciples. After that, he records a talk Jesus has with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. This was all between miracle stories. I think I'm as impressed by how Matthew put the book together by the stories contained within.

There was not a lot of detail in the miracle stories. Sort of like "here's what happened, ok, next." Jesus teaching, on the other hand, he was not as quick to get through.

This is Easter weekend. Even the Easter story itself, the culmination of Jesus' physical existence on earth, was told in a couple of pages. It's like Matthew wanted to get to the miracle of the resurrection and ascension so that he can finish it up with Jesus last words, to go and make disciples, and that he'd always be with us.

There are so many important lessons in this book: be like a child, don't try to be first - try to be last, do something to demonstrate that we are followers of God, faith in God can accomplish great things, don't be a show off, be humble, and the list goes on. I guess an emphasis on the lessons themselves will be for the next time I read and study Matthew.

For now though, this exercise has been teaching me so many things. And Jesus summed up how I feel in 13:52 - "So he told them, 'Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom.'" I'm learning things that I had forgotten from childhood. I'm also learning things that I had not known before, although I had read it before. I don't think I could have articulated it before now, but I think I'm becoming a student of the Scriptures.