Matthew 1

Matthew writes his gospel narrative to make the convincing argument to the Jewish people that Jesus is indeed the long awaited Christ, not only is Jesus to be the Son of David but He also came to die. The suffering Messiah was a problem for the Jews, considering their own righteousness rather than Gods. They refused that their own righteousness wasn’t good enough. The book begins with a family tree of Jesus. Verse one highlights two important figures that belongs to Christ’s lineage, Abraham and David. Abraham was given a promise: in his seed would all nations be blessed. (Gen. 22:18) David was also given a promise concerning his seed, his throne would be established forever. (2 Sam. 7:16). Matthew introduces Christ with his ancestry minus the commentary I have just given as it would have been obvious to Jews well versed in these prophecies. If there was a checklist so to speak for all the necessary prophecies Jesus was meant to fulfill to be the messiah, then so far so good, but here the majority of Jews find themselves tripping over another stumbling block because there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled by Christ in actuality. Matthew is simply arguing in his gospel that Jesus of Nazareth has all ready set in motion the fulfillment of all prophecy with the ones He has already fulfilled. In other words, Christ is coming back!

After the genealogy is given, the story of Christ’s birth begins. Verse 20 explains a virgin birth, Jesus isn’t the son of Joseph by birth, Jesus is the Son of God. This isn’t to say Jesus had his beginnings here.  Jesus clearly claimed to be God before the Pharisees by forgiving sins and quoting Jehovah referring to himself as the “I Am” (John 8:58) Verse 21 explains the purpose of Jesus’ coming which many Jews later tripped on, “For he shall save his people from their sins.” Saying that Jesus was only a messenger, or just a teacher is to assume that the Bible is wrong in calling Jesus the “Savior”.