Understanding the Gospel of Matthew and Why it Matters - Part 1

An Introduction to Matthew

SETTING

Have you ever been promised something wonderful, and then been made to wait for it? Have you felt the eager anticipation of a child on Christmas Eve, or the desperate longing of a wife awaiting a letter from a husband at war? Many Christians look forward to the return of Jesus in this way, occasionally glancing up at the sky and wondering if maybe - just maybe - today might be the day.

If you can relate to that feeling, then you can begin to understand what the Jewish people were experiencing in the first century AD. They had been promised a Messiah who would come and be their King. It had been four hundred years since they had last received a word from God. There were no longer any prophets proclaiming "Thus saith the Lord?" In a sense, this was Israel's Dark Ages.

Some felt that the wait was too long, giving up on the promise and assuming that God had forgotten His people. But the faithful trusted in God's promise, and waited expectantly for the coming Messiah. Though many generations came and went during this period of waiting, parents and grandparents ensured that the children were well educated in the stories of the early saints and the promises that God had made to their forefathers. As time passed and Israel was made captive to Roman rule, the expected Messiah began to be described more and more like a military hero who would lead the Israelites to political freedom. These Jews failed to realize that their greatest bondage was to their sin, not the Romans. The emperor had burdened them with heavy taxes, but their sin had condemned them to spiritual death. The Messiah they wanted was a warrior, but the Messiah they needed was a Savior.

Suddenly, after four hundred years of silence, God began again His special work in Israel. First an angel appeared to the elderly Zechariah , then John the Baptist emerged as the forerunner of the Christ , and then Jesus Himself, "like a root out of dry ground," appeared in a little stable outside an inn in Bethlehem. Matthew's gospel is the faithful recounting of the story of this man. It is a clarion call to the Jewish people of past and present declaring "The wait is over! Your Messiah has come!"We could speculate about many reasons why God waited until the first century to send His Son to earth. I am convinced that God was delaying until the proper time when the followers of Jesus would best be able to take His message far beyond the borders of Israel to the Gentiles. Here are just a few reasons why the first century was ideal:

* The Hellenistic Greek language had become a common language throughout most of the Roman Empire, providing different cultures the ability to communicate with one another. This allowed the message of Christ to be shared more easily and effectively with non-Jews than would have been possible in prior centuries.

* With the rise of the Roman Empire came the beginning of urbanization. Cities began to appear in many different regions of the empire, allowing the first missionaries to impact a greater number of people in a shorter amount of time.

* The Roman road system was revolutionary for its time, making travel much quicker and safer than it had ever been before.

* The Roman conquests had caused many pagan nations to lose faith in their gods. This was compounded by the rise of the Greek philosophers, which influenced many to think critically about life and to reject mythological deities. This created a "spiritual vacuum" ready to be filled by the message of Christ.

While the first century was ideal for Christ's message to reach the Gentiles, it was also ideal for the Jews. By the time of Jesus' birth, a movement known as Pharisaical Judaism had risen to prominence in Israel. Theses religious conservatives imposed incredibly strict laws on the Jewish people, proclaiming that God's favor could only be gained by those who conformed to the strenuous rules put forth by the Pharisees. The standards for righteousness were impossible to reach, causing many to despair of any hope of pleasing God. Thus, the stage was set for a Messiah who could offer His own righteousness as a substitute for theirs.

AUTHOR

Of the four gospels, the authorship of Matthew is by far the most disputed. Those who deny his authorship argue rightly that the gospel nowhere speaks of Matthew as its author, and only refers to Matthew in the third person. They claim that the original author was forgotten and that Matthew's name was attached to the title in order for the work to receive credibility.

This argument is unlikely, however, because the early church fathers unanimously attributed the work to Matthew. It is doubtful that these