In providence of God, the daily readings with my church family have arrived at Matthew 1 on Easter Sunday.
Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus, proving to his readers that:
- Jesus is the promised one, the fulfilment of what was promised to Abraham, for offspring to bless the nations, and to David, for a son who would be the forever king.
- Jesus will save his people from their sins; notice even notorious sinners included in the genealogy,
It appears, from this introduction in the first chapter, and the regular references to fulfilling the scriptures, that Matthew is writing for a primarily Jewish audience. His aim to is show us that Jesus truly is the Messiah, the one who fulfils scripture. He is the one who has died for his people (Matthew 1:21) and, through the cross and resurrection, he is the one who has authority over all things and sends his disciples out to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
The promised King and Messiah has come to establish his kingdom through the cross and resurrection. After the introduction about the birth, baptism and temptation of Jesus, we read: “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” (Matthew 4:17).
Then, much later, we read this: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his discples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…” (Matthew 16:21).
So, Christ is the king of the kingdom, who has come to save his people through his suffering, to bring them into the kingdom, and to spread the kingdom through the whole earth.