As we begin reading the New Testament, we see Matthew’s Gospel throw us right into the story of Jesus. From the very first verse of his Gospel, Matthew communicates a few important things to us that will be carried through today’s reading, and really the whole book.
This story centers on a man named Jesus Christ. Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but a title. In our language, Christ (Greek) and Messiah (Hebrew) are terms that mean the same thing: “Anointed One.” It points to a king that has been anointed to rule over a nation. This is a title that was sometimes used of Israel’s kings in the Old Testament, but was also used in the Old Testament to point forward to a King who would come to be the ultimate King. So when Matthew calls Jesus “Christ” in the opening verse of his Gospel, he is telling us that Jesus is the one the Old Testament had been waiting for.
This is made even more clear in a couple different ways. First, Jesus is not just called “Christ,” he is also called “son of David, son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). These two men were extremely important men in God’s plan of saving the world through Israel, and each of them was part of a special covenant with God. David was one of the great kings of Israel before its downfall, and 2 Samuel 7 shows God making an everlasting covenant with him, promising that he would have a descendent who would rule upon a throne and over a kingdom that would be established forever. Abraham was the father of all of Israel, and Genesis 12 and 15 show God making a covenant with him that promises that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. Jesus is really the one to whom both of these covenants point. He is the one who will rule over the everlasting kingdom, and he is the one through whom all the earth will be blessed. The rest of Matthew’s Gospel tells us how that happens.
As you read through these chapters, you may notice that many times Matthew points us back to the Old Testament by telling us that things happened to fulfill what was written. This shows us that God is faithful to his promises—these promises were made many centuries earlier, and Jesus’ birth and life fulfill them. This also shows us again that Jesus is the one to whom the Old Testament ultimately points. In fact, the name Jesus would have meant “Yahweh saves” in Hebrew, and he is the one who would save Israel and would be God with his own people (Matthew 1:21–23).
After Jesus’ birth, Matthew shows us that Jesus represents salvation as a a new Exodus. Just as Pharaoh killed Israel’s baby boys, so does Herod. Just as Israel was brought out of Egypt, so was Jesus. He also shows us that Jesus’ ministry is driven by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived from the Holy Spirit; John the Baptist states that Jesus will baptize his followers with the Holy Spirit; at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descends upon him; he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and (presumably) upheld by the Holy Spirit as he never gave into the temptation. Jesus is not just a man, but he is God Himself, who has come into the world to bring salvation. As we keep reading through Matthew, we will see how Jesus brings this salvation and life to Israel and the whole world.
