What's MATTHEW about?

Summary

Matthew wrote his gospel about fifty years after Jesus' life. He had a copy of Mark's gospel and re-arranged it a bit and added further stories about Jesus. Matthew has two special perspectives: he is writing for Jews and so tries to show how Jesus was consistent with the Jewish faith, even though many Jews were starting to reject the concept of Jesus as being profoundly important. Matthew is also concerned about early Christians of his time becoming lax and losing commitment to the new community that Jesus began, so Matthew often includes stories warning about not being loyal to the new community.

Jewish perspective

The Jewish community is starting to reject the idea of Jesus being of central importance in experiencing the eternal God shown in the Old Testament—after all, Jesus was not educated, never became a rabbi, and often encouraged people to break commandments. Matthew is convinced that Jesus is central to our understanding of God and so included many verses from the Bible (the Old Testament) that would demonstrate that Jesus had been predicted by the Old Testament. Matthew includes stories about Jesus insisting that he isn't changing the Old Testament laws, but is fulfilling them.

Concern about the community becoming lax

Matthew's second concern is that some Christians were losing their commitment. He remembers Jesus speaking about how important it is to remain faithful to the community and warning about the community falling apart, and teaching about how to get along in the community.

How Matthew is important for us

We live in a time like Matthew's in which Jesus is more often considered to be a good person who set a good example, rather than being the underlying reality of human experience. Matthew challenges us to find ways in which we can present Jesus as the fulfillment of everything humanity has longed for. Matthew also challenges us to make our relationships with other Christians more than a pleasant social experience—for Matthew that mutual commitment in Christian community is essential and may involve sacrifice as a way of loving one another.