Matthew Part 3 - Who EXACTLY is Jesus Messiah For?

To review:

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But now here is where we find ourselves – or at least where I found myself at this point in my Matthew Journey. If Jesus is Messiah for the Jews – what does that make Him for the Gentiles? (i.e. anyone who isn’t from the line of Abraham…which I would venture to guess includes most of the people reading this post)

Who are the Gentiles to God? What do we matter? Do we matter at all? Are we just “sloppy seconds”, a mere afterthought in the mind of God? Are my prayers and petitions simply white noise He has to sift through in order to be able to hear the cries of the people He actually cares about – His chosen people Israel? If Jesus only came to save the Jews, who ended up rejecting Him and plotting to send Him to His death – if it had nothing to do with the Gentiles, why did He even have to die to begin with? What was the point? Was there a point?

If I’m not careful, this line of questions can lead me to a really unhealthy place mentally…also known as the defeated mind-explody spiral...

Allow me to clarify one very important concept before we go any further. God didn’t just create Jews. God created ALL people – He made every single person in His image, and He loves His creation. (Genesis 1-2 tells me that much). The nation of Israel happened hundreds of years later, after the flood, after the tower of Babel. Until Abraham, there were just people. Some were righteous and sought God honestly with all their hearts, and some didn’t. Abraham was one of the righteous – He trusted God and had an intimate relationship with Him. So from him, God decided to set Israel apart as His chosen people. This did not negate or nullify the love He had/has for the rest of His creation.[1]

That being said, God had a special place in His heart for Israel. They were the people He’d decided He wanted to be set apart. And until Jesus arrived on the scene, the only way to have a relationship with God was to become a Jew. For men this involved a *ahem* radical external sign of internal obedience via circumcision.

[pause for obligatory /cringe-wince]

But when Jesus came to earth, He came to earth for ALL people. Matthew shows us this through Jesus’ interaction with the Gentiles throughout the gospel – particularly the conversion of Matthew himself.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – Matthew was a Jew. Yes, I know. But he was a sinner as well – the worst of the worst in the eyes of most Jewish people in those days. A tax-collector was a Jew who was in league with Rome. They worked for “The Man” and collected taxes for Caesar. To add insult to injury, most tax collectors over-charged people in their taxes, and pocketed the surplus. They were thieves, liars, and they were pretty hated in their communities. Throughout the gospels (all of them) tax collector is almost synonymous with “sinner”.

Matthew was one of those sinners. He was a Jew, but He was a Jew in desperate need of God’s grace and mercy. And when Jesus showed up, He called Matthew to follow Him (Matthew 9:9). Matthew did, and invited Jesus into his home along with other sinners – and this royally ticked off the religious elite in Israel.

I love Jesus’ interaction in this episode:

Here we see Jesus breaking down barriers and stereotypes. To Jesus it isn’t about “Jew” or “Gentile”. It’s about redeemed and un-redeemed. The found and the lost. The righteous and the sinner. Background and racial division begin to fade away as Jesus widens the circle of who gets to partake of the Father’s goodness and love.

In Matthew 12 we see another episode which seems to be the segue into Jesus leaving it up to the people to decide where they stand with God. The throw-down goes like this:

And then Jesus leaves. He was aware that not only were the Pharisees not getting the picture, they were now starting to harden their hearts and plot to kill Him. So He took His message where He knew it would be received – among the Gentiles.

“This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: 

‘BEHOLD MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL IS WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE.’ “[2]

There you have it. God’s words being fulfilled right before Matthews eyes. Jesus was systematically being rejected by His own people, so He went out preaching to the Gentiles. It’s around this time that Jesus begins to teach in parables[3] because He knows who among the crowds will get it and who among them will respond with an “oh, that was a nice story, moving right along – let’s see some miracles” attitude. Jesus explains:

“To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

Jesus says plainly – some are going to get it. Some are not. It is no longer a matter of Jew or Gentile. It’s a matter of whose heart is open to God and whose is not.

From this point forward Jesus will continue to teach important lessons about discipleship, about having a relationship with God, and about the kingdom of heaven. But He will also perform miracles and begin His journey to the cross. The cross where Messiah – Savior of the world – will be put to death, innocent of any crime or sin. His body will be broken (as depicted in the Last Supper, Matthew 26:26) and His blood will be “poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:27). Note here that Jesus didn’t say His blood would be poured out for the Jews, nor would it be poured out for one specific people group. Poured out for many. For the forgiveness of sin.

Who here has sinned?

Who here has needed forgiveness – maybe even needs it right now as you read this?

Now, here is the reason it's known as "The Gospel". The Gospel means "good news", right? Here's the best news you'll ever receive in your life. You ready for it?

If you will accept the gift that God gave in His Son’s blood – His blood was poured out for you. End of story. Are you a Jew? Wonderful. God gave up His Son for You, and His Son is coming back for you someday. Are you a Gentile? Fantastic. God gave up His Son for you – You are a member of the body of Christ if you will accept the gift of that sacrifice. Are you unsure of what you are? Grand. Jesus’ blood counts for you too, if you’ll only accept it.

The main thing, boys and girls, is this: When Jesus hung on the cross and darkness fell over the land for three hours, Jesus looked EVERY HUMAN BEING in the face, knowing every sin they would EVER commit (yep, even the ones I don't even know I'm going to commit in the future), and He chose to take the punishment – God’s righteous wrath being poured out – upon Himself in our place. Jew, Gentile – it made no difference. Because we were all, ladies and gentlemen, created by a God who loves us. And gave His Son up for us. What was once only available to those who were called Israel, whether by blood or by adoption, is now available to anyone who accepts that gift. That’s what Matthew has been trying to show us through his depiction of the Gospel.

Yes, Jesus is Messiah. That holds specific relevance to the promises God made to Israel. Gentile believers do not take the place of Israel in those promises[4]. God has not, nor will He ever change His mind about those promises.

Yes, Jesus is for all people – all people who place faith alone in Christ alone. And those who do are grafted in – adopted – into the family of God. Did Jesus come to save the Jews or the Gentiles?

The answer is quite simply both.

When Jesus arose from the dead, He gave His apostles a single command – to go and make disciples of all the nations. To baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To teach them to observe all that He has taught. To be disciples, make disciples, and change the world[5]. Key phrase here: make disciples of ALL THE NATIONS. Jesus doesn’t discriminate, He doesn’t specify. Jesus is for the people in the world, all of them.

And the major take away, ladies and gents, is that we need to be people with a HEART for God’s heart – which means being for the people in the world too. Jew and Gentile alike.

All of them.

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[1] For a beautiful example of God’s love for a people who weren’t among Israel, I suggest paying a visit to the book of Jonah.

[2] Matthew 12:17-21. Note the fulfillment of Scripture here, which we discussed in the previous post. It just keeps going and going and going…

[3] short stories that represent the kingdom of heaven – not always so easy to decipher right off the bat. Jesus tells us why that is here pretty soon.

[4] again, refer to this post for more about how that all works

[5] Tim Reed – Christian Ministries professor; famous quote

Matthew Part 2 - Jesus the Messiah

If everybody remembered their head dressings from last time, then let us proceed into the wonderful and magical world of Matthew’s gospel!

Matthew 1:1 – “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham…”

What does this term mean? As 21^st century Christians, we hear the term Christ[1] or Messiah and automatically ascribe it to Jesus. But to a 1^st century Jew, the Messiah was the “anointed one” of God, Yahweh’s agent of salvation to Israel.[2] Messiah would have been the one who God promised would sit on the throne of David forever. According to 2 Samuel 7, God expanded on the already-existing covenant He’d made with Abraham (discussed in the last post) by promising to David that someone from his bloodline would forever have the right to rule Israel. His bloodline would never be cut off. Psalm 89:3-4 sums up God’s promise in this covenant:

“I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations.”

This psalm is referring to Messiah[3]. The one who would be related to David, who would rule Israel forever, the one whose Kingdom would have no end. Messiah was a great big deal to the people of Israel. They’d been waiting on Him for hundreds of years. Matthew says in the very first verse of his gospel, the waiting was over. Messiah had come. This should have been music to every Jewish person’s ears. More than that, the life of Jesus of Nazareth – the Christ of God – pointed directly to the fact that Jesus was the Chosen one because it seems as though at EVERY corner of His life, Jesus was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy – starting with before He was even born!

And it didn’t stop there. Through Jesus’ infancy, from the slaughtering of Jewish infants by Herod the Crazy Great[4] (to fulfill prophecy[5]), to Jesus’ family moving from Bethlehem to Egypt in order to escape Herod (and also to fulfill prophecy[6]) and then from Egypt to Nazareth when Herod died (and also to fulfill prophecy[7]), from the very beginning Jesus’ life was already a fulfillment of the promises God had made.

Catching onto the pattern yet? But wait…there’s MORE!

Not only did Jesus fulfill prophecy, He knew it well – He knew God’s word like the back of His hand. [8]

Let it be made clear: Satan KNEW the word of God during Jesus’ temptation. It’s clear he knows how to pull God’s word from its context and twist it into what he wants it to say. That’s his game – and he plays it well. But Jesus (who is God and the chosen Messiah) knows God’s word better – because He knows the intended context. That’s how He was able to resist Satan’s attempts at making Him sin – by being filled with God’s word to use against attack.

The biggest and (probably more famous) example of Jesus’ knowledge of not only what God’s word said but how it should apply to the hearts of those earnestly seeking to live for God is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In this discourse, Jesus takes the law from what the people of the time thought it meant and broadened it – He deepened it to reach the hearts of people.

Jesus, in the eyes of the culture around Him, flipped the Law completely on its head right off the bat (Matthew 5:1-12 – the Beatitudes[9]). He took the Law in the Sermon on the mount and redefined what it meant to be “righteous before God”, discussing everything from a person’s relationship to and with the world and the people in it (Matthew 5:13-48), to a follower of God’s prayer life and how that should look to the eyes of God rather than the eyes of people (Matthew 6). Jesus takes everything the Jewish people had been using to “clean themselves up for God” and applies it to the INSIDE of a person – focusing on cleaning up the heart rather than the outside.

This has been God’s heart for His people all along – to have hearts soft and available for Him. Hearts that are obedient to Him. Hearts that are faithful and tender to His heart. God is, has always been, and will always be about the HEARTS of His babies. Jesus was the manifestation of that heart – in every word He spoke regarding the existing word of God to His actions in miracle and in self-sacrifice. Messiah was supposed to be the savior for the people – the Savior of Israel. But where the Jewish people expected Him to save them from political oppression – from EXTERNAL danger – Jesus the Christ came to save Israel, as well as the rest of humanity, from the eminent and devastating INTERNAL danger of having hearts that were unrighteous before God. Without Messiah, Israel would never stand a chance in the presence of God – they, indeed, needed a Savior. They still do. Just not the way they thought they did. Which is kind of where we leave off with Israel today.

Now you might be asking yourself (as you slide your yamaka off your head – yes, I’m watching you) what all of that has to do with YOU, and with me for that matter. As Gentiles, how is any of this significant to us?

In the coming posts we’ll explore the aspects of Jesus as Messiah to not only the Jewish people – as proof that God hadn’t given up on them – but how Jesus was the Christ for all people, including the Gentiles. Including me. Including you.

See you next time – stay classy!

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[1] For the record, Christ is NOT Jesus’ last name. The Lord is not “Mr. Christ” to business associates, and “Jesus” to friends and family. Christ is a title, synonymous to Messiah – The Simpsons Movie LIED to you. It lied to us all…

[2] Mark L. Strauss, Four Portraits, One Jesus, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007) 482.

[3] Dr. Paul Benware, Survey of the Old Testament (Chicago, ILL: Moody Publishers 1988, 2003) 121 – 122.

[4] I recommend that you Google-search Herod the Great. The guy was crazy. Perhaps a brilliant political leader…but crazy. Wikipedia him – see it for yourself. 

[5] Matthew 2:18-19, quoting Jeremiah

[6] Matthew 2:15, references back to Exodus when God refers to Israel as His son – inclusive to Jesus

[7] Matthew 2:23

[8] http://theoraclemag.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/temptations-of-jesus-in-the-wilderness/

[9] Notice in this section of the text, it almost seems to be oxymoronic. For example: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This, to the original audience, would have been a backward statement BECAUSE they were used to looking at the Law as an outside-in transaction, rather than an inside-out transaction.

Matthew Part 1 - Gettin' Our Jewish On

 

Stop looking at me weird. There’s a reason we’re wearing stuff on our heads.

Confession: Matthew has consistently been my least favorite book of the New Testament. Compared to the gospel of Mark, the pacing reads and feels soooooooo sssssllllllllooooooowwwwww. It seems like every other line in the book is a quote from the Old Testament. (News flash, Matthew: This is the NEW Testament!) Compared to the other gospels, Jesus does a whole lot of talking and teaching, and less miracle-working and cool stuff. Again, with the super-slow pace. And remind me again why I care about Jesus’ genealogy?

Oh wait. That’s right. I DON’T. I can’t even pronounce half of the names in that stinking section. /skip!

It always struck me as boring. Irrelevant. Why read Matthew when I could go read Luke or Mark? (Mark’s shorter, right? Much more better.) A repeat of the same stories over and over. Cracking my Bible open to read the gospel of Matthew often looked a lot like this:

But then I realized the problem: of course this material seemed pointless to me. I’m not a Jew. I’m a gentile. No wonder this material seemed highly irrelevant to me, I wasn’t reading the text through the eyes of a first century Jew. This was when God (in His always loving and oh-so-polite way) smacked me upside the head with this reminder. Review: What are the 3 things to remember when looking at any passage of Scripture? (1) Context. (2) Context.  And (3) context.[1] For the gospel according to Matthew, we have to look at the text through the lens of an ancient Jewish reader, reading something written by a fellow Jew. This changed everything about how I understood what God was trying to show me through the gospel of Matthew.

Some things we need to know about the audience we’re joining on this journey:

(1) Israel was God’s chosen people. That was established with Abraham waaaaaay back before Egypt, before the Mosaic Law was given, before any of the adventures and failures and soap-opera-dramas Israel had participated in. (See Genesis 12) This was established before Israel even existed. The nation was barely a twinkle in its father (Abraham)’s eye. God established a covenant with Abraham that he would have many babies and grandbabies and great grandbabies, and those babies would be God’s chosen people – this was an eternal and unconditional covenant[2], which meant that it could never be broken, and it was not dependant on anything that Israel did as a nation. They could screw it up as bad as a nation could screw it up, and God would still uphold His promises in this covenant to Israel. He chose them.[3]

(2) Israel had been disobedient. Over the centuries, the nation had fallen into serious idolatry, and in God’s eyes that was the equivalent of spiritual adultery – cheating on God. Not the best idea ever. And God had disciplined Israel over and over, using every method in the book – including bringing foreign nations in to take Israel captive.

(3) Before Jesus was born, Israel had experienced 400 years of silence from God. Not a peep had been uttered from the God who had  chosen them – which had led plenty of Jews to believing that God had given up on them altogether.

I want to expound on that third point a bit. Have you ever felt like you’ve messed up so bad that God can never forgive you, that God would never want you? Or when you can’t hear God’s voice it must mean He isn’t there anymore? He must have stopped caring, stopped seeing you, stopped being God in your life because of something you’ve said or done? Believe me when I say I can relate – and so could Israel.

Imagine you’re a young Jewish child, hearing stories from your grandparents and parents about the promises God had made to them, and consequently to you. Imagine hearing again and again “Any day now, God is going to fulfill his promise.” Imagine growing up never having seen those promises fulfilled, but passing on those promises and those stories to your children, your grandchildren. “Any day now. God will fulfill His promises.” Now imagine that story over 400 years, never seeing those promises come to fruition. Would it start to look pretty hopeless? Would you start to wonder if you were just too bad for God to redeem? Would you start to wonder if God was there at all?

This is where the Jewish people were when Jesus was born. Matthew, a Jewish author writing to a Jewish audience, wrote this gospel to a broken people who (in many cases) had believed God had abandoned them. Matthew communicates the things he saw FIRSTHAND of Jesus as Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, the hope and promise to Israel – This is the One we’ve been waiting for. This is the promised Messiah.

Matthew wrote his gospel for a few specific purposes: to showcase Jesus as Messiah and fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, to reiterate that God had not given up on His people, and that God was extending His love to the Gentiles[4]. Matthew is going to show us these themes through Jesus’ extensive teaching throughout the book, and through people’s general reactions and interactions with this Man who was the Christ. As we go, pay attention to how even when the people in the stories react in a way that makes the present-day reader “/facepalm”, God has already predicted and foretold through His prophets that people would react that way.

What does that tell me? The very short answer is this: God is who He says He is, He does what He says He’ll do, and He knows EXACTLY what He’s doing. Matthew will go to great lengths to show the readers these things – starting with pointing the reader back to the Old Testament.

Stay tuned. Stay Jewish. And stay classy.

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[1] Mantra taken from Brian Reed’s Biblical Interpretation class, then reiterated in John Correia’s Acts-Rev/Gospels class

[2] Dr. Paul Benware, Survey of the Old Testament, (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1988, 2003) 15.

[3] For further explanation on this topic, I’d encourage you to check out this post from the book of Romans, which goes into more detail on why God chose Israel and what that has to do with Gentile-Christians.

[4] Borrowed from Professor John Correia’s “BIB 207 Gospels: Matthew Introduction” notes