These are an important structure of the gospel. In this extensive material there are five great discourses of Jesus, each concluding with the formula “When Jesus finished these words” or one closely similar ( Mt 7:28 11:1 13:53 19:1 26:1). Galilee is the setting for most of his ministry he leaves there for Judea only in Mt 19:1, and his ministry in Jerusalem, the goal of his journey, is limited to a few days ( Mt 21:1– 25:46). The central message of Jesus’ preaching is the coming of the kingdom of heaven and the need for repentance, a complete change of heart and conduct, on the part of those who are to receive this great gift of God ( Mt 4:17). In Mt 4:12 Matthew begins his account of the ministry of Jesus, introducing it by the preparatory preaching of John the Baptist ( Mt 3:1– 12), the baptism of Jesus that culminates in God’s proclaiming him his “beloved Son” ( Mt 3:13– 17), and the temptation in which he proves his true sonship by his victory over the devil’s attempt to deflect him from the way of obedience to the Father ( Mt 4:1– 11). Thus the word of the angel will be fulfilled, “…he will save his people from their sins” ( Mt 1:21 cf. The sufferings of Jesus in the infancy narrative anticipate those of his passion, and if his life is spared in spite of the dangers, it is because his destiny is finally to give it on the cross as “a ransom for many” ( Mt 20:28). Back in the land of Israel, he must be taken to Nazareth in Galilee because of the danger to his life in Judea, where Herod’s son Archelaus is now ruling ( Mt 2:22– 23). The words of the Lord spoken through the prophet Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called my son,” are fulfilled in him ( Mt 2:15) if Israel was God’s son, Jesus is so in a way far surpassing the dignity of that nation, as his marvelous birth and the unfolding of his story show (see Mt 3:17 4:1– 11 11:27 14:33 16:16 27:54). By his sojourn there and his subsequent return after the king’s death he relives the Exodus experience of Israel. He must be taken to Egypt to escape the murderous plan of Herod. Thus his ultimate rejection by the mass of his own people and his acceptance by the Gentile nations is foreshadowed. The announcement of the birth of this newborn king of the Jews greatly troubles not only King Herod but all Jerusalem ( Mt 2:1– 3), yet the Gentile magi are overjoyed to find him and offer him their homage and their gifts ( Mt 2:10– 11). The first of the gospel’s fulfillment citations, whose purpose it is to show that he was the one to whom the prophecies of Israel were pointing, occurs here ( Mt 1:23): he shall be named Emmanuel, for in him God is with us. He is conceived of a virgin by the power of the Spirit of God ( Mt 1:18– 25). In the first of the episodes of the infancy narrative that follow the genealogy, the mystery of Jesus’ person is declared. The kingly ancestor who lived about a thousand years after Abraham is named first, for this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the royal anointed one ( Mt 1:16). Yet at the beginning of that genealogy Jesus is designated as “the son of David, the son of Abraham” ( Mt 1:1). The gospel begins with a narrative prologue ( Mt 1:1– 2:23), the first part of which is a genealogy of Jesus starting with Abraham, the father of Israel ( Mt 1:1– 17). The reason for that becomes clear upon study of the way in which Matthew presents his story of Jesus, the demands of Christian discipleship, and the breaking-in of the new and final age through the ministry but particularly through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Although the majority of scholars now reject the opinion about the time of its composition, the high estimation of this work remains. The position of the Gospel according to Matthew as the first of the four gospels in the New Testament reflects both the view that it was the first to be written, a view that goes back to the late second century A.D., and the esteem in which it was held by the church no other was so frequently quoted in the noncanonical literature of earliest Christianity.
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