Today’s reading is Matthew 1.
We need to disillusion ourselves of a common notion. Matthew is not a biography of Jesus. At least not in the modern sense. It is a gospel. Modern biographies are interested in explaining all the significant things a person did, why the person did them, and how they fit within the history around him or her. This gospel, while of course including the most significant event in Jesus’s life, skips most of the significant events. We see almost nothing of His development and growth years. We hear next to nothing about the political environment of the day. We do meet influential groups with whom Jesus interacts, but even there, we have to dig into historical studies outside of Matthew to know who they are and why they react as they do. In the great scheme of things, we don’t learn much of what Jesus either said or did.
What then is the purpose of Matthew (and the other accounts of the gospel for that matter)? The purpose of Matthew is to reveal who Jesus is. Matthew and the other gospel writers have selected a relatively few conversations, teachings, interactions, and events to simply drive home who Jesus is.
No wonder Matthew starts with “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew wants us to know who Jesus is. And the very first thing he tells us is Jesus is the son of David. Well, the first thing he wants us to know is that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. But his first defense of that is that Jesus is the son of David. That is, Jesus is heir to the throne. Jesus is the rightful king.
Matthew even drives this home by going into greater detail. Jesus is the son of no less than 15 kings on this list. On top of that, He is also the son of the governor of Judah who rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls after Babylonian captivity (Zerubbabel).
Many “chosen one” stories in modern writing take their time in letting you discover the hero of the story is actually descended from special people or ancient kings. Not Matthew. He tells us right off the bat. “Guys, I’m talking about the guy who should be king. Watch this guy. It’s important.” Again, Matthew isn’t trying to entertain us. He’s trying to let us know who Jesus is and for him, the most important point: Jesus is King.
By the way, as we consider what the good news is, what the gospel is, we should be impacted by this very first message of Matthew. The good news is not get baptized and you’ll go to heaven. The good news is not obey God and He’ll bless you in eternity. The good news is Jesus is King.
Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 1.
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Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family
- What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
- Why do you think it is good news that Jesus is king?
- Is Jesus your king?
- What would our lives look like if Jesus was our king?
- What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?
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