Matthew

It is good to be reading in the New Testament.

I have never really read the Bible before, not like this. Yes, I am familiar with many passages, but there is so much that never makes the Sunday sermons, the Sunday Scripture readings or the Children’s Bible stories. Based on my limited knowledge, here are some my observations, or I didn’t know that moments.

I did not realize that Matthew had so many references to Old Testament prophecy. This book is a proof, of sorts, aimed at those who knew what was prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. (I appreciated the footnotes in my Bible.) It really looked at Jesus from an angle I had not given much thought about…all of this was predicted long before Jesus was ever born.

Matthew talks briefly about Jesus birth, but only in reference to what was prophesied. Most of the book is about Jesus after he began to teach, emphasizing his teachings. Jesus used a lot of parables and, like his disciples, I needed to have some explained (or at the very least, reread a few times). 

Jesus in Matthew is not the calm, collected Jesus of my Sunday school classes. He had a temper (and I am not just talking about the incident at the temple). He got frustrated with his disciples. He was mad at a fig tree that had no fruit and cursed it. He was very human in some ways.

I did not realize that Jesus talked about the second coming in Matthew. I thought that was what Revelations was about. Surprise! Maybe it is in both? Maybe the other gospels talk about it, too? Well, now I know where the Left Behind book series came from. 

I must admit, much of what I thought l knew came from movies, books, and other peoples interpretations. It is good to read for myself, directly from the source.