Matthew and the Messiah

MEMORY SELECTION: “All this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” —Matthew 26:56

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Matthew 12:15-21; 13:34, 35; 21:1-5

AS WE learned from our previous lesson, “Understanding Matthew’s Gospel,” the apostle often quoted from the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures in his effort to show the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. And in the words of our memory selection for this week’s lesson we are again reminded that those experiences which came into our Lord’s life were evidence that the scriptures of the prophets should be fulfilled.

The events surrounding our first group of selected scriptures (12:15-21) concern the occasion when Jesus healed the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day, which in turn aroused the hostility of the Pharisees, who sought to take his life. Matthew, in relating this incident, quotes a passage from the Prophet Isaiah (42:1-3) which says, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”

The antitypical significance of this prophecy, as Matthew endeavors to bear out, is fulfilled in Jesus, who withdrew from his enemies—realizing that his time had not yet come—and told the people that “they should not make him known.” Reference is also given that he would proclaim judgment (justice—RSV) to the Gentiles in effecting their inclusion, in due time, into the family of God.

The second group of selected scriptures (13:34,35) inform us that Jesus spoke to the people in parables. Matthew relates some of these in this 13th chapter: the Parable of the Sower (13:3-8) and its explanation (13:18-30), the Parable of the Mustard Seed (13:31,32), and the Parable of the Leaven (13:33). The apostle, in quoting from the Hebrew scripture (Ps. 78:2) which reads, “I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old” emphasizes the fact that our Lord Jesus fulfills this particular passage of scripture, as he indeed has in many other instances.

The third group of selected scriptures (21:1-5) concerns the events of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, in which the great crowd of people who witnessed this occasion threw their garments into the streets, cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way that Jesus was to pass over. And this multitude of people cried aloud saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”—21:9

But Matthew turns to the Prophet Zechariah to prove that the Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem on that fateful day had been foretold long ago. Zechariah’s prophecy concerning this event reads, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zech. 9:9) We believe, of course, that Jesus carried out the will of his Heavenly Father in this momentous event in his life.

Turning to Isaiah (53:7-10), we read pertaining to Jesus that “he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

Jesus the Messiah, as presented by the Apostle Matthew, is not only a man of mercy and justice but also one who came unto his own people and they would not receive him.

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