There are questions we can keep at a comfortable distance. We can read about them, talk about them, and even have strong opinions about them without ever letting them become personal.
I don’t think Jesus leaves us that option with Him.
If you’re new to Christianity, or maybe just trying to understand what Christians actually believe, the Gospel of Matthew is a good place to spend some time. Matthew doesn’t simply tell us that Jesus is the Messiah and expect us to move on. He shows us who Jesus is, what He said, what He did, how people responded to Him, and ultimately what happened at the cross and the empty tomb.
Eventually, who Jesus is and what you’re going to do with Him become two questions that are difficult to separate.
Matthew Starts by Telling Us Who Jesus Is
Matthew doesn’t ease into the story. His opening words identify Jesus as the Messiah, the son of David and the son of Abraham. Before we hear Jesus teach a single word or see Him perform a miracle, Matthew is connecting Him to promises made long before His birth.
That’s one of the things I find so interesting about Matthew. He keeps reaching backward into the Old Testament while telling us what is happening in front of him.
Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah had written:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
— Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)
Then Matthew tells us about the birth of Jesus and makes the connection himself:
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:”
— Matthew 1:22 (NIV)
Matthew then quotes Isaiah and explains that Immanuel means “God with us.”
That pattern continues. Bethlehem, the escape to Egypt, and John the Baptist preparing the way are among the places where Matthew points backward and shows how what is happening with Jesus connects with what had already been written.
Jesus Himself later makes that connection clear:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
— Matthew 5:17 (NIV)
In other words, Jesus wasn’t presenting Himself as disconnected from everything God had revealed before Him. He was saying that what had come before was pointing toward Him and would find its fulfillment in Him.
That’s worth slowing down over.
Christianity doesn’t begin with Jesus appearing out of nowhere with a new religious idea. Matthew presents Him as part of a story God had already been telling for generations.
For someone trying to understand Christianity, I think that’s important. Before asking what Christianity expects from us, it makes sense to first ask what Christianity is actually claiming about Christ.
Then Matthew Lets Us Watch Him
This is one of the things I like about Matthew. We’re not given only claims about Jesus. We get to watch what happens around Him.
Jesus teaches the crowds, and they recognize something different about His authority. He touches a man with leprosy, heals the sick, forgives sins, feeds thousands and walks on water.
At one point, Jesus and His disciples are crossing the lake when a violent storm comes up. Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves, and everything becomes calm. The disciples don’t respond with some carefully thought-out theological explanation. They ask what seems like the most natural question in the world:
“What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
— Matthew 8:27 (NIV)
I understand that reaction. If I had been sitting in that boat, I’m not sure I would have had anything better to say.
Who is this?
Matthew keeps answering that question, one encounter at a time.
Not Everyone Saw the Same Thing
Something else stands out when reading Matthew. People could encounter the same Jesus and come away with completely different responses.
Some followed Him and trusted Him. Others were amazed but didn’t seem to know what to make of Him. Some doubted Him, and others became angry enough to want Him dead.
What may be most surprising is that the people who seemed most likely to recognize Him were sometimes the ones who didn’t.
The religious leaders knew the Scriptures. They knew Israel’s history and what had been written about the Messiah, yet many of them rejected Jesus. Meanwhile, Matthew shows us people we might not expect who seem to recognize something others miss.
A Roman centurion shows remarkable faith. Sinners and tax collectors come near Jesus. People with very little standing in the religious world find themselves sitting with Him.
That catches my attention because it shows how possible it is to know quite a bit about religion and still miss the Person standing at the center of it.
Who Jesus Is and What You’re Going to Do With Him
Eventually Jesus asks His disciples what people are saying about Him. They give Him several answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
Then Jesus makes the question personal.
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
— Matthew 16:15 (NIV)
Peter answers:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
— Matthew 16:16 (NIV)
I’ve read those words many times, but the older I get, the more I notice the question that came before Peter’s answer.
What about you?
It’s easy to talk about what other people believe about Jesus. My parents believed this. My church taught that. Christians say this. Skeptics say something else. Maybe I heard about Jesus growing up and simply accepted some things without thinking very deeply about them.
But those are still other people’s answers.
Jesus’ question gets underneath all of that:
Who do you say I am?
I Had to Answer That Question Too
I believed in God for much of my life, but when I was 36, I accepted Jesus Christ and began to understand what it meant to have a personal relationship with Him. Before that, I don’t think I fully understood the difference between believing that God exists and actually knowing Christ.
For me, that understanding came later. Believing there was a God was one thing; coming to know who Jesus was and realizing that His life, death and resurrection had something to do with me personally was something very different. At some point, I had to consider who Jesus actually claimed to be and, if I believed Him, what that meant for my own life.
That’s one reason I think Matthew can be so helpful for someone who is new to Christianity or simply trying to understand it. You don’t have to start by understanding every doctrine or having an answer for every difficult question. I certainly didn’t.
You can start with Jesus. Read what Matthew actually says about Him, listen to what Jesus says, look at what He does and how people respond to Him. Then see where the story leads.
If you’re just beginning to explore Christianity, I’ve written more about this in Jesus Didn’t Make the Gospel Complicated. The message of the gospel is deeper than we will ever fully understand, but the invitation itself isn’t complicated.
Matthew Doesn’t End at the Cross
Where the story leads matters because if Matthew ended with Jesus dying, we would have a very different story.
Jesus had already told His disciples what was coming:
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things… and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
— Matthew 16:21 (NIV)
Matthew then takes us there. Jesus is betrayed and arrested. He is falsely accused, mocked, beaten and crucified.
He dies.
But Matthew doesn’t end there.
The women who come to the tomb looking for Jesus are told:
“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”
— Matthew 28:6 (NIV)
That’s the point where Christianity becomes much more than remembering the teachings of a good man who lived a long time ago. Matthew’s account ends with Jesus alive.
The teacher they had followed, the man they had watched heal the sick and calm the storm, the Messiah Peter had recognized, and the man they had seen crucified was not in the tomb.
Now That You Know Who Jesus Is
Near the end of Matthew, Jesus meets His disciples and says:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
— Matthew 28:18 (NIV)
Think about where Matthew started and where he has taken us. He began by identifying Jesus as the Messiah and connecting Him to promises made generations earlier. Then we watched Jesus teach, heal, forgive sins and do things that left even His own disciples asking what kind of man He was.
We watched Peter recognize Him as the Messiah and Son of God. We watched Jesus go to the cross after telling His disciples that it was coming. And finally, Matthew brings us to an empty tomb and the risen Christ declaring that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him.
Matthew has spent an entire Gospel answering the question, Who is Jesus?
But I keep coming back to the question Jesus asked Peter:
“What about you?”
There came a point in my own life when what everyone else said about Jesus wasn’t enough anymore. I needed an answer of my own.
Maybe that’s why His question stays with me.
After everything Matthew shows us, the question becomes remarkably personal.
Who do I say He is?
And once I have an answer to that, another question isn’t very far behind.
Now that I know who He is, what am I going to do with Him?
More Straight Talk on Faith
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