Matthew 1-4: Choosing to follow Jesus
As the main point of scripture is always pointing to Christ, what can we know about Jesus so far if we believe Matthew is telling the truth? This is a different way to “study” a passage or a handful of chapters. I don’t want to get so caught up in the {beautiful, incredible, important, life-changing} details that I miss the bigger picture of who Jesus is and what we are to be learning about Him. There have been many times in life when I have become too focused on things other than Christ and I have lost sight of just how amazing this gospel story is. So, I like to make lists like this on occasion, to remind myself of who Jesus is, what we know about Him, and what we can rely on if we believe the gospel writers to be telling us the truth.
In Matthew 1-4, here is my list of what we can know about Jesus (please add to it in the comments if you see something I don’t!):
- Jesus descended from Abraham
- He was born to Mary and Joseph, through the Holy Spirit
- “Jesus” means “will save his people from their sins”
- He was the fulfillment of prophecies, “Immanuel, God with us”
- the magi called him “king of the Jews” and said he was worthy of worship
- he is “the Christ”
- he was baptized and Holy Spirit descended upon him
- A voice from Heaven spoke over him “this is my son in whom I am well pleased”
- Jesus cared about being proper and fulfilling all righteousness
- was led by the Holy Spirit
- fasted for 40 days
- had his identity/faith questioned and challenged by Satan
- knows Old Testament scriptures
- angels attended him
- met and communicated with Satan; resisted him
- preached repentance and God’s kingdom
- wanted followers and called them
- his call necessitates a response
- he was seen as a religious teacher
- he spoke with authority
- he healed people from disease & sickness (physical, demon possessed)
- he inspired people to follow him
- he did not discriminate
- he met physical needs/problems of people first
I often wonder – what if Jesus lived today? Would I recognize Him? Would I be willing to follow Him and trust Him even if the religious leaders I had always trusted viewed Him as a heretic and a fake? Would I question His tactics and see Him as a false teacher? Would I want to be associated with such a man?
Maybe it’s my personality and natural skepticism, but it is really hard for me to cast my support fully for anyone. I hate arguing politics – for many reasons – but one of the primary ones is because I recognize that no one is perfect, every candidate has flaws, and I don’t want to officially align myself with someone who I cannot be assured is my ideal candidate in every way. I never agree 100% with anyone on anything, and that gap, however small it may be, is enough to make me stay off to the side. In our local election, a friend of mine ran for a judicial position. I know her well and believe that she will be a great judge. A few weeks before the election, I offered to write a letter to the editor of our local online news source advocating for her. As I hit “Send” I held my breath, feeling a sudden panic knowing that I was putting it out there to the world that I supported this person completely.
With Jesus, He was the ideal candidate. He is the ideal candidate. We can be 100% sure that He represents everything that is perfect and holy and good. We can cast our hope completely on Him and know that it will not fail. It is not always easy, though. It is not always easy to stand up and declare to the world that you have made your decision and are choosing to follow Jesus. Even harder, sometimes, because the choice to follow Jesus is not nicely accompanied with a simple manual of what we are to do and how we are to do it. The Bible is a handbook of sorts, but, as we all know, it can leave a lot of room for interpretation and even something as basic as “love your neighbor as yourself” can be fraught with controversy.
Choosing to follow Jesus is a decision we must make everyday. It is not just a vote we cast once every few years. Each day we must face the question again of whose will we are going to seek, who we are going to aim to please, whose principles and purposes we are going to obey.
I fail all the time. Constantly. Sometimes, looking at my life, you would not be able to know which “party” I’m aligning myself with. You would not know how I’d be voting in this day’s “election.” While I like to try to stay politically neutral, I don’t want to be neutral when it comes to Jesus. Nor do I want to be lukewarm about Him, or wishy-washy. His call on my life necessitates a response. When He calls – you have to answer. You have to choose. At the end of my life, I want to look back and see a steady stream of “yeses” to Jesus. I want to see years of days and moments where I chose Him. Because every day we have that choice, we have that option –
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.” Deut. 30:19, 20
This was Moses talking to the Israelites, but it speaks through the ages to us. We cannot be ambivalent about Jesus. We must decide what we believe to be true about Him.
What do you know about Jesus? What do you believe is true about Him? Have you made the choice to follow Him? If not, what questions do you have, or what prevents you from making that choice? If you have decided to follow Him, what does that look like in your life? How do you say “yes” to Jesus today?
