First reaction that somebody might have when we are about to start reading Matthew could be “O no, more names?” We have been dealing with a lot of names, numbers and details in the Old Testament, but now this names will make sense for us because after all if you read carefully those names represents the lineage from where the Christ came (Matthew 1: 1-17)
Matthew is a prophetic oriented book, the regular expression in this book is: “All this took place to fulfill what have been spoken by the Lord through the prophet.” (1:22) Matthew made his best effort to demonstrate that Jesus is not only a good man or a great teacher, but the fulfillment of what the Lord had promised in the Old testament to the people of Israel.
The Messiah is not longer a great hope, but an undeniable reality that already came, something that even very distinguished gentiles were able to seek and receive without any hesitation. The wise men were asking for the place where they can find the Messiah, not asking if in reality he was born (2: 1-2) from the beginning Matthew is telling to his readers that Jesus is not something that has to be proven, but something that has to be accepted.
The other thing that Matthew is going to be saying is that there are some people, specially people of influence like King Herod or the religious leaders of the Jews who will try to destroy or deny the veracity of the coming of the Christ. (2: 16-18; 28:11-15) However, in the other hand he will present God as the great originator of all this new reality.
In chapter 3 we can see that even John the Baptist proclaim the superiority of Jesus, by saying “I baptize with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.” (3:11) Also in chapter 4, we can see how the writer tells us about the temptation of Jesus in a way that will demonstrate the superiority of Jesus even over Satan.
Finally, the greatness of Jesus is so wonderful that even men like Peter and Andrew will follow him without hesitation. What did they see in him? I think that they saw something in him that attracted them, but also they saw something thru him that moved them.
What do you see in Jesus?