Titles, birth, John the Baptist, temptation

Matthew writes to show that Jesus is the promised king of Israel. CCEA studies five titles — Son of God, Messiah, Son of Man, Son of David and Saviour — through key events.

• Jesus' birth (1: 18–25). Mary is found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit; Joseph, a righteous man, plans to divorce her quietly. An angel tells him to take her as his wife: the child will be called Jesus, "for he will save his people from their sins", and he is Emmanuel, "God with us".
• Visitors from the East (2: 1–16). Wise men follow a star to Jerusalem, asking where the king of the Jews has been born. Herod is disturbed; the chief priests point to Bethlehem. The wise men offer gold, frankincense and myrrh, are warned in a dream and go home another way. Herod, tricked, orders the killing of the boys of Bethlehem. From the very first chapter, the true king is worshipped by foreigners and hunted by the powerful.
• John the Baptist (3: 1–17). He preaches in the Judean wilderness — "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" — dressed in camel's hair, eating locusts and wild honey, baptising in the Jordan. He calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers" and points beyond himself: "one who is more powerful than I is coming... he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Then Jesus is baptised: the Spirit descends like a dove and a voice says, "This is my beloved Son."
• The temptation (4: 1–11). Forty days in the wilderness. Bread from stones (power for himself); throwing himself from the Temple (a spectacle to force God's hand); all the kingdoms of the world (a short cut past the cross). Jesus answers each with Scripture. He is choosing what kind of Messiah to be.

Peter's declaration, the Transfiguration, the entry into Jerusalem

• Peter's declaration (16: 13–20). At Caesarea Philippi: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus calls him blessed, says flesh and blood did not reveal this, and speaks of building his church on "this rock". He orders them to tell no one. (Catholic teaching finds here the foundation of Peter's office and the papacy; many Protestants read "this rock" as Peter's confession. Both readings are serious — cite both.)
• The Transfiguration (17: 1–13). Six days later, on a high mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus' face shines like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white. Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) appear with him. A bright cloud overshadows them: "This is my beloved Son... listen to him." Coming down, Jesus says Elijah has already come — Matthew notes the disciples understood him to mean John the Baptist.
• The entry into Jerusalem (21: 1–11). Jesus sends for a donkey and rides into the city, fulfilling the prophecy that the king comes "humble, and mounted on a donkey". Crowds spread cloaks and branches and shout, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." The whole city is in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?"

The point of the donkey. A conquering general rode a warhorse. By choosing a donkey, Jesus accepts the title Son of David and simultaneously redefines it: this king comes in peace, and within a week he will be crucified.

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Five healing miracles — and why they caused trouble

• A leprosy sufferer (8: 1–4). "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." Jesus touches him — a man everyone else avoided — and says, "I do choose. Be made clean." He sends him to the priest, as the law required.
• A Roman officer's servant (8: 5–13). The centurion says, "only speak the word, and my servant will be healed", explaining that he too understands authority. Jesus is amazed: "in no one in Israel have I found such faith", and says many will come from east and west to the feast of the kingdom. A Gentile soldier is held up as the model believer.
• A paralysed man (9: 1–7). Jesus says, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." The scribes think, "This man is blaspheming." Jesus answers: which is easier to say? "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — he tells the man to stand, take his bed and go home. He does.
• An official's daughter and a sick woman (9: 18–26). A leader begs Jesus to come; on the way, a woman who has haemorrhaged for twelve years touches the fringe of his cloak, and Jesus tells her, "your faith has made you well." At the house the mourners laugh when he says the girl is only sleeping. He takes her by the hand and she gets up.
• A man with a paralysed hand (12: 9–14). In the synagogue, on the Sabbath, they ask, "Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?" — hoping to accuse him. Jesus answers with a sheep fallen into a pit: "how much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath." He heals the man — and the Pharisees go out and conspire to destroy him.

The controversial nature (CCEA's own wording). The miracles are not simply kind acts. Jesus touches the untouchable, praises a Roman, forgives sins (a divine prerogative) and overrides Sabbath convention. Each healing is also a claim about who he is — which is exactly why they generate a plot to kill him.

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Five parables of the kingdom

• The Sower (13: 1–9, 18–23). Seed falls on the path (snatched away), rocky ground (no root, withers under persecution), thorns (choked by the cares of the world and the lure of wealth) and good soil (hears, understands, bears fruit thirty, sixty, a hundredfold). It is about responses to the word — and it is honest that most seed fails.
• The Weeds (13: 24–30, 36–43). An enemy sows weeds among the wheat. The servants want to pull them up; the owner says wait until the harvest, or the wheat will be uprooted too. In the explanation, the harvest is the end of the age: judgement is real, but it is God's, and it is not yet. The church is therefore a mixed field, not a pure one.
• The Lost Sheep (18: 10–14). A shepherd with a hundred sheep leaves the ninety-nine on the hills to search for the one that strayed, and rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine. "It is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should be lost."
• The Workers in the Vineyard (20: 1–16). Labourers hired at dawn, at nine, at noon, at three and at five all receive the same daily wage. The first grumble. The owner replies: "I am doing you no wrong... are you envious because I am generous?" The kingdom is grace, not payroll. "The last will be first, and the first last."
• The Wedding Feast (22: 1–14). The invited guests refuse and abuse the messengers, so the king sends his servants into the streets to bring in everyone they can find, good and bad. But a man without a wedding robe is thrown out: "many are called, but few are chosen." The invitation is astonishingly wide — and it still has to be taken seriously.

Match each parable to its main point

Tap a parable on the left, then the point it makes on the right.

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Which theme does each set passage belong to?

Tap a passage, then tap the CCEA theme it is listed under.

Plot, betrayal, Last Supper, Gethsemane, trials

• The plot (26: 3–5). The chief priests and elders gather at the palace of the high priest Caiaphas and plot to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him — but "not during the festival", for fear of a riot.
• Judas agrees to betray (26: 14–16). He goes to the chief priests: "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They pay him thirty pieces of silver.
• Passover and the Last Supper (26: 17–35). "One of you will betray me." Jesus takes bread — "Take, eat; this is my body" — and the cup: "this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." After the hymn, on the Mount of Olives, he foretells that Peter will deny him three times before the cock crows. Peter insists he never will.
• Gethsemane and the arrest (26: 36–56). "My soul is deeply grieved, even to death." Three times he prays, "let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want", and three times finds the disciples asleep. Judas arrives with a crowd and betrays him with a kiss. A disciple draws a sword; Jesus stops him — "all who take the sword will perish by the sword" — and all the disciples desert him and flee.
• Before the Jewish Council (26: 57–68). Witnesses contradict each other. The high priest demands, "Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Jesus answers and speaks of the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power. Caiaphas tears his clothes and cries blasphemy; they spit at him and strike him.

Pilate, crucifixion and resurrection

• Before Pilate (27: 1–2, 11–26). "Are you the King of the Jews?" — "You say so." Then silence, which amazes the governor. Pilate's wife sends word about a troubling dream. Offered a choice, the crowd asks for Barabbas. Pilate washes his hands: "I am innocent of this man's blood."
• Jesus is mocked (27: 27–31). The soldiers strip him, put a scarlet robe on him, twist a crown of thorns, give him a reed for a sceptre, kneel and jeer, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Matthew's irony is deliberate: every word of the mockery is true.
• Crucifixion and death (27: 32–61, 65–66). Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross. Jesus is crucified at Golgotha between two bandits, under the charge "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews". Darkness covers the land from noon to three; he cries, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and dies. The curtain of the Temple is torn in two, from top to bottom; the earth shakes; the Roman centurion says, "Truly this man was God's Son." Joseph of Arimathea buries him in his own new tomb; the authorities seal the stone and post a guard.
• The resurrection (28: 1–10). At dawn the two Marys come to the tomb. There is an earthquake; an angel rolls back the stone and sits on it; the guards shake and become like dead men. "He is not here; he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay." Running to tell the disciples, they meet Jesus himself: "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee."

Significance for Christian truth and identity. The torn curtain says the way to God is now open; the centurion's confession says the first person to name Jesus correctly at the cross is a Gentile executioner; the sealed tomb and the guard are Matthew's answer to the rumour that the body was stolen. Christians read the death as atonement and the resurrection as the ground of hope.

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Called, and told what it costs

• Jesus calls his disciples (4: 18–22; 9: 9–13). By the sea he says to Simon and Andrew, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people" — immediately they leave their nets; James and John leave the boat and their father. Later he calls Matthew, a tax collector, from his booth, and eats with "tax collectors and sinners". Criticised, he replies: "Those who are well have no need of a physician... I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."
• The demands of discipleship (5: 13–16; 16: 24–26). "You are the salt of the earth... the light of the world" — a lamp goes on a stand, so that people "may see your good works and give glory to your Father." And: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me... what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?"
• Anger, revenge and love of enemies (5: 21–26, 38–48). Not just "do not murder" but do not nurse anger; be reconciled with your brother or sister before you bring your gift to the altar. Not "an eye for an eye" but turn the other cheek, go the second mile, "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" — for God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good".
• Religious observance (6: 1–18). Beware of practising your piety to be seen. Give in secret; pray in secret (and here Jesus gives the Lord's Prayer); fast without a miserable face. God "sees in secret" — the audience for religion is God, not the neighbours.

Forgiveness, money, pressure and commission

• Forgiveness (18: 21–35). "How often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" — "Seventy-seven times." Then the unforgiving servant, let off a debt he could never repay, who seizes a fellow servant by the throat over a trivial sum. Those forgiven by God are expected to forgive.
• Money and the state (22: 15–22). The trap: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?" Jesus asks for a coin: "Whose head is this?" — "The emperor's." — "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." It is not a slogan for keeping religion out of politics; it is a claim that Caesar has limits, because everything bearing God's image belongs to God.
• Wealth (19: 16–26). The rich young man has kept the commandments. "Go, sell your possessions, give to the poor... then come, follow me." He goes away grieving. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom" — but "for God all things are possible."
• The pressure of discipleship (26: 69–75). In the courtyard, Peter — who swore he never would — denies Jesus three times, the last time with curses. The cock crows. He goes out and weeps bitterly. Matthew's most human page: the failure of the church's leader is recorded, not hidden. It is also, therefore, a page about the possibility of restoration.
• The Great Commission (28: 16–20). On a mountain in Galilee — "some doubted", Matthew admits — the risen Jesus says: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Discipleship in a pluralist society (AO2): CCEA asks you to connect these passages to identity, belonging, meaning, truth and values today. Salt and light imply visible engagement; "give to Caesar" implies loyal citizenship with limits; "love your enemies" is the hardest test of all in a divided society. Argue the tension — do not smooth it over.

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Think it through

The big ideas to know

You have covered all five themes of CCEA Unit 4. Press Finish to see your score.