Way back in my first semester of seminary (that seems like 30 or 40 years ago, but it was only 1989), in a course titled Introduction to the New Testament, the professor made a comment that stuck in my mind. It hadn’t occurred to me before. He said the Gospel of Matthew was the "most Jewish" of the four gospels. What he meant by that was that the writer of Matthew consistently, tirelessly quotes the Hebrew scripture to demonstrate, or prove, to his readers that Jesus is the Messiah, the fulfillment of ancient prophecy, the hope of Israel.

Isn’t it odd, then, that Matthew opens his account of this very Jewish Messiah by telling us that the insiders, the ones who had the scripture, studied it day and night, those who were the recipients of all the promises of God, missed the arrival of the …