Matthew begins and ends with scenes of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In chapters 1-2, the Mary and Joseph are his parents; in chapter 27, there’s Joseph of Arimathea and Mary has doubled into Mary Magdalene and the “other Mary.”
The first story is a story of life, the second a story of death. The first tells about the miracle of the virgin conception, while the second tells of a burial. The first focuses on the child in the womb, the second on the crucified man in the tomb.
Overriding the contrasts, though, is a basic similarity: The first scene is about the coming of the Son of God, the second about His coming again from the tomb; the first presents Him as the firstborn of Mary and Joseph, the second as the firstborn of the death; the first is Jesus’ birth story, the second a story of His rebirth, and the rebirth of creation.
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