indeed the Son of David, the Son of God, the promised Messiah; but equally, he wants to make clear how most people’s expectations of what the Messiah should be were woefully inadequate. Occasionally it is possible to get a glimpse of the kind of Christian people to whom Matthew was writing. But we must never forget that this book does not set out to tell us about a church or an apostle, but about Jesus Christ. He is the climax of Old Testament expectations and the foundation for New Testament Christianity.