Mid-Advent 3
Mt
1:18-25
12/16/15
Dreams are remarkable things. They can be so vivid – it can be like
watching a movie or like you are actually in the midst of what is happening –
like it is actually happening to you.
The thing that never ceases to amaze
me is the fact that in dreams my mind can create a story and scenes that I could never make up if I was trying. I don’t consider myself to be a particularly
creative person. If I tried to create
the kinds of things that I see in my dreams, I would fail miserably. But when I am asleep and my mind goes to work
on its own, it can create things that are amazing to watch.
The dreams that I remember always
seem to take place in the early morning.
It often happens that I wake up not long after the dream is done. Or sometimes, my alarm goes off and wakes me
up in the midst of a dream. It is
frustrating to be in the midst of a really interesting dream, and then not get
to find out how it ends. And that fact
illustrates the fascinating character of dreams – they are something that our
mind creates on its own.
Dreams were considered to be very
important in the ancient world. It was
believed that they revealed the future and also provided information about the
present. In the second century A.D. a
Greek author names Artimedorus wrote a very popular book about the
interpretation of dreams. The book drew
upon a well developed tradition about interpreting dreams as he classified
dreams types and provided guidance in their interpretation.
When we listen to the account of the
angel’s announcement to Joseph about the incarnation, it’s easy to miss the
fact that this occurs in a dream. In fact, all of the messages delivered by an
angel in the Gospel of Matthew occur in dreams: the message to the Magi not to
return to Herod; the message to Joseph to flee with Jesus and Mary to Egypt;
the message to Joseph to bring them back from Egypt; the warning to settle in
Galilee and not Judea – all occur in dreams.
This would not have surprised a
first century reader. But it does raise a question that we can never answer:
How did Joseph know that this was God actually revealing something to him? I have had some pretty vivid dreams. But whenever I wake up, I know that it was just
a dream. Joseph wakes up from sleep and
immediately acts on what he has been told in the dream. He knows that God is
revealing something to him, and has given him something to do.
Joseph’s world had been rocked. He was betrothed to a nice girl, Mary. Like all marriages at that time – and for
that matter, like most marriages in the history of the world – it was certainly
arranged. It was a legal
transaction. A dowry – a sum of money –
had been given to Joseph by Mary’s family.
Joseph may have paid a bride price to Mary’s family for the privilege of
marrying her. Mary and Joseph were now betrothed. This was state in which they
would live in for up to a year. They
were not married and had not come together as husband and wife, but they had
entered into a legally binding commitment.
To break the betrothal was divorce.
We don’t know how Joseph learned
that Mary was pregnant. But we do learn
two things about him in our text. First,
Joseph is a righteous man. He wants to
live according to God’s Word which he had provided in the Torah. He is not going to marry an adulterous woman.
But we also learn that Joseph is compassionate.
He is going to break the betrothal and divorce Mary quietly. Legally, as the innocent party, Joseph could
have impounded the dowry and regained the money paid as the bride price. But this would not have been quiet. To
divorce Mary quietly was not the financially smart move. Yet that is what
Joseph is going to do anyway because divorce would not only humiliate Mary – it
might even leave her open to death through stoning.
We learn in our text that while
Joseph was considering these thing an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a
son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their
sins.”
These two sentences are packed with
information. They are packed with
Gospel. Joseph is addressed as “son of
David.” Matthew has just demonstrated
this in the genealogy he provides.
Joseph descends from King David.
By taking this boy has his own child, he makes the infant part of
David’s line.
The angel tells Joseph not to give
into fear about what had happened with Mary.
There is an explanation that will lead him not to divorce her. The child
she carries is not the product of sinful fornication. Quite the opposite – he
is the holy result of the Holy Spirit’s work.
This child is a miracle – a son
conceived by a virgin. And he is a
miracle who will carry out God’s saving will.
The angel tells Joseph that the name for the child has already been chosen by God. His name describes his divinely
given work. He will be named Jesus,
which means “Yahweh saves” for he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew’s Gospel says that sin is
something from which you must be saved.
Naturally this means forgiveness – and we find this language in the gospel on a
number of occasions, most notably in the Words of Institution at the Last
Supper. But here, in the first word about
Jesus, the angel describes Jesus’ mission as one of saving from sin.
Sin, is of course, every way that we
break God’s law in thought, word and deed.
The word and deed part are hard enough. But the thought part means that
we often sin, even when we are saying or doing the right thing. We say and do things with motives that are not
pure. We say and do the right thing in
grudging ways, simply because we have to.
Sin weaves itself into everything we
do. And sin wraps itself around our life
itself as it brings pain and suffering until finally it brings its final payoff
– death.
In the incarnation, God sent his
Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from sin. He
came to drink the cup of God’s wrath against our sin – to be damned in our
place. He came to bring freedom from
death – to redeem us.
In order to do this, God’s Son was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. Carried in the womb of the virgin he was born
in Bethlehem – the city of David. This
was the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in the Old Testament. And Matthew highlights a promise that this
action of the Holy Spirit fulfilled in a very specific way. He says in our text, “All this took place to
fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’(which means,
God with us).”
God came to be with us as he was
incarnate through the work of the Holy Spirit and was born of a virgin
Mary. He was God with us – the One in
whom all the fullness of the Deity dwelt in bodily form. He came in a body, as true God and true man,
to die in your place. He entered to the tomb so that by his resurrection on
Easter, he could defeat death.
Because of the death and
resurrection of Jesus you have been saved from sin. You are forgiven. In Holy Absolution you hear the verdict of
the Last Day spoken to you now. This
forgiveness from sin extends to all of your life. It extends beyond death itself. Jesus has saved you from all that sin has
caused. He will give you the fullness of
this salvation on the Last Day when he raises and transforms your body to be
like his.
In our text we learn about Joseph’s
reaction. We hear, “When Joseph woke
from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name
Jesus.” Joseph awakes and is certain
that he has heard from God. He listens to
God’s word and acts. He acts in faith.
All he had was the word of the angel in a dream. He trusts God’s word and so acts in a
righteous way – in a way that cared for Mary and Jesus.
The baby in the womb of the virgin
is indeed Immanuel – God with us.
Through his ministry he has saved you from your sins. He has given you the living hope of the
resurrection which will overcome death itself. His word – the word of the
Gospel – makes you righteous, so that now you too can live in righteous
ways. He sends you forth to do humble
things that now have divine importance because you do them in Christ – things
like caring for a mother and her baby.
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