Mid-Advent 3
Mt
1:18-25
12/19/18
It
has been reported by a number of news outlets that genealogy is the second most
popular hobby in the United States, after gardening. I guess it is not entirely surprising then to
learn that genealogy websites are the second most visited category of websites
on the internet. The number one
category? I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself, but I’ll give you a hint:
it’s not trains.
The popularity of genealogy –
tracing one’s family history – has been attributed to two factors. First, Baby Boomers are retiring in ever
larger numbers, and they have enthusiastically taken to genealogy as a way to
spend their leisure time. And second,
the internet has made huge amount of information and documents available
online. It has made the enterprise
practical in a way it had never been before.
The apostle Matthew had an interest
in genealogy. In fact, most of chapter
one in his Gospel is a genealogy. He
begins by writing: “The
book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Matthew tracks the genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham to Joseph as he shows
that Jesus is the Christ who fulfills God’s promises in the Old Testament.
It’s not
the most exciting reading, though there are a few surprises in there such as “David
begat Solomon by the wife of Uriah.” We are reminded that God worked through
sinners in order to provide the rescue from sin. However, on the whole it is rather monotonous
as we hear that a father begat his son.
It runs that way, at least until we get to the end, where Matthew tells
us: “Matthan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom
Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”
Coming, as
it does, after the repetition of “X begat Y, and Y begat Z,” the change is very
striking. It is intended to be so,
because it calls attention to the fact that Jesus was not conceived and born in the way that everyone else on the list
was. Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the son of David. He also wants us to know that Joseph was not
his father. That fact requires some explanation.
We learn in
our text that Joseph was betrothed to Mary.
As I mentioned last Wednesday, betrothal was something far more
significant than our engagement. If a
couple who is engaged calls it off, apart from hurt feelings the only issue of
real substance is what happens to the engagement ring. It was not so with a betrothal. This was a
legal transaction, and to break it was the equivalent of divorce.
From what
we learn about Mary in the New Testament, Joseph must have considered himself
to be blessed. Arrangements had been made for him to marry a great girl who
would be an excellent wife. Or at least,
it had seemed that way at one time.
Because now, before they were actually married, it had been discovered
that she was pregnant.
Before they
were even married, Mary had been unfaithful. She had broken the Sixth
Commandment through fornication. Joseph
was a just man. He sought to live his life according to God’s Word – his
Torah. There was no way he was going to
marry a woman who was sexually immoral.
But at the
same time, Joseph was not vindictive. He
didn’t want to make an example of Mary and heap shame upon her. So instead, he
decided to divorce her quietly. He would
end the betrothal and would not marry
her, but he would do so in a way that sought to shield her from harm as much as
he could.
Talk about
having a lot on your mind! While Joseph
considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and
said, "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.”
The angel
addressed Joseph as “son of David,” and that was the key factor that he brought
to Mary’s child. For Joseph to take
Mary’s child as his own, would make that child part of the line of King David.
The angel told Joseph not to be afraid to do this – to take Mary has his wife.
And he explained the reason why. Things were not what they appeared. Instead, that which was conceived in Mary was
from the Holy Spirit.
There was
no sin on Mary’s part in the conception of this child. This was a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit.
And in fact, quite the opposite, God was working through his child to give forgiveness of sins. The angel told
Joseph, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save
his people from their sins.”
The ancient
world was very open to the possibility that dreams could be a means of
revelation. Something about this experience left Joseph in absolutely no doubt
that this was more than just a vivid dream.
It was instruction from God, and so he acted upon it. We learn from our text: “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.”
Like Mary,
the event of the incarnation brought unexpected changes and challenges to
Joseph’s life. Joseph’s would be the
wedding night that never was, as he did not have relations with Mary until
after she had given birth. Talk about a disappointment. As a
newlywed, Joseph would find himself responsible for raising a child who was not
his own son – a son who was not like any that had lived before. If being a first time father can be
intimidating, think about what it was like to be raising this son.
Yet Joseph
obeyed the angel’s direction. By taking
Jesus as his own, he made the incarnate Son of God part of the Davidic line.
The One conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary was now the
Son of God, and the son of David.
Joseph’s
obedience became part of the way that God worked to fulfill his promise about
the heir of David, the Messiah. Joseph obeyed,
but God did this because of our disobedience.
As the angel said to Joseph, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his
name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus’ name means “Yahweh saves.” Through Jesus Christ, God acted to save not
only his people Israel from their sins.
He acted to save all people. He
acted to save you.
Though we
are fallen and sinful, God did not abandon us.
Instead, he did the exact opposite. Matthew explains in our text that these
events involving Mary 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 did not
leave us alone to our sin. Instead, in
the incarnation God was Immanuel. He was God with us as the Son of God died on
the cross to provide the answer for sin – as he atoned by his sacrificial death
for the sin that would have damned us.
As we learn
in our text, Jesus Christ was Immanuel.
Yet this is not something that was only true in the past. It is still
true today. It is still true because
on the third day Jesus Christ rose from the dead as true God and true man. Jesus has defeated death for us, and he
continues to come to us now. He
continues to be God with us in ways by which he gives us the forgiveness he won
on the cross. In his Word and in the
Sacrament of the Altar he is God with us sustaining faith.
Joseph
heard the angel’s word and he obeyed. He
took the pregnant Mary as his wife, and the child in her womb as his son. He was father to the child born in Bethlehem
and gave him the name Jesus as the angel had said. He took up the vocation of father and husband
that God had given him to do.
And in the
same way, Jesus Christ – Immanuel – is the reason that we now seek to be
faithful in our vocations. In Christ we
have received God’s forgiveness and love, and so we seek to share this with
others. We do so, not in self chosen
ways, but rather in those settings where God has placed us. Because of Jesus – Immanuel – we now become
the means that God uses to help others.
Because of Jesus – God with us – God works through us to provide his
love and care in the world.
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