“Matthew: looking back” Advent #1 November 27, 2016

“Matthew: looking back”

Advent #1

November 27, 2016

My one claim to fame is that my great (x6) uncle was Thomas McKean a politician from Delaware. If you look very carefully at the declaration of independence, at the bottom of the row to the right of John Hancock’s famous signature, you will see my great (x6) uncle Tom’s signature.

I take some pride in being related to one of our founding fathers and a signer of the declaration of independence. Of course, if you look further in the family tree I am sure it contains its share of scoundrels and horse thieves too.

 Jesus family tree is no different. It has a few surprises too… but I get ahead of myself.

The gospel of Matthew starts with Jesus family tree. I did not have Robyn read it this morning for two reasons. First, I didn’t want you to fall asleep before I started. Second, because I was afraid to find out what I would have for lunch if I made Robyn read 50 ancient Israelite names this morning.

I’ll admit the “begat passages” are not the most exciting parts of the bible. JB Phillips, in fact, thought they were somewhat boring so he left the genealogies out of his translation of the Bible when he first printed it. He got so much criticism that he put them back in. I’ll admit. I do it too. I get to a bunch of “begats” and my tendency is, like yours, to skip over them. Sometimes that doesn’t hurt anything, but let’s not do that today.

When I write a sermon, I try to start with something kind of interesting or amusing to get us into the message of the day. It would never occur to me to start my sermon with a bunch of names we can’t pronounce separated by a bunch of “begats.” It just wouldn’t. So why does Matthew start there?

 As we read Matthew, we have to remember that it was written by a first century Jewish person for first century Jewish people. Matthew’s genealogy makes a lot more sense if we ask ourselves, “What would a first century Jewish person think as they read this?”

 Matthew’s readers lived in a culture that was much more aware of history than ours is. One’s family tree determined inheritance, taxation patterns, kinsmanship laws, property rights, and even the kind of jobs one could have. If Matthew started with the birth narrative that Robyn read for us today, a first century person reading this would be asking, “Who is this Jesus and to what family does he belong?” The genealogy would ground them in the story by grounding the story in the history of a family, and (as you can see) the history of the nation. The genealogy would almost be like a compass helping them to get their bearings as the story begins.

Therefore, Matthew starts writing, “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the Son of Abraham.”

In just that sentence, Matthew tells us something very important.  This is about a person who is a full-blooded Israelite through and through because he can trace his lineage right back to Abraham.  Furthermore, this is not just an ordinary Israelite. This is the story of one who is born into the lineage of the great King David.

That is very important because it immediately reminds us of the passage from Isaiah that the Chessman’s read for us this morning. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.

That passage from Isaiah 9 is one of about 14 passages in the Old Testament that say that the Messiah will be a descendent of David. Matthew wants to prove right up front that since Jesus is Joseph’s son, he qualifies, first, as one of the children of Israel (starting with Abraham) and second, as a legal descendent of king David.

Now, there is another genealogy of Jesus in Luke chapter 3. It starts with Adam, moves thorough Abraham and David. After King David, it is completely different from this genealogy in Matthew.  Why? Because Luke traces Jesus genetic family tree through Mary and she is also a descendent of King David.

 Since Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, Luke traces Jesus’ genetic family tree back through David’s son Nathan. Matthew traces Jesus legal family tree back to David through his son, Solomon, because legal rights follow the paternal lineage. Since Joseph adopted Jesus, he is legally in line for the Davidic throne. So 13 generations back Jesus grandfathers were brothers. More importantly, no matter how you look at it; Luke’s bloodline, or Matthew’s legal inheritance, Jesus is a rightful heir to the throne of David, and in the eyes of Matthew’s first century audience, that qualifies him to be the messiah.

So you see the genealogy is really very important to proving that Jesus is who Matthew claims him to be: “the Messiah, the son of David, the Son of Abraham.”

 The second thing the genealogy would remind the first century Jew, is that God’s hand has been preparing for this moment for a long time. Think about how many times the whole train could have come off the track! Not everyone in this family story is a good guy. There were some real bad guys. Take for instance the last king in the second group of 14 Jechoniah, he and his brothers were judged so evil that the whole nation was exiled to Babylon.

 In spite of how messy the story has been, we see how God has kept the train on the track chugging toward the salvation of the world. In other words, through all of history, God HAS BEEN AT WORK GETTING READY FOR THIS MOMENT. God has been at work preparing the world for his incarnation. No matter how messy the lower story becomes, no matter how ugly the lower story becomes, no matter how unlike God the lower story might be, God is still working generation by generation, person by person, day by day and minute by minute to bring the world toward salvation in him. The lower story is a mess, but God’s upper story knows exactly where it is going. God patiently and lovingly steers us in that direction… even when we can’t see it. Matthew is saying this birth of Jesus is a work of God… this birth of Jesus is a miracle of the most high… this birth of Jesus is nothing less than an act of God reaching out of the upper story right into the mess of our lower story to change history.

 There is one other lesson we see in the genealogy. It is really quite remarkable that women show up in the genealogy. For the most part women’s names were lost to history and never appeared in a genealogy. YET in addition to Mary, 4 women do appear in Jesus’ genealogy.

 Tamar was a scheming tramp who disguised herself as a prostitute to get her father in law to have sex with her. .

 Rahab was a foreign prostitute who harbored Israelite spies during the siege of Jericho.

 Ruth was a foreigner from the country of Moab who followed her Israelite mother in law Naomi back to Bethlehem.

 Bathsheba was an adulteress and co-conspirator in her husband’s death.

Really? That is kind of messed up isn’t it?

Yet Matthew makes a special point to include these 4 women in Jesus’ family tree. WHY? Why does Matthew make a special point of pointing out that Jesus’ family tree is just as messed up as some of ours? His family was not perfect. In fact, sometimes they were all too human.

I think there is one very good reason.

By including foreigners like Cannanites and Moabites in Jesus family tree, and including schemers, prostitutes, and adulteresses in the family tree, Matthew is saying that EVERY PERSON MATTERS TO God, EVERY PERSON CAN BE USED BY God, and Jesus came to all people.   Even us.

Canaanites, and Moabites, and tramps, prostitutes, and adulteresses, and Jesus even comes for the least and the lost like the poor foreign widow, Ruth, who would have been so easy to overlook. None of these people is outside of Jesus’ circle of salvation.

You see, like us, the Israelites tended to draw their circle pretty small. Mostly good people who were like them. But Jesus comes to all people. Like us and unlike us. The rich and powerful, and the poor and powerless. No matter the color of your skin, your nationality, the language you speak, the choices you make, the mistakes you make, mo matter how badly life has beaten you down…no matter what, Jesus came for all of these people.

 John says, “For God so loved who?... THE WORLD (including Tamar and Rahab and Ruth and Bathsheba and you and me) that he became incarnate in Jesus the Christ and gave his only begotten son so that we ALL might have life.

 Bottom line is Matthew asks us to take a look back over our shoulder and see what has lead up to this pivotal moment in human history. We see promises fulfilled, God’s hand working, and we see that God has never given up on people like us. And that IS good news.

The birth of Jesus does not just pop up out of nowhere, as God’s backup plan to try to pick up the broken pieces of creation. The birth of Jesus, in incarnation of God in this world, was from the beginning and is for us the greatest miracle God would ever perform.

•        Who would have expected that into this human story filled with kings and prophets, God would come as a baby.

•        Who would have expected that all this time in spite of the brokenness and sin in the world, God has been patiently working day and night preparing for this moment.

•        Who would have expected that God would go through all of that for people like us?

Even more than that, who would have expected that we would learn these important lessons from a bunch of boring begats?

AMEN