Matthew 1:17-25 - Jesus Is the Son of Mary - December 14, 2022

This Advent we’re asking the single most important question in the world: who is Jesus? It’s also one of those questions that seems to have nearly as many answers as there are people willing to answer it. Some say that Jesus is a therapist – he helps us cope with life’s problems, and forget about the past; tells us how special we are and not to be so hard on ourselves. Some say Jesus is basically a stereotypical millennial – he drinks fair-trade coffee, enjoys spiritual conversations, proudly drives a hybrid and goes to film festivals. Some say Jesus is a coach – that if you call on him and point to heaven, he will help you catch touchdowns and drain 3-pointers. Some say Jesus is a spiritual guru – that he hates the structure of religion, the confessions and denominations, the pastors and doctrines – and would rather have people searching for god in nature – or silently meditating and searching for the god within. Some say Jesus is merely a good example – he shows us how to be better people so that we can make the world a better place. But we’re interested in the real Jesus – the Jesus of Matthew 1. Matthew has told us that Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham and, tonight, the Son of Mary.

So altogether there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen generations from the Babylonian exile to Christ. Matthew summarizes salvation history in three sets of fourteen – or, perhaps, counted another way, in six sets of seven. This theory argues that if you happened to be a native speaker of Hebrew – this last detail would make you cringe. (It would be like me leaving out the last line of “Happy Birthday.”) In the Bible, seven appears to be the number of completeness – starting with the seven days of creation (Genesis 1); the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:7-13); the seven words of the cross; the seven churches of Revelation (Revelation 2-3); etc. But regardless of whether we accept that theory or not, the story of salvation Matthew has described so far in chapter 1 is clearly incomplete – this story lacks an ending. And maybe that’s Matthew’s point. Jesus is the one who will usher in the final act of God’s plan of salvation. Jesus completes the story of salvation – and the names given to this Son of Mary show us how.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother, Mary, was pledged in marriage to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found (presumably by Joseph) to be with child by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her. So he decided to divorce her privately. This is really a remarkable series of events. Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes for a moment. He wasn’t dumb. He knows that babies aren’t conceived spontaneously. It’s hard to blame him for deciding to divorce her – but it’s also to his credit that he wanted to do so quietly, because God’s Law mandated that adulterers were to be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). But what’s even more amazing is what happened next: as he was considering these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

By the power of the Holy Spirit Joseph believed the angel’s words and took Mary home as his wife and then named her son Jesus. Jesus means “the LORD saves.” From what? He will save his people from their sins. Let that sink in for a moment. When you think of Jesus, look to Jesus, call on him in prayer – what are you asking him to save you from? Certainly, we all have problems – be they financial, political, psychological, medical, or interpersonal – and Jesus is certainly capable of saving us from those problems – he proved it by his words and works on earth. But that’s not the primary reason he came – and we should repent for thinking so little of his saving power. Jesus came to save us from much more than those issues. That’s why the angel didn’t tell Joseph to give Mary’s child a name that would indicate his expertise in medicine, economics or psychology. Those are issues we can work on, we can learn from experts to deal with, we can plan for and find treatment for – but sin, what can we do about that? That’s why the angel left no room for misunderstanding what the job of Mary’s Son would be: he will save his people from their sins.

Mary’s Son is Jesus – the one who saves us from our sins. But he’s only that because he’s more than that – he’s more than just the Son of Mary. Matthew continues: All this happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet [Isaiah 7:14]: “Look, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will name him Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.” “God with us” is one of the major themes of Matthew’s Gospel. It first appears here; it appears in the middle, when Jesus promises that where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am among them (Matthew 18:20); and then, in the last verse of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus promises surely I am with you always until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Sure, Big Brother may be tracking us everywhere – but only in Jesus is “God with us.”

Jesus is our Savior because he is also Immanuel, “God with us.” Jesus – that little, helpless baby in Mary’s arms – is God entering our muck and mire, our chaos and confusion. He’s with us in the manger, yes. He was with us for thirty some years on this earth, yes. But we see God not only with us – but for us – most profoundly on the darkest day in human history – that day when humanity grabbed hold of Mary’s Son, arrested him, mocked him, condemned him, tortured him, and then nailed him to a tree – all of which were really just expressions of the attitude first exhibited by our first parents in the Garden of Eden after they had eaten the forbidden fruit – which can all be summarized by the statement: “Get away! Leave us alone, God!” Ever since then, the world has been telling God to get away. Why do businesses forbid their employees from saying “Merry Christmas”? Why have the Ten Commandments been torn out of public places and Bible reading and prayer banned from public schools? Why does our world want to stuff Christmas back into a box and shove it into a closet as soon as the last present is opened on December 25th? These are all manifestations of the sinful nature screaming: “Get away! Leave us alone, God!” But a better question might be: why do we, by our words and actions, make it clear that we want nothing to do with God? Why do we make up all sorts of excuses to avoid reading our Bibles, praying, worshipping or giving up our pet sins? Aren’t we also telling God to get away from us? And that, truly, is what we deserve: to have God abandon us forever in the depths of hell.

Which is precisely what makes the birth of this child to Mary so important and so worthy of our time and attention and worship and praise this Advent season. Mankind, from the beginning, has been telling God to stay away. God, from eternity, knew that the crown of his creation wouldn’t want anything to do with him. And yet, God loved us too much to let our story end unfinished in hell. He not only sent his Son to come to live with us and among us; he sent him to live for us – to never fail to fear, love, and trust in God above all things; and to die for us – for each and every time we have expressed our failure to fear, love and trust in God above all things by our thoughts, words and actions. But, most importantly, he rose again for us – proof that not only are our sins forgiven but that in Jesus, God is with us each and every day – not to hurt us but to help us. And through the means of grace – the Gospel in Word and Sacrament – God is still with us to deliver the forgiveness and salvation his Son won by his life, death and resurrection to us.

In these final days before Christmas, casual conversations with our friends and family – and even perfect strangers – often consist of discussing how your preparations are going; if you’ve finished your shopping, cooking, travel, etc. And, unless, we’re delusional, I don’t think any one of us will be able to say that we’re finished until December 26th, when the cleanup and thank you writing starts. If you find yourself in a conversation like that, take a moment to remind yourself – and maybe that person – that Christmas isn’t really about us or our preparations – it’s about the Son of Mary, whose names reveal his identity and work. He’s Jesus – because he will save us from our sins and Immanuel – because he is God with us, was the one person able to say it is finished (John 19:30) from his cross. Matthew’s genealogy left God’s story of salvation unfinished – but Jesus finished it. In Jesus your sins are forgiven and God is with you – and that’s all you really need for a happy ending to your Christmas story this year and to your life story eternally. Amen.