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Text: Psalm 85; Matthew 1:18-25 ● You get the feeling that as the story is being told, there’s so much more going on than the controversy surrounding Mary’s pregnancy, or the paranoia of Herod or the ‘no vacancy’ sign illuminated at the inn. And it’s that ‘so much more’ that makes this season so unique; so challenging; so fantastic. ●“Emmanuel, God with us”… it’s the essence of what we believe to be true about Christmas. ● God becoming man (that seems to roll off our tongue rather casually, doesn’t it?): I suppose if you can accept that, the rest of the story seems rather palatable. But, to many, it has been an issue for centuries. Some of the explanations offer Jesus as just a ‘high ranking angel’; more than man, but never to be associated with God (view known as ‘Arianism’). Others taught that Jesus was an ‘illusion’; he only appeared to have a body and only appeared to have died on the cross (‘Docetism’). Some emphasized Jesus’ as ‘the best of men’ (best humanity had to offer, but certainly not God). Even though he sinned, he was the finest symbol of divine love. ● Orthodox Christianity teaches that Jesus shares in all the divine attributes (all that makes God, God); that in becoming flesh, he did not forfeit all the characteristics that make him God. In essence, he added to what he was without losing who he was. ● OC sees it as God’s refusal to use his divinity to his advantage or hold onto it as his divine right (Philippians 2). They call this way of understanding the incarnation, “kenosis” (to empty). ● Matthew, in rehearsing the story of his people, traces Jesus’ lineage back through some very important characters and events. He begins by connecting his story to a larger story: that of Abraham, David and exile. When Matthew chooses to tell the story, he presents it in such a way as to suggest that what’s just happened was not just a big ‘misunderstanding’, but it was somehow a ‘fulfillment’- a ‘completion’. ● In naming the baby, “Jesus”, the story-teller presupposes a story already going on: one in which the plot includes a people who have been overcome by their sin and are in need of rescue. We cannot ‘pluck’ the baby Jesus from the arms of Judaism and tell our own version of the story. ► “…the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham…” (1:1) He wants us to see Jesus uniquely connected to the Jewish story. ► “Abraham was the father of Isaac…” (1:2) Abraham was the founding father of the Jewish people, with whom God had made covenant. ► “Jesse was the father of King David” (1:6) David, who became Israel’s most famous King. God had made promises to him about his reign lasting forever. ● Babylonian exile: a time when all seemed lost; when Israel had seemingly forfeited their status and lost heart. During this time, the prophets pointed toward a day when God would restore Abraham’s people and David’s royal line. [NT Wright, noted NT scholar says that as we look at the genealogy in Matthew it’s like watching a great procession come down the street: we observe all in the processional, but await the one at the end- the parade’s ultimate objective. Or, like watching a wedding processional: we admire the attendants, but we stand for the bride!] ● The story includes one who will come from David’s line (King) and a ‘new David’; a ‘new King’… one would shoulder the responsibility for justice (setting things right) and would never be overthrown. When the ‘new David’ arrives to save his people, it will be like a new exodus; a new covenant. Matthew, among others, seems to suggest that this is all coming true in Jesus. ● It’s often hard for us to reconcile God becoming one of us. It might be that what we most often hear is that God has little tolerance for us and feels it in his best interest to remain ‘distanced’ from us- after all, he is holy! ● We believed the earth to be too raw, too uncut- certainly no place for God! There was too great a risk for contamination. As it turns out, Jesus seemed somehow familiar with our surroundings; he seemed to better understand how things were and how they were meant to work… we didn’t buy it! “He came into that which he himself had made, and we didn’t even notice” (John 1:10-11). ● Let me throw this out to you: Maybe we’ve missed the whole point of holiness (at least I’m sure I have!) ● To describe God as holy is to identify his uniqueness; to recognize his ‘Godness’ (lit. ‘set apart’). The things that make him different from us are ‘glaring’ (it doesn’t take long to notice). Sometimes we speak of places and people and moments as being ‘holy’, and when we do, it seems to suggest something of God touching/effecting their condition- making them something other than they would appear. ~ Maybe to be ‘set apart’, does not necessarily mean ‘set apart from’?! ~ Maybe it’s his holiness that compels him to move toward us, and not away from us?! God seems to ‘shrink’ himself in order dispel any notions that he is untouchable or uninterested. ~ Maybe it’s his holiness that makes him the most qualified to be ‘with us’?! To demonstrate to us what it was like to be fully human- in vital union/relationship with God and each other? ~ Maybe it’s his holiness that allows him to risk ‘flesh’; to live among us?! After all, Jesus seemed to repeatedly suggest that our ‘skin’ was not the problem… it was our heart! ~ Maybe it’s holiness that makes him approachable; that it’s precisely his holiness that makes him ‘touchable’, that allows him to enter the mess of our lives without fear of being tarnished himself?! ● Word of Caution: Paul says that in the midst of his humanity, don’t overlook his deity (Colossians 1:16-17) ~ Emmanuel means that Jesus not only did the things humans do, but the things that God does! ~ God with us somehow allowed us to be with God! ~ We all need to know that God is not only with us, but for us! ● John describes this convergence of heaven and earth as being full of ‘grace’ and ‘truth’ (1:14). He even goes as far as to say that ‘life’ is something that is inaccessible to us apart from God. ~ When God comes, it will always mean both judgment and restoration; to bring restoration but to expose all the injustice that stands in its way. ● Life is about is about having our humanity participate with the life of God. God ‘tabernacling’ with us; God and man in vital union- the life of God inspiring and motivating man. It was the point all along! ~ Jesus refuses to allow us to think that life is about philosophies and ideas. In Jesus, God loses something of his abstractness. He is God among us- speaking, acting, healing, helping (“God saves” is what his name means). “God saves” is not to be understood as some ‘ethereal experience’, disconnected from real life. ● It is precisely why we have record of God entering time and space- born in a specific town (Bethlehem), raised in an identifiable community (Nazareth), worshipping in synagogues and eating with friends; dying in a recognizable locale (Golgatha). ~ He is God and the God-life made accessible to us. Jesus allows us to ‘stop waiting for something else’; he attempts to prevent us from wasting our lives in pursuit of that which leaves us still hungry and parched. Jesus actually attaches significance to who we are and where we are; that our humanness is not something to be eliminated or avoided, but appreciated/valued. Jesus is God with us as we welcome strangers, lending comfort to people in mourning, moving compassionately toward the poor, noticing children and lily fields. ● It’s hard to notice sometimes, but God’s saving work is happening around us every day- at our school, in the café, around the dinner table; in remote villages and in the metropolis. It’s why it was so hard to believe that Jesus was God- he appeared too ordinary. “Emmanuel”- God with us: means God is much closer and more involved than we could imagine.
Our response? Repent and believe (rethink and
reorder). |
