Reflection: "He Comes....for Good"Each of the Gospel writers begins the story of the birth of Jesus in a slightly different way, and Matthew does it with this remarkable story about the birth of the baby and the message that comes in a dream to Joseph, from the lips of an angel.
If you want to read the earlier verses of Matthew 1, you’ll find a long genealogy of 17 begats about father to son, son to son to son, all the way back to Father Abraham. The genealogy goes up till Joseph, except that Matthew plays a trick on us, because he traces this royal pedigree to show that Jesus is descended from King David, but then, at the very last minute, he tells us that Joseph isn’t really the father of this new baby, the special one we celebrate at Christmas. There are also some important things to notice about this narrative at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. The first thing to notice is that the whole message to Joseph happens at night - when he was relaxed, with his guard down. We’re told that the angel comes and says to him, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." That’s a mouthful of a message for a poor, simple, young carpenter to take in from an angel, a messenger of God. It was a message given from outside, not in human terms, not in earthly terms and definitely not according to Joseph's normal assumptions. The first thing to notice, as we move in these last days to Christmas is that the expectation of Jesus, according to Matthew, is outside all of our normal understanding. Our business is not to try to explain this text, rather to be dazzled at Christmastime and realise that something is happening beyond all of our reckonings. This is a baby, and a wonder, and a gift that is designed to move us beyond all our understanding. The second thing to notice is that the baby has no earthly father; and in Joseph’s family, like in every family in those times, it was a scandal when a baby had no father. So, Joseph was potentially going to be embroiled in a scandal, but that’s not the point. He could have just walked away from the problem. The most important thing is that he believed that the baby was being given to him and Mary as a gift from God. Now we may set aside all of the silly speculation that’s gone on about the biological inconsistencies of a virgin conceiving and notice rather that this event comes about because God's Spirit stirs among us. The Bible is largely a reflection on how God's Spirit makes things new. - It’s God's Spirit in Genesis 1 that creates a new world, a new heaven and a new earth. - It’s God's Spirit, God's wind that blows the waters back in Egypt and lets our ancestors depart from slavery. - It’s God's Spirit that calls prophets and apostles and martyrs to do dangerous acts of obedience. - It’s God's Spirit that came upon the disciples in the Book of Acts and created a community of obedience and mission. - And now, it’s God's Spirit that begins something new when the world is exhausted, when our imagination fails and when our lives are shut down in despair. And that’s what Matthew’s telling us, that God's Spirit has stirred and caused something utterly new in the world. God has caused this new baby who will change everything among us. The third thing to notice is that the angel gives Joseph two names for the baby. Names are very important in that ancient world. First, the angel says, "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people." The Hebrew name Yeshua, which we translate as Jesus, is the verb “to save, or deliver, or rescue”. Imagine that, at Christmas, we have a baby named Save. Many babies in the Old Testament are named Save. It’s the same word that gives us the names Joshua, Isaiah, and Hosea. Each of them saved Israel, and now Jesus will save us all. - Jesus will save us from sin and guilt - Jesus will save us from death and destruction - Jesus will save us from despair and hopelessness and - Jesus will save us from poverty and sickness and hunger. And in all of the stories of Jesus that the church remembers, it is Jesus who saves. The season of the church that we’re now celebrating, Advent, is a time of being ready for the saving one who will come when we can’t save ourselves. The second name that the angel gives for the baby is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”. It’s the faith of the church that, in Jesus, God is decisively present in the world – and that fact made everything new. And in the New Testament we have evidence that wherever Jesus came, he showed up where people were in need - and he saved them – the lepers, the deaf, the blind, the lame, the hungry, the unclean, even the dead. His very presence makes new life possible, and the church consists of all the people who have been dazzled by the reality of a God who has come to be with us in this season of need and of joy. All through this miraculous baby. So Matthew prepares us right at the edge of Christmas. He gives us an angel's message in a dream - one that is beyond human expectations. He tells us that it’s God's Spirit who makes all things new through this baby, and the baby is named twice. The baby is named “Save”, and “God with us”. Jesus saves from all that separates us from our God and we’re all assured that we are not alone. Did you notice that this story doesn’t ask us to do anything. But I actually believe that it invites us to be dazzled. It invites us to ponder that, while our world feels un-saveable, here is the baby named Save. Our world and our lives often feel abandoned, and here is the baby named God with Us. So we’ve got to be ready to have our lives and our world turned upside down by this gift from God. We can rest our lives upon the new promise from the angel and we can be safe and we can be whole because of Christmas, and all that it means to us, and it’s coming soon. After all, that message is good news, isn’t it? And what Jesus did in the time that he was on earth was good, too. We know that Jesus is with us forever – “for good” - we sometimes say. And that’s why I’ve entitled this message “He comes….for good”. So let’s pray – for good. Coming Son of God, blowing Spirit of God, hovering Father God, we’re very sure in these hope-filled days that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything at all in creation, can separate us from you and from your love for us. For this we are grateful and we see that it is good. At this time of year, we give you thanks for your special gift to us. In the saving name of Jesus, we pray. Amen Blessings of the season be upon you………….Pastor Rick
1 Comment
Lena Beryl Blok
16/12/2022 05:21:28 pm
Thank you Rick. for your challenging message, leading into Christmas.
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