Matthew 1:1-19.
Part one of a series History Mystery Majesty (not my invention for the series)
History
Mention history to most people and immediately what comes to mind is a list of dates. Dates of battles, kings, presidents, and events. Or, what comes to my mind, is a kind of fuzzy impression that there are dates of battles, kings, presidents, and battles, which I ought to know, but I simply can’t connect them all together
But more and more, nowadays when you mention history, people respond with a story of their search for their family tree. There are websites and companies all over the place, it seems, that can give you new tools and ways of searching for your lost brothers, and your sisters and your cousins and your aunts. There is an absolute need for us to know where we come from. What is our place in the family? What is our place in history? It might be fun to be related to someone famous, but we have a need to know who we are and where we are in our history of our family in our world. And so it is no surprise that in the gospels of Matthew and Luke we find a list of the people in Jesus family tree. We often talk of Jesus as one of us; a man. But what might surprise us, is that we really do need to know Jesus family tree. It confirms that Jesus was a real person. He had a family history. He has a place and a time on earth. When we visit a new place, the first questions we get asked are the kind of questions that place us in the history of the people we meet. We need to know that the people we meet are one of us. We are known by our family history. It is the starting point of our personal history. And so it was for Jesus. So first of all let’s imagine we are meeting Jesus for the first time and getting to know him. We get to know some of his family history. What can we know about Jesus? How can we place him in history?
It could take a long time to go into the list in detail, but we can quickly pick out highlights of what we might expect of the man Jesus. Three times in the genealogy we find that Jesus is the son of, or descended from, Abraham and David. Abraham was the father, the patriarch of the Jewish race. Abraham is the one who travelled first of all the Hebrews to the land promised by God as an inheritance. And the inheritance was to be for all of Abraham’s seed; to all of his family tree to come. He was the original priest. He rescued his nephew Lot when he was kidnapped. He was the one who saved Lot and most of his family from destruction of judgement.
David is the archetypal king of the Jews. When a Jew thinks of an ideal king, they think of David; David who had the courage to stand up to the power of Goliath; David the shepherd of sheep and of God’s people; David who would stand up to the evil in his day.
Some of the lesser known ancestors help to make Jesus ancestry more clear; Amminadab is the father of Aarons wife; a priestly connection. Nahshon was a leader of the tribe of Judah in the Exodus wandering in the desert; a kingly leadership connection. Zerubbabel plated a prophetic role in Israel’s history during troubled times. Jehoshaphat was a king who was one of two kings of faith in a line of kings that brought darkness to Israel. He was a bringer of light. Jesus, when he came into history, had a history. He had ancestors and a name to live up to. And if we were to put these ancestors into some kind of job description for Jesus we would say that he had all the ancestral advantages to be prophet and priest and king. Fanny Crosby so wonderfully used these offices of Jesus in her song Praise Him. Song 184 in our songbook, if you want to look it up later. We all have history. We have parents and grandparents who have lived lives with character. And we come from a line of ancestors ourselves with expectations. I was somewhat fortunate as the older child because when I went to my school, I was the first in line. My poor sister had to endure the comparisons with me. Captain Maureen was second in line and had to endure the same. I wonder if our teachers had known our ancestors, perhaps there would be a different reaction. We know that when we get together as Salvationists we seek to know who we are related to. It matters because when we know that, we may get an inkling of the character of the person we are meeting. Our ancestry gives us a certain preparation for the roles we will play in life. And so we can expect certain behaviours perhaps. As Christians we have become born again into a new life. We have a new set of ancestors. Paul describes this as a cloud of witnesses that surround us and encourage us to press on towards the goal. Our ancestry creates a new expectation of behaviour. There are certain things that are expected of Christians. Sometimes these are real expectations and sometimes not. On the one hand people expect us to be helping others all the time, any time. On the other hand we are also supposed to be reading our bibles and praying most of the time. There was a time when it was expected that a Christian would not go to see a film. In fact one of our generals went to see a film and walked out under conviction that it was definitely not right. But now we are expected to know the culture and engage with it. WE are expected to be soft hearted, but hard enough to take the abuse without reaction. When people hear the word Christian they often get the wrong idea, mostly because they haven’t read the bible. We are not alone in this expectation of behaviour. Mention the word Moslem and most people in the western world think of suicide bombers and terrorism. At the end of the list of Jesus ancestors we come to his name and attached to that name is the title the Christ. And if you are a Jew there are certain expectations that come with that title. The Christ is the messiah who will rescue his people. In Israel’s history the rescuer has nearly always been one who conquers and defends. But like most of us, the Jews had overlooked the other prophetic scriptures that described the coming Messiah in different ways; as a shepherd. (Ezekiel 37:4); as the offspring of a virgin womb (Isaiah 7:14). "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him." (Deuteronomy 18:15). And on that day the deaf shall hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. (Isaiah 29:18). He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7) Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12) He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah 53:3)
In fact Jesus told his disciples not to reveal that he was the Christ
Mark 8:29, 30 say this
But what about you, says Jesus, Who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Christ. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Why? Because there were unfounded, unrealistic expectations of anyone who called themselves the Christ. But while there were these unrealistic expectations about Jesus and there are unrealistic expectations about our behaviour as Christians, God has some real expectations. We are to worship in spirit and in peace. We are to develop the fruit of the spirit. Love joy peace, patience goodness kindness. Faithfulness gentleness self control. And lest we think that these are unrealistic in our real world, James tells us this
Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. I had a friend who loved exams. I couldn’t work it out. Every test, every exam, he was first in line, eager and ready to go. He told me that he saw each test as a challenge that he could beat. He was testing himself against anything the examiners could throw at him. I thought he was mad, but he had the right attitude. He, of all the people I know knew what education was about and got about educating himself. It is in the heat we are tested. And there are always re-sits in the spiritual life! It’s expected.
And now before we get carried away with unreal expectations of our own behaviours, and the possibilities of what our ancestry has prepared us for, we must read the final verses in our scripture today.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child, through the Holy Spirit.
After an astounding ancestry, which has prepared us to expect an exemplar of perfect behaviour, we come to earth with a bump. This is real life. An unmarried mother, with a fiancée who is not the father of the child she is carrying. It is pain. It is shame. It is life. And there are potential consequences according to the rules of the culture. And we know how it works out. But think once again, about what Mary and Joseph were facing as the consequences of their culture. Joseph was trapped because he knew he was not the father and there was only one way a baby could be made. Mary was trapped in a shame she had no control over and could only reasonably expect to lose the only hope of protection and survival in a cruel world that was her husband to be Joseph; and the baby. The baby, the cruel irony of the ultimate power in the universe was placed in a position of least power; an unborn baby in the womb of a woman who, according to the culture, could suffer the consequences; death or worse, a life of shame and abuse. That is the world we face too. It is a cruel world. You know it. I know it. WE are faced with the consequences of our culture this very day. Another 500 council jobs are going. Services are cut. People are suffering. Our society, right here, is under tension. That’s real life. But Jesus came from history, with a history, and stepped into our history. And he brought hope and a way out. He came in our history as a baby. And baby softens the hardest of hearts. A baby brings hope into history. And Jesus brings the ultimate hope into your history and into your present. It is the promise God gives to us in this season which brings light into the darkest places.
