“DIVINE INTERVENTION”
So what do you think...of Matthew's Christmas story? Some of you may be wondering, where's the beef? You know, where's the cattle lowing..., the shepherds watch keeping – there's not even an innkeeper declaring..., 'There's no room in the inn!' (Actually he never says that in Luke either!)
And what about Herald the Angel's singing debut - you know, Hark, Herald the angel sings?
Actually, that's a carol, I don't remember her name. Still, Matthew's Christmas story, in comparison with Luke's version made famous by Linus, is more like the Reader's Digest version, don't you think?
Does anybody remember Reader's Digest? The stories, articles and jokes were so short in that little magazine that the expression Reader's Digest now refers to anything that is short and concise. Only Reader's Digest could share a joke in four words or less. One features a man standing before Peter at the pearly gates, who has laptop in front of him: “Username and password, please.”
Or another shows the statue of liberty lady, torch by her side, telling her doctor: 'My arm hurts.' That's a three word joke. That's Reader's Digest humor for you. Matthew's bit here is like that – it's the Reader's Digest Christmas story. Unlike Luke, who spends a long chapter setting the stage before his famous nativity account, Matthew begins with Jesus' genealogy and then moves directly into the narrative with his transitional verse: “This is how Jesus the Messiah was born.” (Matthew 1:18)
Keeping in mind that Matthew is clearly written to a Jewish-Christian community, the mention of 'the Messiah'would have immediately brought to mind images of promise and hope – of prophetic passages from the Old Testament that had come to be understood pointing to a time in the future in which God's holy and heavenly rule would break through here on earth – and across the earth.
Among those messianic prophecies is this one: “O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Tell the towns of Judah, 'Your God is coming!' Yes, the Lord is coming in power, He will rule with a powerful arm. He will feed his flock like a shepherd.” (Isaiah 40:9-11)
There was a long-held hope that a day would come in which God would step in and rule his people personally. It's been called a messianic hope because this hope rests on an individual, specially “anointed” by God, to lead God's people back home....to God, like a good shepherd...
So Matthew's first nugget is that something better is coming, infinitely better, and this hope for the future of all mankind rests in the promise that God has and will directly intervene!
Matthew points to this in how he relays the circumstances of Jesus' birth, and he does so in a number of ways. First, there's Mary's supernatural pregnancy. Not only are we told that the pregnancy is the result of the Holy Spirit but that Mary is a virgin at the time she becomes pregnant. As Matthew puts it, “While (Mary) was still a virgin, she became pregant through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18)
To underscore the significance of that statement the angel who visits Joseph in a dream, tells him, “Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20) Don’t be afraid, God has intervened, as he surely will again.
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The fact that Joseph has a visit from an angel affirms yet again, God's willingness and history of interacting and intervening. Joseph was considering divorcing Mary quietly at that point, so God intervenes. God wants him not only to marry the pregnant virgin but to raise her son as his own.
Today, when we think of an intervention we think of the drastic steps necessary some times to get a family member or friend in for treatment. I was part of such an intervention during my years in Kansas City. A new member of the church had relapsed into alcoholism and his best friend asked me to help with what he called an intervention. We drove our friend into the clinic under auspicious premise of going out to eat. He wasn't happy about it initially but it led to his getting clean and sober. The last I heard he was considering the ministry, and was running Alpha in his community.
Some times we are in need of divine intervention even though we don't realize it at the time. For the backsliding believer, or the grieving widow, or the struggling addict, some times we need God to step in and intervene because left to our own devices, as we saw last week, we'll self-destruct.
Matthew points to further divine intervention in his quoting O.T. Prophecy: 'Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.' The prophecy is more complex than it appears. It was originally given by Isaiah to King Ahaz as proof of God's faith-fulness in contrast to the king's cowardly faithlessness. Matthew's quoting it reveals that God's making use of an ancient promise to bring about a surprising new fulfillment. It points ahead to God's cosmic plan to intervene in human history in order to pull off the ultimate rescue mission – the rescue of every soul so willing, and it's been foretold by multiple voices, multiple times, for hundreds of years.
(Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23)
God's divine intervention is evident even in the naming of this child, this promised messiah: “'Joseph, son of David,' the angel said, 'do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. She's to have a son, and you are to name him Jesus.'”
(Matthew 1:20-21)
It was the father's job to name the children, particularly his sons. In providing the name the angel is doing two things. First, he's commissioning Joseph to raise the boy as his own. He's to publicly name him as if he is his own. Second, the name is provided from above. The real father has asserted his paternal birthright. Father God claims Jesus as his own by intervening in the naming of the baby boy.
That takes us to the second nugget of Matthew's nativity narrative: There is power and hope in the three distinct and highly significant names provided here in Matthew 1.
The first name given is found in both the gospel's opening verse and in our transitional verse: “This is how Jesus the Messiah was born.” And the gospel's opening verse: “This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:18, 1)
The word, messiah, is Hebrew for 'the annointed one'. In Greek its translated, 'Christ'. That's not Jesus' last name but a title signifying the long awaited chosen one. Kings were anointed. Priests and prophets were anointed. It signified that they're hand-picked by God and embodied God's promises.
That's significant because the messianic prophecies point to a person through whom God would redeem our broken world! As a descendant of David the messiah would rule as king over God's people. He would rule not only over the Jews but over the Gentiles. His kingdom would know no boundaries – neither of time nor space. What's more, his reign would bring healing and peace among the nations.
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And this same messiah would achieve what Scripture reveals is the great yearning of God – the reconciliation between creator and creature, between God and the human race, between Father God and his reckless, rebellious, willful children. As Matthew writes about Jesus' family tree and now the birth of Jesus the Messiah, he's saying this Jesus is the one that God has been pointing to and paving the way for down through the centuries. He boldly claims Jesus is the messiah before telling his story.
Second, he's saying this promised messiah is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, and that this child comes with a divine, cosmic sense of purpose. As the angel makes clear: “You are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
That's pretty clear. That's helpful because his purpose gets a little diluted these days. Many today hold that Jesus mostly came to teach us about God's love and the golden rule. In a scene in one film the hero of the story explains that he forgot to live by what he's learned from reading the Bible.
“What's that?” he's asked. “Just to do for others more than you do for yourself.” That's the golden rule. Jesus certainly conveyed that but Matthew makes clear that God had a far more profound and vital purpose in sending him, and his very name reflects that as the word, Jesus, means “he saves”.
Note again that this child was named from above. You are to name him Jesus. It's already been decided. The name has been chosen so his purpose will be clear. He came to save us from ourselves...
The third name mentioned is the one found in Isaiah's ancient prophecy, dating over 400 years before the birth of Christ: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us'.” (Matthew 1:23/Isaiah 7:14)
Whereas the name, 'messiah', pointed to the child as a child of promise, and the name, Jesus, revealed his sense of purpose, the name, Immanuel, points to the child's person, or identity. While the word, messiah, is a royal name, suggestive of his Davidic lineage, the word, Immanuel, is a priestly word, one that conjurs up images of one who stands in the presence of God as a go-between.
As Matthew points out in his quoting the prophet, the word Immanuel, literally means, God is with us. That is, when you're in the presence of this 'Immanuel', this child conceived by a virgin by way of the Holy Spirit, you are in the very presence of God Almighty Himself, for in him and through him, in some mysteriously wonderful way, God is with us!
When I was in college I had a friend and a brother-in-law who were truckers. They loved their CB's – ham radios. First thing they'd ask was: “What's your handle, good buddy?” Their handle was the name in which others could connect and communicate and by which a person is known.
In Matthew 1, we are given God's handle – Jesus, the Messiah, Immanuel! In him we come to know the promise, purpose and person of God. In him we are given a handle on how we can grasp the eternal by being saved from the carnal as we seek Jesus' presence, Immanuel, God with us!
So it is that God has orchestrated a cosmic intervention & given us his handle so we can access it! God may be unseen but he wants to be discovered! He wants you to experience his presence!
May you this Christmas season find yourself getting a better handle on the person, purpose and promises of God in your life, as he enters in and makes himself at home as Immanuel – God is w/you!