Christmas at Matthew’s
December 8, 2024
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15, 19-23
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly. As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:18-20
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Overall, Matthew draws heavily on Mark’s account of Jesus life, death and resurrection, but as we saw last week, Mark doesn’t give Matthew much to work with when it comes to Jesus’ birth. We don’t know Matthew’s source material for the first few chapters, but we do know that he is very intentional about the way he frames the story. Matthew relies heavily on the hope of Israel’s prophets and he even begins his story with a genealogy tracing Jesus’ family lineage through Abraham and David.
Christmas at Matthew’s house is a great big family reunion, but when we look closely at the genealogy, we find that he even invites a few of the “black sheep” that some would rather not see at the reunion. Outsiders ranging from Rahab to the Magi get a seat and Matthew’s table, but it is clearly still Israel’s table.
At the end of the day it is Joseph, son of David, who is addressed first by the angel. Joseph must fully embrace Jesus as his own son, to adopt him as a legal part of David’s household, despite the questionable circumstances around his conception.
I can only imagine how Joseph must have felt being addressed as a “son of David.” As an ordinary craftsman, his “royal” lineage did not carry much weight. King Herod was on the throne and he was little more than a puppet of the Roman Empire. There was no “son of David” waiting in the wings to save Israel from their oppressors this time. The idea that Joseph would be in line for the throne must have seemed as laughable to him as the idea of having a child in her extremely old age seemed to Sarah.
But this is precisely Matthew’s point. He builds on Mark’s emphasis that this Jesus is indeed the son of God and will usher in God’s kingdom, but Matthew also knows that for his people, none of Jesus’ signs or wonders will mean much without some serious credentials in the Messianic bloodline.
While Christmas for Mark is all about Jesus’ messianic activity through his life, death and resurrection, Matthew’s Christmas is all about family. Who is Jesus’ family? Where does he come from? Can he truly be the one we have waited for? From the genealogy to the announcement to Joseph and even to the foreign astrologers who see the sign of a new king in Israel, everything about Matthew’s Christmas story points to this simple truth, that Jesus is indeed the heir to David’s throne.
The Jewish people have gotten a bad wrap in history and even in the gospels as they are often made scapegoats for Jesus’ death. Matthew reminds us, however, that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel. Gentile Christians are not a replacement for the Jews. Instead we see God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled, that through him and the nation of Israel, all nations would feast together on God’s Holy Mountain and God, Emmanuel, would come and dine with us.
Listen to the full sermon here