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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
For various reasons, you and I may be interested, to different degrees, in our own family genealogies. Especially if we regard our own family genealogies to be of no particular importance, we may misplace genealogical records and forget the stories that go with them. Today’s Gospel Reading, with its announcement of Jesus’s birth to Joseph, is an important “story” closely linked with the “genealogical record” of Jesus Christ that comes immediately before the Reading in St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account. Whatever our regard for our own immediate family genealogies, we want to regard Jesus Christ’s “genealogical record” and this “story” appropriately, for through them God helps us realize that “Jesus is God with us to save us”.
That preceding “genealogical record” of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1) is unique in a number of ways, for example, it mentions three women. When the “genealogical record” mentions Salmon as the father of Boaz it specifies by Rahab, and when mentions Boaz as the father of Obed it specifies by Ruth (Matthew 1:5). However, when the “genealogical record” gets to Joseph, it calls him not the father of Jesus but the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born (Matthew 1:16), and that arguably begs the further explanation we heard this morning. The Gospel Reading’s “story” does not tell the “birth” of Jesus Christ as much as it tells His “generation” or “origin”: it emphasizes Jesus’s descent in David’s line (legally, if not physically); it emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s role in Jesus’s conception, and it emphasizes Jesus’s being God with us to save us from our sins.
The “genealogical record” three times mentions the people of Israel’s “deportation” (or “exile” to Babylon (Matthew 1:11, 12, 17), which came on account of the people of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Any number of the “sons of David” whom the “genealogical record” lists themselves may have been more unfaithful to God than faithful. However, in the Gospel Reading, Joseph, whom the angel addresses as a “son of David”, is said to be a “just” (or “righteous”) man. We know from elsewhere in Holy Scripture that such “righteousness” that Joseph shared with his forefather Abraham came by faith, for Abraham believed God and that faith was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3, 9, 22; Galatians 3:6; and James 2:23). Joseph was no more “just” or “righteous” by nature or by his deeds than any of the people who preceded or followed him, including us! Apart from faith in God’s Savior from sin, everyone—from Adam and Eve, through and including Abraham, David, Joseph, and Mary, down to us, everyone—deserves nothing but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity.
Even as someone saved by grace through faith, Joseph did not want publicly to expose Mary, by keeping the law that called for his betrothed to be put to death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:23-24); instead, Joseph resolved quietly to divorce Mary, something God’s law did not call His faithful followers to do. Even as those saved by grace through faith, you and I also continue to not keep God’s law, all the things it commands us to do, and all the things it forbids us to do, including those things related to the Sixth Commandment. Thank God that as a result God continues to call and so enable us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sins related to marriage and divorce, our sins of failing to live sexually pure and decent lives in what we say and do, or whatever our sin might be. God forgives all our sin for the sake of Jesus, Who is God with us to save us from our sins.
You and I may go by any number of names, and the same thing is true of Jesus. In the Gospel Reading, the Virgin Mary’s Son was called both “Jesus” and “Immanuel”, and, in the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 357), He was called “Immanuel” and six other names all drawn from the Bible. The English name “Immanuel” is carried over from the Hebrew word meaning “God with us”, and, as it originated in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 7:10-17), the name “Immanuel” was understood to designate One who had a miraculous conception and birth and was God Himself present with His people. As if the reason for God’s so being Personally present with His people was not clear enough from the Old Testament, the angel told Joseph as Jesus’s guardian to name the Virgin Mary’s Son “Jesus”, for He would save His people from their sins. (The English name “Jesus” comes from the Greek form of the same Hebrew name behind “Joshua”, both of which mean “the Lord saves”.) By dying on the cross, Jesus saves not only His people of the Jews, but He also saves all people from their sins—that we Gentiles are included in God’s plan of salvation is clear from elsewhere in St. Matthew’s account (2:1-12; 8:10; 15:21-28; 28:19-20), not to mention that, as we believe, we are true children of Abraham (Romans 4:12). All who repent and believe receive salvation from their sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, His death on the cross for us. All of the things the Gospel Reading reports took place not only to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, but they also took place for us and for our salvation.
We would never know what the Lord has done and is doing for us, apart from His revealing it to us. The Lord spoke to the people of the Old Testament by the prophet Isaiah. The Lord spoke to Joseph through an angel. The Lord called St. Paul, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 1:1-7), to be an apostle, setting him apart for the Gospel of God, about His Son, descended from David according to the flesh and also the Son of God. The Lord likewise calls pastors today to speak of His grace and peace to all He loves and calls to be His saints.
The Holy Trinity not only worked to save us as we heard in the Gospel Reading, but the Holy Trinity is also working to save us now, through God’s ministry of Word and Sacraments. God the Father announced to Joseph that the Virgin Mary would bear God the Son by God the Holy Spirit for our salvation (Beckwith, CLD III:226). We are made disciples and saved as we are baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and taught to observe all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20), including individual Holy Absolution in that same Triune Name (Matthew 16:19; 18:18-20) and eating bread that is Christ’s Body and drinking wine that is Christ’s Blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of the Altar. In all these ways the Lord answers our prayer in the Collect to stir up His power and come and help us by His might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by His grace and mercy. In all these ways Jesus, God with us, is present with us, always, to the end of the age, in order to save us from our sins. When we so abide in God the Son, we know the God Father and delight in the freedom of God the Spirit to love and serve our neighbors (Beckwith, CLD III:227). Like Joseph, in the Gospel Reading, we hear God’s Word and in faith obey it, living in the forgiveness of sins when we fail.
The holy‑days are said to be great times for sharing family “stories”, including those that go along with the “genealogical records”. Family photos, letters and other documents, Bibles and scrapbooks can be treasure troves for those who regard their own immediate family genealogies to be of particular importance. This morning, by way of Jesus’s “genealogical record” and a “story” that goes with it, both of which are of particular importance to all of us, we have realized our sinfulness and, more importantly, that “Jesus is God with us to save us”. God grant that we always receive Him and His salvation in His Word and Sacraments unto life everlasting.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +