In my previous church we
had a spell of having concerts by some pretty big names in Canadian
folk and traditional music. We were fortunate enough to have one
among us who had “connections”. As the minister I found myself
in the (for lack of a better word) awkward situation of having to
introduce these artists and groups like Tanglefoot, The Brian Pickell
Band, Pierre Schreier, Garnet Rogers, and a few others. I never knew
quite what to say and for the most part the artists themselves didn't
care. Yet, as the one doing the introduction I needed to make it
sound like I knew a little something about them and liked their
stuff. As the host for the evening I had to praise the artists and
commend them to the audience. Failure to do so would have offended
artist and audience alike.
Well, looking at the
Gospel of Matthew and how he introduced Jesus the Jewish Messiah and
Lord and Saviour of all creation I have to say that I'm left
scratching my head because it seems he means to offend. He begins
with Jesus' genealogical pedigree and simply says, “A record of the
lineage of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” In the
genealogy Matthew mentions four relationships: Judah and Tamar, Boaz
and Ruth, David and Bathsheba otherwise known as the wife of Uriah,
and then Joseph and Mary. If you know the Old Testament, Matthew is
quite obviously saying that Jesus' particular link to David and to
Abraham is morally tainted and not upright according to the Law.
Jesus was born into a whole lineage of sin and more over, a lineage
into which he had to be adopted.
Moving on from the
begets, Matthew is the only gospelist to portray Joseph's dilemma at
having to deal with the fact that his bride-to-be had suddenly become
pregnant with a child that was not his own. While pondering what to
do, he had a dream in which a messenger of the Lord tells him that
this child would save his people from their sins and that he was
conceived by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, there's that prophecy in
Isaiah about a virgin conceiving and let's not fail to notice that
this baby is God with us. Should Joseph believe this crazy dream and
be gracious to Mary? Or, should he do what the religious/moral
authorities of his day would have him do and that would be to break
off the engagement? This would have grave consequences for Mary.
And so Matthew begins his
Gospel with a troubling if not offensive introduction. If we are
thinking people which I assume we are we will want to ask why. Why
does Matthew introduce Jesus with scandal rather than by praising
Jesus and commending him to us all as our Lord and Saviour? Well, it
may be that Matthew wants us at the very outset to catch a glimpse of
the steadfast love and faithfulness of God the Father towards us and
how he chooses to be gracious towards us rather than condemning.
Matthew does this by making us to consider Joseph's dilemma.
Joseph had to adopt Jesus
and love him as his own son for Jesus to be the Messiah of the line
of David. So also, we have no place in this royal lineage as a
kingdom of priests unless we also be born anew, born from above of
the Holy Spirit by whom we are adopted into the communion of God the
Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit bonds us to Jesus so that we
share in Jesus' own relationship with God the Father. Joseph's
steadfast love and faithfulness towards Mary and the child within her
beams brightly of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God for Israel and
the children of the Holy Spirit to be born through her...that's Jesus
and you and me.
I find it quite
staggering that God the Father in and through the presence and
powerful and utterly gracious work of the Holy Spirit loves us as
much as he does Jesus, his own son and is as steadfastly faithful to
us as he is towards Jesus. Even when we are in the midst of
impossible situations, when it seems all hell is breaking loose
around us he is with us and faithfully working for our good making us
to be more and more like Jesus by making us to know who Jesus is in
his very self as the one who gives himself selflessly in all love and
humility for us to heal and deliver us now in the present from the
effects that our sin and the sin of others has on us. As we draw
close to Jesus by service and devotion we find that he removes the
deepest of our character flaws. He frees us from fear and self-pity,
and pride, and our constant striving to be our own god. He truly
saves us from our sins.
It is truly as Paul said,
“For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). For us to
become the righteousness of God means that we become part of God's
steadfastly loving and faithful acting in the world right now to set
right his creation which by our act of sin has become subject to
death. For God to be righteous does not mean that God is morally
superior. Rather, it means that in his love and faithfulness God
acts to save us from our own demise even when we are morally
decadent. We are godless children whom the Triune God of grace has
claimed as his own. The Father according to his love through the
faithfulness of Jesus, the Incarnate Son, by the powerful presence
and working of the Holy Spirit in and with us has adopted us to be
his children. The inheritance that belongs to Jesus the firstborn
Son now also belongs to us. We now, like Jesus, also call God “Abba.
Father.” Matthew's rather troubling introduction of
Jesus the Messiah begs us to consider the nature of God's love for
us. Just as Jesus must be adopted by Joseph in love and faithfulness
to Mary into the morally tainted line of David to be who he is as the
Messiah, so God the Father in Christ Jesus has by his own decision
acted to adopt us each as his own children into the communion of love
that the Trinity is and this is what it is for Jesus to save us
from our sins.
Now to ponder Matthew's
introduction and Joseph's dilemma a bit further we have to note with
an exclamation point how Matthew wants to show us right from the
beginning that the reality of God coming and being with us as one of
us is going to be something that does not meet our expectations and
something difficult to handle especially for those who think they
have mastered morality and religion and indeed who think they have
mastered God. Grace is the element in this story that is so
unexpected, so unpredictable, and so hard to handle. If we were
reading or rather hearing Matthew’s gospel back when he wrote it,
we would expect Joseph to publicly denounce Mary and that the village
would react with such bitter anger towards her sinful ways that they
took her outside the city and stoned her to death. That’s what we
would expect. But instead, grace calls us to take another look at
the situation. God calls us to be gracious towards people in
situations that trouble us for what we suppose to be religious and
moral reasons.
Joseph's dilemma reminds
us that we must be careful how we judge people and their troubling
situations for we never know when we might be passing judgement upon
those through whom God is working or will work. We are called to be
gracious in all situations. Grace
leads people to Jesus. God’s kindness leads us to repentance it
says in Romans 2:4. God shows his kindness to people when we choose
to be gracious towards others. The baby Jesus, God’s means to save
all of humanity, became Messiah as the direct result of Joseph being
faithful to God and gracious to Mary rather than condemning her on a
false pretence of faithfulness. When we let our hearts be moved with
compassion and show grace it lends to salvation, to people
discovering that they have been adopted into the loving communion of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It lends to the presence of God
working visibly and effectively in peoples lives to save. Amen.
