He Came
Nov 29, 2009
As we begin the advent of Christmas, the greatest news of all is that He came. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the Living God came into our world. More and more, it seems to me, we in the Western world are forgetting this basic truth of Christmas as this great news is morphed into “the holidays.”
While the reality that Jesus came is the bottom line, the question arises “but where did Jesus come from?” For the most part we in our culture live in the present, but for the ancient Jew this question is paramount in their culture. One’s lineage and ancestry was of utmost importance. Where did Jesus come from?
It is in Matthew’s gospel that we discover from whence Jesus came. These verses are known as the ‘begats’ of Jesus. Since the Bible is inspirational, didn’t this reading of the gospel just bless your socks off? Didn’t this passage send goose bumps and warm fuzzies dancing all over your body? Didn’t it lift you to the highest high you have ever had?
This portion of God’s Word is anything but inspiring. There is nothing about these words that are challenging or uplifting. Actually, they are quite boring so how did God allow a bunch of boring names to get into the Bible? What is even more amazing is that Matthew begins his gospel of Jesus’ life not with an amazing miracle of healing or power over nature, nor with a profound statement of amazing truth. Rather he begins with a long, boring list of names. Could you imagine J K Rowling or John Gresham beginning their books with a long list of boring and hard-to-pronounce names? Or about the opening scene from CSI or 24?
For us this beginning is boring, but for the 1st century Jew a person’s ancestry, the family tree, was extremely important. Matthew was writing to the first century Jewish community and his purpose was to show how all the Old Testament prophecies had been fulfilled in Jesus; and how then Jesus was the long-awaited and promised Messiah, the Son of God. Matthew begins by showing that Jesus was a direct descendant of the great King David himself and in fact went all the way back to Abraham!
I. The irony is that even in a list of boring and uninspiring names, there are some important truths for us in 2009. First of all, we need to realize that these are very real people who lived and walked on this earth. These are no mythical characters in some made up story or fairy tale. These are people like you and me who struggled to raise their children, provide for the family, got sick, celebrated at family gatherings, and endeavored to live out their faith in the living God in the midst of secular paganism all around them. These were real people who lived and died in real time and space.
II. The second thing we notice is that these names are arranged in groups of 14 generations each. The first 14 represent the history of Israel to King David, the king who put Israel on the map. The second group is those names following the national collapse into moral decay up to the time of the Babylonian captivity and the days of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This group symbolizes the national shame, tragedy and disaster of Israel. The third group is the reformers and the rebuilders of the nation of Israel who bring us to Jesus.
The story of the ancient Jews is the spiritual story of all mankind. The first set of names reminds us that we were created for greatness, for prosperity and blessing, and for fellowship with God. The second grouping of names reminds us of how we have sinned and forsaken God and fallen short of God’s glory. G. K Chesterton once remarked, “Whatever else is true of man, man is not what he was meant to be.” The reality is that we have used our free will to disobey God rather than to be in fellowship with Him. The 3rd grouping of names symbolizes the hope we have in a God who loves us and desires to restore, rebuild, and renew us because even while we were sinners, God did not abandon us nor destroy us; rather God sent His Son, Jesus, that He might save and liberate people from their sins and restore us to the greatness of His original purpose. So here in this list of boring names is the human drama of the ages—from greatness to downfall to redemption.
III. In these names we also see that Jesus is the realization of people’s hopes and dreams. Beginning here with Matthew the New Testament stresses again and again how Jesus is a direct descendant of King David. In Acts Peter goes to great length to show that Jesus is in the family tree of David. Paul speaks of the Davidic ancestry of Jesus. In Revelation, John hears the risen Christ say, “I am the root and the offspring of David.” The whole of the gospel account refers to Jesus as the Son of David.
IV. The account of the Old Testament is that the Jews were a waiting people as they looked for the coming Messiah. Through it all they never forgot that they were a chosen people of God. As we trace their history we see that theirs was a history of holiness and sin; yet their never forgot their vision and dream that “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” It was their hope that a Savior would come, the very Son of God Himself. That dream became reality in one Jesus of Nazareth. He is not only the reason for the season; He is the answer for all our hopes and dreams. Jesus is the fulfillment of the deep longing of our souls. The irony is that we don’t often see Jesus as the answer. We look for our answers in education, in wealth, in power and/or prestige, in popularity, or in success and achievement. We realize the American dream only to discover that it is empty and unfulfilling. Big houses, expensive cars, layers of gold, Super Bowls and World Series are all really false gods that leave us empty, frustrated and confused. Matthew and Christmas declare to us that it is Jesus who is the answer to our dreams.
There is another aspect of truth that we overlook in this genealogy of names that seems so worthless and boring, and that is the characters who are included in this listing. These are the “who’s who” of Jesus’ bloodline. There’s even some scandal in Jesus’ ancestry. There is Rahab, a prostitute of Jericho. Ruth wasn’t even a Jew, but a Moabite, a hated people group. Tamar was an adulteress. Bathsheba was seduced by David and gave birth to his son.
Even if we made ourselves read this list of names, there is something about this list that would go right over our heads. Here it is: it is unheard of to include women in Jewish bloodline and here in the very opening verses of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life, he lifts the role that women played in God’s redemptive plan.
The influence of Christianity down through the centuries has so liberated us that we have forgotten what the world was like before Jesus came! Women of the Ancient Near East had no legal right and were regarded as possessions. This is similar to the plight of women in Islamic countries even today. While Christianity is blamed for suppressing women, the irony is that it is because of Jesus that women have been lifted out of subjugation to their rightful place in God’s created order. It is Jesus who lifts women to the place of respect and honor.
While it is true that the Hebrews held women in an inferior position, they also had an extremely high regard for truth. The Jews were brutally honest and would not bend nor color the truth to suit their own whims or preconceived opinions. That is why Matthew, a Jew, reports that Jesus’ ancestry included Rahab, who was a prostitute. That is why in the Bible we read that Moses was a murder and that King David was both a murderer and an adulterer. That is also why Moses responded to God and said, “Yes, God, I will go.” And God used Moses to lead His people to the Promised Land. When David repented of his dreadful sins, God restored him. When Rahab, the prostitute, believed Joshua and Caleb, God spared her life.
It is marvelous how God can use the greatest sinners for His glory when they give their hearts and lives to Him. In the lineage and family tree of Jesus we see saint and sinner, great and small, make and female, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, noble and common.
The glory and the good news of Christmas is that God uses sinners and transforms them into saints. Jesus declared, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” And that call includes each and everyone of us because the Bible declares, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
The prophecy has been fulfilled. The long-awaited dream has come true. In this boring and uninspiring list of Jesus’ family tree lay the evidence of the width and the depth of God’s love and redeeming power.
Two little words, “He came.” This powerful truth has exploded Jesus’ presence into our world and into our lives. Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Don’t miss His coming into your heart and life because your life, both now and for all eternity, depends upon His coming and your personal Savior and Lord.