Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Class background

Matthew begins his Gospel with genealogy in order to anchor his story in Israel’s history.

He points to these great moments and figures of the past in order to show us that Jesus is not an afterthought to Judaism, nor is he distinct from what has come before.

Jesus was and is the goal to which Israel’s history pointed forward.

So much is Jesus the focal point of history that his ancestor’s depend on him for their meaning.

Matthew’s Genealogy tells us that the Gospels are real stories about a real Savior who was born of real human flesh who accomplished real salvation in real history.

Yet this genealogy is unique, even shocking, particularly for the role that women play in it.

Now, women would have been unique to include in a genealogy for an ancient patriarchal society.

In fact, historic evidence suggests that so often were women’s names lost to history that when they WERE included in genealogies, their names would be made up.

But if women were to be included, we would’ve expected names like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel.

Instead, Four of these women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba) were Gentiles, three had stories of great immorality and shame, one was a Moabitess who could not “enter the assembly forever” (Deuteronomy 23:3).

As a kind of resume, this genealogy fails to impress by worldly standards.

But by the ethics of God’s Kingdom, this genealogy shows us that God honors and seeks after the weak, shamed, broken, and sinful.

These women are instructive for us in at least two regards: First, no shame, no sin, can keep us from the grace of God.

Second, and this seems to be Matthew’s primary point, Jesus came not just for one particular people, but for all people, even Gentiles, to the ends of the earth.

God’s mission to the Gentiles have been a part of God’s plan from the beginning.

Jesus is not just connected to the history of Israel but also the future of the Gentiles, and his disciples have the responsibility to let everyone know about him.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. .

.. Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar . .

.and

Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth ... David .... the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife.

... Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

... Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.-Matthew

1:1,3,5,6,16,17

Limitations: Mary is a person of great interest both in Scripture as well as the tradition of the church.

Layer upon layer of imagery and extrabiblical tradition has fallen upon the sparse New Testament information about the historical Mary.

While I’m sure some of us may be interested in the history of that tradition, we are limited by time and space this morning to focus only on what the Gospels say, and the brief reflections we can draw from that.

However, I think one note is in order about this history of tradition surrounding Mary.

No doubt the tradition in the Roman Catholic tradition is all-pervasive, where Mary is not only a person of great veneration, but she is regarded as spotless, sinless, and perpetually a virgin.

The Reformed and protestant response to this veneration has been to consider it idolatry.

I do not disagree.

To the extent that she becomes a intercessor for God’s people is to defy Scriptural teaching about Jesus as the one mediator between God and man.

Nevertheless, the Reformed tradition tends to go far in dismissing Mary as an important figure at all.

We go too far and rather than honoring her place in the Redemptive story and as a saint to emulate, we nearly disregard her in our theology or understanding of the life of Jesus the Messiah.

So I hope our time together can strike a better balance than the two extremes we often have to deal with.

So let’s consider a few of the key texts which involve Mary and her place in the redemptive story of Scripture.

Then I’ll give you some space to discuss at your tables before we come back together and conclude our time together.

Key Texts

Little known about Mary prior to this point.

Virgin.

Debate over whether that means simply “young woman” or virgin in the sense we tend to use it today.

Silly debate, as its both.

Scripture records this was to fulfill what was spoken by Isaiah:

Mary now stands as fulfillment of what was promised through Eve long ago:

Mary is singled out for tremendous blessing, as we will see in a moment.

But from the beginning of her story, her being chosen also destines her for social ostracism.

This social trauma was so great that even Joseph considers ending the engagement to Mary.

She likely endured this repudiation all her life, as we’ll see in a few minutes.

It’s worth noting here that Joseph is regarded as a just/righteous man precisely because of his instinct to divorce Mary.

It is not until the angel comes that he decides to do otherwise.

Jewish law demanded that a man charge his wife immediately with infidelity.

Roman law treated a husband who failed to divorce his wife as a panderer exploiting his wife as a prostitute.

Mediterranean society at large viewed with contempt the weakness of a man who let love for his wife outweight appropriate honor in repudiating her.

(Keener, pg 91).

So Joseph is a Christlike figure in that he takes Mary’s shame and reproach upon himself and endures it with, or maybe even in some sense, for her.

He would remain an object of shame in a society dominated by the value of honor.

Joseph’s obedience to God cost him the right to value his own reputation.

Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 94–95.

So Mary (and Joseph) not only become social outcasts, but for a time they also face the hardship of being refugees.

In his jealousy, Herod the Great determines to kill all boys two and under in Bethlehem in an effort to rid himself of any threat to the throne:

So Joseph, Mary and now Jesus would carry around with them not only the shame of sexual infidelity, but the reputation of having survived genocide.

Mary is portrayed as an example of great faithfulness in the gospels.

It is not a stretch to say that her responsive and faithful heart is, at least in part, what found her favor in the eyes of God:

Upon hearing these things, Mary not only responds in faith

But she is depicted as one who will continue to meditate on these things as her life with Jesus continues:

Mary fills the role of a second Eve, not only in that she fulfills Genesis 3:15, but like Eve, she and Elizabeth are women who are first to profess faith in the New Testament.

She is also the first hymnwriter for the New Covenant people, writing beautiful poetry about the work of salvation for his people and his defense of the poor and oppressed:

Mary’s faithfulness is also on display at the wedding in Cana,

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

I think there is a beautiful, motherly instinct on display here.

Jesus nearly rebuffs his mother at her request.

I can almost picture her in her response smirking while saying, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Almost like, “Yeah, OK, but I know you’re going to do this as I requested.”

Jesus’ obedience to his earthly mother lies at the intersection of the Divine will of his Father to begin his earthly ministry.

But it’s not all roses for Mary’s story in the gospels.

As we said before, Mary carried social identities with her that would result in being repudiated and distanced under a shroud of mystery.

She was regarded as promiscuous, adulterer, refugee, survivor.

At some point, Joseph passed away and was not there to carry those burdens with her.

We see hints at this social shame in Mark’s gospel:

That Jesus is regarded as “the son of Mary” without mention of Joseph is likely a veiled way of saying, “This man was born by infidelity and does not know who his father is.”

Life for Mary was hard.

Hard because she had to release her son into his Divine mission, hard because of the social stigma she endured.

She did not always respond faithfully.

Mark, as the first gospel writer, portrays this most pointedly:

This passage often fuels the protestant/reformed posture to downplay Mary’s role.

Perhaps taken in isolation this passage might warrant such a response, but read within the wider scope of the gospels, in regards to Mary we merely see her flawed humanity on display, and Jesus’ value of his spiritual family, of which Mary was certainly a part.

Our last exposure to Mary is a sad but beautiful one.

As Jesus hangs on the cross, the Apostle John tells us that Jesus’ heart went out to his Mother, and with his dying breaths he sought her care and provision:

So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”

And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Jesus loved his mother.

He loved her all the way down.

He loved her enough to identify with this woman who carried such social shame and stigma.

He was not ashamed of her in the slightest.

He loved her deeply, personally, with the most perfect love that a son has ever loved their mother.