Christmas Hope

The genealogy of Jesus is full of broken people who probably should have had no reasons for hope. Yet most of them got some reasons to hope in the coming Messiah. No matter how they could have imagined it, Jesus, the Christ, was better than they hoped for. This was true for them. This was true for you. Beyond what you imagine and beyond what you feel, Jesus is the certain and ultimate Hope. The Hope of Christmas.

What Do You Hope For?

Thanksgiving is OVER! Christmas season has begun!

The stores began a month ago, but I am one of those Scrooges who refuse to decorate or start the music until after Thanksgiving.

But the Advent season has begun! Hence the four candles. Each one represents an aspect of anticipation, looking forward to the “Arrival” (that’s what Advent means) of Jesus.

Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. Today… we hope.

Earnest desire.

It’s a wish… but there’s some confidence, optimism, trust that it will be so.

The kids have started presenting their “hope” lists. What they want for Christmas. What they await with joyous expectation.

What is hope?

It is earnest desire. It’s a wish… but there’s some confidence, optimism, trust that it will be so.

Matthew 1:1–16 ESV

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Abraham, married his half sister, lied about her to get favor from a rich friend.

Jacob, 4 wives, wrestling God, not a great model.

Rahab, this lying prostitute.

Ruth, the forbidden foreigner.

David, the wife-stealing adulterer, with 8 wives and kids that try to overthrow and murder him.

Saul with 700 wives!

Then a line of kings, some with some good moments like Josiah, but all with some sin and failure.

Zerubbabel… huge Messianic expectations… ultimately disappointment. Not the Christ.

And then fading into obscurity. Don’t know who these are… down to Joseph.

Matthew apparently gives the legal line of succession, the line through Joseph, Jesus’ adopted father, likely the one who most assumed is his biological father. Luke’s is different and presumably gives the line through Mary which also goes to David.

But these are some broken folks.

They were train wrecks. They had some good… and a whole lot of bad.

The Generations

Matthew 1:17 ESV

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

This is an interesting tidbit Matthew pulls out. Clearly 14 means something important to him, and will be significant in some way to his readers.

Some point out a Rabbinic tradition that there were 14 high priests from Aaron to Solomon’s Temple, and then 14 high priests who are mentioned in Scripture.

This one is my favorite:

The name David, in Hebrew, each letter has a number. Basically the Alphabet numbered sequentially. Like a=1, b=1.

Dalet =4

Vav=6

Dalet=4

Put them together and what have you got? 14.

Is that what Matthew is pointing out here? This cool pattern in the generations. In order to get the 14 in the line of Kings he has skipped several Kings and apparently combined two others, so it is a bit of an odd construction.

Maybe 7, perfect, doubled? Double perfection?

Matthew lists the line of Jesus. He is clear, persuasively, that Jesus is in the line of Kings, the Davidic line, the Messianic line.

But he is also clear that this line is a bit messy. It is remarkable, unnecessary in Jewish genealogy, that he would include any women, much less 5… and the ones he includes have some shade on them.

Except… they are part of God’s story, they are an integral part in what God is doing here… whether they knew it or not.

And that’s what I want to see today. What did they know? What did they hope for?

What did they want for Christmas?

I want to talk about their “hope”. Their Christmas Hope.

I recall one Christmas, I was maybe 10 or 11. We met in the Living Room and opened our presents. And I have to be honest, I don’t remember every present I got that year… but I remember getting to the end of the presents and thinking “That was a great Christmas!”

And then my Dad called us to all follow him.

And we walked down the hallway and into the other room...

And there was a pool table.

He had found it used, refurbished it, took it and rebuilt it himself. Almost died trying to do so, got trapped for a bit when the slate fell on him, but he got it done.

I don’t think anyone had “pool table” on their “hope” list… but we were beyond thrilled. We spent hours. Not just learning and playing pool to prepare for our career as hustlers… we played creatively. You can play ski ball if you hold one ball and slam it into another ball to send it at your opponents pockets… and if you get your finger smashed in between, that’s just motivation for next time!

My Dad had the great reveal, the Present, beyond what we knew to hope for.

Some of these clowns, like Abraham and David, they had good reason to hope. “Messianic Expectations.”

But even their expectation fell short of the “hope” that they had.

Abraham’s Hope

Starting with Abraham and the promise (Gen 12:1-3).

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The “land” was just a down-payment. That was probably Abraham’s favorite part of the promise, and he got to see a bit of it as he traveled the land and grew SUPER rich.

But when in his life were “all the families of the earth” blessed? Never. Not for around 2000 years!

He felt some hope. His hope was greater than he knew. So much better than he hoped for.

David’s Hope

Or David. His lineage, his crown, his “Kingdom.” God made some promises to David, he had reason to hope that his descendant would rule the Kingdom forever.

2 Samuel 7:12–13 ESV

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

So David could call for hope:

Psalm 130:7–8 ESV

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

He had some pieces of it, didn’t he? Kind of crazy, he had some reasons to hope.

But David’s kids were a nightmare. Read the story of Absalom, he rises up, steals the Kingdom from his father, seeks to kill him, the whole thing is a nightmare.

And while his heir, Solomon, would certainly do some thing very right… and there are some shining lights among the kings to come, most of them were train-wrecks, the Kingdom splits apart, and all of them were flawed and broken.

And this wouldn’t be fulfilled for 1000 years. And still… His hope was greater than he knew. Christmas was better than he hoped for.

But they were used by God in the unfolding of his plan… to bring “Jesus, who is called Christ.” To bring Christmas.

Hope

Hope is a funny thing that humans do. We can feel it, it can be a kind of emotion. It can be a verb, something we do on purpose. It can be something we see only in hindsight. “They despaired, but hope was on the horizon...”

We have reason to hope. Powerful and persuasive reasons. We see all that God has done. All the prophecy fulfilled. We have the advantage over Abraham and David… and all those other clowns.

We see the Messiah born, the miracles done, him revealed… him crucified… but Raised from the Dead Victorious!

We see SUCH reason for Hope transcendent and amazing.

We KNOW a greater Hope than what Abraham or David could have possibly imagined.

And yet… this is wild… your hope is still greater than you know.

We have been born of God and our Christian hope is a valid hope! No emptiness, no vanity, no dreams that cannot come true. Your expectation should rise and you should challenge God and begin to dream high dreams of faith and spiritual attainment and expect God to meet them. You cannot out-hope God and you cannot out-expect God. Remember that all of your hopes are finite, but all of God’s ability is infinite!

A. W. Tozer

Your hopes are finite.

God’s ability is infinite. His love is unmeasurable… and forever good. His timeline: he could replay the universe in between seconds, yet has literal eternity stretched before him. He has ALL the time to shop. ALL the time to prepare. His budget has no end.

And He is infinitely and eternally INVESTED in your good.

How invested? He arranged all of History to invent Christmas for you and me. He took on human form, a sacrifice from day one of conception… the sacrifice didn’t start with the cross, it culminated in laying down his life on the cross. And then resurrection as the Christmas Gift that bought eternal life for you and me.

But He isn’t done yet. Gifts upon gifts. From power and miracles now in this life, to new life and new earth and who knows what else beyond that!!!

Hope of Christmas

You may or may not “feel the hope” today. You may have great reason to “earnest desire” good and great things for tomorrow, with trust or confidence that they will come true.

Christmas can be a sad time for some, a disappointing time, a struggle bus.

If you’re like me, it can be one, then the other, then both at the same time… and I don’t know WHAT to feel!

That’s real. But your hope is bigger than you know. Better than you know. Way beyond what you feel.

Your hope, my hope, the hope of the world… always was, always is, always will be Jesus.

The light of the world, come into the world. The world didn’t see it, didn’t recognize it… but the light was still there. He came anyway. He saved anyway. He suffered and died and was raised anyway. Hope unconquerable.

And he has already offered you forever freedom from sin, shame and death.

He will remake this world… broken as it is… remade better than you can imagine.

He will recreate you, mind, body, heart, soul… righteous and redeemed. With super powers, I hope… but better than I could possibly hope.

Romans 15:13 ESV

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 15:13 MSG

13 Oh! May the God of great hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!