Waiting…
Notes
Transcript
The Sample family has a lot of traditions around Christmas. Most fall under the heading of waiting.
We would wake up Christmas morning and we couldn’t open our stockings until all the kids were awake. Which required some waiting. Because some of the us kids liked to sleep in.
Then, once the parents woke up, we could open one present each. But, we would have to wait for the parents to wake up, and we couldn’t wake them up.
We’d finally open one present. Then, we would have to wait to open the other presents until after breakfast and dishes.
Finally, we could tackle our presents, and we would open them up one at a time. Unfortunately, my brother, who shall not be named, loved to take as long as he could in opening up each present. Which required more painstaking waiting.
Then, we were surrounded by the amazing gifts and realized that we were hungry for Christmas dinner, but a lot of prep had to be done for that, so we had to wait even more.
Christmas was a magical day, but it was also a day that taught patience.
This was sometimes frustrating as a child. But, as I look back. It rather fitting.
Christmas is a season of waiting. That’s why so many people celebrate advent. Advent means arrival. But, before there is the arrival, there is the waiting.
Maggie and I had an Open House yesterday. We cleaned the house. Prepped all the food… and then we waited and waited for the arrival of the first guest. An no one showed up. Finally, someone did and then someone else and someone else.
First comes the waiting. Then comes the Advent.
Matthew opens up his gospel with waiting.
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of 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.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
In this passage, we see four groups of people waiting, the Jews, Mary, Joseph, and the world.
Before we dive in, would you pray with me?
1. The Jews Wait for a King
1. The Jews Wait for a King
Matthew begins his historical account with a genealogy starting at Abraham, hitting David, and finishing with Jesus.
Matthew chooses this opening specifically. He wants to incite specific emotions in his Jewish readership.
I’m not going to read again the genealogy. Stumbling over the names once is enough.
But, he starts with Abraham. The Father of the Jewish nation. The one whom God created a covenant with.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
The people of Israel have wondered how all the nations of the world would be blessed through Abraham. And yes, Jewish doctors, lawyers, scientist, and world-renowned Israeli technology partly fulfills this. But, more is at play. God promised that a Jew would rise up to reverse the curse that was placed on all creation after Adam and Eve ate the fruit.
Through this Messiah, all nations would be blessed.
Matthew follows the genealogy from Abraham to David.
The Messiah, the one through whom all the earth would be blessed, has not come yet.
God appears to David and says:
When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ ”
God promised that someone would sit on the throne of David forever. Well, we can follow Hebrew history and see that Jeconiah or Jehoiachim, depending on which name he is going by, was the last generation of David to sit on the throne in Israel. Babylon came and destroyed everything.
But, God doesn’t lie. There will be a king who will be a descendant of David, sitting on his throne.
As Jeremiah prophesied about the time after the exile:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.
Israel is still waiting for that branch.
From the time of Abraham, to the time of David, to the time of the Babylonian exile, through the 400 years of silence that followed the exile, where God did not speak. Can you imagine waiting 400 years for God to speak?
The Israelites waited and waited for the promised messiah. Waiting for God to fulfill the promise to make all things that were wrong in the world right.
2. Mary Waits for a Son
2. Mary Waits for a Son
That waiting period continued as a young girl in Galilee grew up. Promised to a man named Joseph.
Matthew records only one sentence about her.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
Luke tells more about her. An angel appears to her and lets her know that she would become pregnant to the Son of God. This baby would be miraculously conceived in her, not through a human act, because she was a virgin.
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
And it happened.
She became pregnant without having any relations with a man. That doesn’t happen. In fact, it never happens. Even IVF needs a bit of the guy and a bit of the girl.
This child, human because he has part of his mom’s DNA, yet God, because no human was his father.
He would grow and mature, facing everything that we face, because he is human, yet without sin, because, as God, he is perfect.
The author of Hebrews speaks of Jesus.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Mary believed the message of the angel that she was carrying the Son of God. We might say that her 9 months was a time of joy.
But, it was a time of grief, because no one believed that she was a virgin. They looked at her growing belly and knew that she had commited a great sin.
You don’t go and sleep with a guy before marriage. It’s not done.
So, she was ostracized, perhaps even bullied, by her community. She couldn’t hide in a large town, because she was from a smaller community. Everyone knew her and knew what they expected that she had done.
It was for her to wait. For 9 excruciating months. She waited. Not knowing what the future would hold.
There were two basic options ahead of her. She could be stoned for adultery. Or she could live on the streets as a single mom, a beggar. Some might consider that a fate worse than death.
The faith of Mary to tell the angel:
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
She had been waiting for a Messiah to save her people, to redeem the world. And, now she was waiting for the Messiah, which she carried, her son, to help her.
3. Joseph Waits for a Relationship
3. Joseph Waits for a Relationship
As Mary is waiting, Joseph tries to figure out what is going on.
Matthew explains what is going on in Joseph’s mind:
Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Betrothal was a strict stage of a couple’s relationship. A woman would be pledged to a man. Under the law, they were married. But, socially they weren’t yet. This was the period that they were to get to know each other. The husband would prepare a place for them to live. The wife would learn more fully her duties as a wife and mother.
But, they were not to live together as a married couple yet. They were not to consummate their marriage. In fact, they couldn’t be alone with each other yet.
If one of them slept with someone else, that was considered adultery, an offense punishable by stoning. Though that really didn’t happen much any more. It’s a possibility though.
Joseph could have brought her before the city officials, accused her of adultery and demanded the bride price back and impounded her dowry, which would have put financial burdens on Mary’s family, as you could imagine.
To top it all off, this would have insured that Mary would not have gotten married again.
In Jewish society, one was supposed to bring charges against his wife immediately when unfaithfulness was suspected. In fact, in Roman law, if a husband did not do this, he was treated as a panderer exploiting his wife as a prostitute.
So, what does Joseph do?
An angel appears to him, and tells him to take Mary as his wife.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
So, Joseph did.
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
Now, this is quite a statement. Everyone knew that Mary was pregnant. If Joseph did not accuse her of adultery, everyone would assume that the baby was his. So, by answering God’s call to protect Mary, he willingly ruined his reputation as a righteous man.
We don’t know when he married Mary. It was sometime before she gave birth. She moved in with him. The town thought they had married, but Joseph still didn’t consummate their marriage, even though they were living together. Even though, they probably shared the same bed, because they were poor.
He waited, even as the prophet said:
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Mary conceived and gave birth as a virgin.
If he had consummated their relationship before Jesus’ birth, he could have proven her virginity. But he didn’t. Mary and Joseph chose to confirm their shame in order to preserve the sanctity of God’s call.
Through that long pregnancy, Joseph waited for a relationship.
4. The World Waits for a Savior
4. The World Waits for a Savior
The Israelites were waiting. Mary was waiting. Joseph was waiting.
The whole world was waiting.
The angel told Joseph:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
And Matthew connected this to Old Testament prophecy.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
God created the world to show his glory. He created humanity to have a relationship with him. We fulfilled in that relationship. However, we sinned and were doomed to have a life apart from him.
Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, came to save his people from their sins. Not just to restore a kingdom, but to make all things right again. By saving people from their sins, he gives them the ability to have a relationship with God again, so that God can be with them. God with us. What an amazing title, what an amazing reality.
But, who are God’s people?
Matthew includes some rather surprising names in his genealogy. In a culture that really didn’t put females into genealogy, Matthew includes 4. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary.
We could mention how each one had some shady things around their pregnancies. Tamar slept with her father-in-law. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth spent the night on the threshing floor with Boaz before their marriage. Mary became pregnant out of wedlock, in the eyes of humanity.
There’s a correlation here. God works through things that we has humanity might turn our noses up to. His grace in our failure.
But, more than this, Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth are all Gentiles. They are outside God’s covenant. But, they are within the Davidic line. The line of promise. The line from where the Messiah would come.
Jesus claims as his people, not just the Jews, but everyone who comes to him in faith. He came for me. He came for you.
He is the Messiah of the whole world.
The whole world yearns for a Savior. They waited. And now he has come. So what is the world waiting for now.
What are you waiting for?
Are you waiting for peace, hope, joy? Turn to Jesus. He has come that we might have those things. Don’t wait any longer.
Are you waiting for relationships to heal, for chaos to cease. Turn to Jesus. He knows what we are going through and will give us the strength to wait until peace comes.
Are you waiting for revival, for salvation of loved ones. Plead with Jesus. and wait for him to act.
And in your waiting, lean into him. The Israelites who understood, Joseph, and Mary, learned a valuable lesson through waiting. They found out that trust in Jesus is the sweetest thing in the world, and it is worth losing everything else we hold dear.
In waiting, we see him. We experience God with us. And that, is the best there is.