YAHWEH SAVES

It’s not just about His birth and it’s not just about His family tree. It’s about the actual story of how He was born and the underlying concept is the story of Jesus’ origins.

Family of Origin

Therapist Example

How were you shaped by your family origin? Single parent home, siblings, temperament, etc.

Through this process the therapist is trying to help you understand yourself better while you’re also learning more about your family at the same time.

Five Stories:

Matthew has is doing the same thing as the therapist. He is trying to use these five stories to show us who Jesus IS by explaining it through His family origin. (Not just who He was but who He is).

He also has an even larger aim by continuing to present Jesus to us and forcing us to reckon with all that Jesus was and is.

As we get to know more about Jesus, we get to know more about ourselves at the same time. How?

It’s only through knowing Jesus that we find the truth about who He is and who we are.

Parent and Kids Example:

Kids are amazing and extremely difficult at the same time.

At the same time, that I am getting to know our girls, we’re also getting to know ourselves.

I have learned that I’m extremely selfish at times when things don’t go as planned, but I’ve also learned that I have a deeper capacity to love and give of myself to my family without thinking about it.

I have learned that I’m extremely selfish at times, but I’ve also learned that I have a deeper capacity to love and give of myself to my family without thinking about it.

I find that I get very frustrated when things don’t go my way, but I have also discovered a side of myself that is silly and kind and that allows the girls to “do my hair” and puts bows and clips in my hair.

None of you will ever see this by the way.

Are you with me? All of us could tell a story about a family member and that relationship and how you’ve learned about yourself and that person.

Matthew has is doing the same thing as the therapist. He is trying to use these five stories to show us who Jesus IS by explaining it through His family origin. (Not just who He was but who He is).

This is what Matthew is doing for us with Jesus.

Let’s dive back in with that concept in mind.

Ancient Marriages in Jewish Culture:

Who the driver that determines who will marry whom?

The parents, right?

Around the age of 10, the parents are already having the conversations about arranging the marriages.

In their mid to late teens, the parents come together and negotiate a formal contract with witnesses to negotiate the terms of the marriage.

It’s very official and much more involved than an engagement in our culture.

The betrothal lasted about one year while the husband prepared a place for the bride (sounds familiar, right? Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us, His bride).

The bride would move in with the husband after things were prepared.

They were from Nazareth which was a tiny town and everyone knew everyone (and their business).

We’re in this final stage of the betrothal/engagement and Mary turns up pregnant.

Imagine if you’re Mary in this setting and you turn up pregnant

Imagine if you’re Joseph and the girl you’ve known you would marry since childhood turns up pregnant and it’s not your child.

Imagine how that conversation went.

Who’s child is this? How did it happen?

The Holy Spirit, really?

It doesn’t seem that Joseph really believed it. It took a vision for him to believe it.

Verse 19 says that Joseph was preparing to divorce her quietly.

We don’t say divorce when we’re breaking an engagement; we use that word in terms of the actual marriage.

That’s how serious this arrangement was.

Let’s pause for a moment:

If you were Matthew and trying to build up the pedigree of someone you believed to be the Messiah, is THIS the story you would tell if you were fabricating the story?

No, it’s scandalous.

There’s no reason to tell it unless it’s true.

Matthew knows he’s on thin ice here because in the Greek and Roman world, it was very common to have myths and legends surrounding the birth of the gods.

Lots of the stories involved the goddesses having sex with humans to to produce the great gods, etc.

Think of Homer’s The Iliad and the Odyssey.

Example of Incubus band and the meaning of the name to illustrate that it was a common thought.

Matthew wants to separate this story from the Roman and Greek story.

He says “the Holy Spirit” twice, so it must be significant. Why not just say “through God’s power?”

Can you think of another genesis story where God’s spirit is the one working to create and sustain life where there would not otherwise be life?

The personal presence, the very breath and life-animating power of the Creator God is there in the midst of the darkness and out of that comes a garden of life and beauty and so on.

It seems that Matthew is trying to say something very similar here with the birth of Jesus.

This is not about sex and God having sex with Mary.

This is about Creation.

This is about the creation of life where there was not life.

It is marking the life of Jesus as completely unique and without precedence in human terms.

This is a new generation of human life.

Verse 21. This is where it gets really good.

Give him the name “Jesus” because He will save His people from their sins.

Hebrew: yehoshua -> yeshua -. Joshua in english

Meaning = “Yahweh saves”

Yeho = abbreviated name of the divine name Yahweh

Shua = to deliver, to save to rescue

Greek: yesus (not the rapper) pronounced “yay-suess” think romance language “hay-suess”

English: Jesus

Think carefully about this announcement.

Meaning of His name = Yahweh saves.

What’s He going to do? Save His people.

Who’s going to do it? Yahweh or Yahweh saves? Yahweh Saves is going to save?

If you’re with me, you’ve grasped the first big claim that Matthew wants to make about Jesus.

The meaning of His name speaks of His destiny but also of His identity.

Who is this human who has no earthly father?

Who is He going to save?

His people. Not the whole world, but His people, Israel. The family of Abraham.

What is He saving them from?

Their sins.

What about the rest of us?

Are we left high and dry?

The meaning of Jesus’ name and the line saying that He will save His people from their sins condenses the entire Old Testament story line into one verse.

The Hebrew Scriptures begin with the story of all human that are made in the divine image. (This mirrors the genealogy). The Hebrew scriptures just ends and feels utterly unfinished. They are a story in search of an ending.

Humanity = Fail

God calls Abraham = Israel ---> this is the family that He rescues from Egypt to be a light to the nations = Fail

God Calls a line of Kings from the Line of David = Fail

Exile to Babylon = Ends the OT

All of items 2-4 were to save all of humanity from its sin. What He does for Israel will apply to all humanity if you back the story up to the beginning. Jesus comes to save us from our sin.

Sin = failure to reflect the divine image ---> Jesus comes to rescue Israel (and therefore all humanity) from the huge mess that we find ourselves in due to sin.

Jesus didn’t come to be a great teacher or to teach a moral program to tell us to be better

He came to do what we can’t -----> to save us from our sin or moral failure as a human race

If that’s what He came to do, then as we get to know Him, we get to know ourselves.

It shows us that we are part of the problem and that we as individuals have failed due to our sin.

This is how by getting to know Jesus better, we begin to know ourselves better. Think of the story of my kids from earlier.

A lot of don’t think of ourselves as broken and sinful people. We, particularly in the West, can look at the world and agree that something is wrong with the world. Most of us wouldn’t readily admit that we are part of the problem. Look at the world; it’s not a great place. It’s not better or worse than it’s ever been since the fall; it’s been awful since the fall.

Why is it that way? There is something fundamentally wrong with us and we need rescuing. Most of agree with that, but when it becomes personal and Jesus shows us that we are part of the problem and that we need saving, we start minimizing how broken and sinful we are. Conveniently, the lines between good and evil are crystal clear when it comes to others, but it becomes a very gray area when it comes to ourselves.

This story is asking us to entertain something about ourselves. It’s asking us to acknowledge that we are in dire need of rescue from this sinful human condition and that this solution can only come from OUTSIDE the human race. See Exhibit A = Human History = FAIL. Would you agree?

This is difficult for us in the west. We think we can back away from religion and politics and morality and “just be good to people” and that that will begin to solve all of the world’s problems. As disciples of Jesus, being good to people is a core principle of being His disciple (love your neighbor as yourself…). If we view this as the solution, it’s hopeless because it doesn’t get to the heart of the issue because we are highly selective about who we are good to. Not to mention we are all a mixed bag of good and evil.

Think about ISIS or AL- Qaeda; do you really think they believe they are not fighting for the good? The western governments believe their response to them is good? Who interprets what is good? Think of the millions of people who die in the conflicts of the “good”. Being good, doesn’t solve the problem. That is why being good is hopeless. It’s like giving vitamin C to someone with a broken leg.

Matthew is telling us to read the Hebrew Scriptures to demonstrate as a case study of how humanity is broken and why we need saving.

He is putting forth Jesus of Nazareth as the only hope of rescue.

You can reject that claim. You can agree with that claim. You can take time to consider that claim. You can not ignore that claim.

That’s the meaning of the virgin birth. It’s a solution of God becoming human from outside of ourselves to be kind of human that we are incapable of being , but at the same time a solution from inside of the human problem because He comes in the form of a human. It’s the divine and the human come together to offer the rescue.

Who is going to save? Yahweh or Yahweh saves?

Verse 22. Jesus receives two names.

The first name, Jesus, shows us how broken and sinful we are. We are hopeless and we are need of rescue, but what about the second name?

The second name comes along side first and means “God with us” from and says the child will be named “Emmanuel”.

The child is never born in Isaiah or the rest of the OT. It becomes a hope for a messiah throughout the OT. We know the OT ends without any real answers. It leaves you wanting for more. For what? For rescue. For the messiah.

This second name is like the first in that it leaves you asking questions like ”Who is God with His people?” Who will save, Yahweh saves or God with us? The answer is yes. This is Matthew’s second big claim about Jesus.

The divine and the human met together. That is how God is with us. If taken out of context of the story, it could be comforting that “God is with us.”

But, in the story, what does it mean for God to be with us? It means that this God revealed in Jesus is not content to leave humanity rotting in its consequences of its failure and sin. It’s all leading up to the cross and resurrection.

For Christians, God is not an abstract concept. How can we know God exists? Because of Jesus. I believe in God in because I believe in Jesus. Jesus was an actual historical person with four biographical accounts tied to eyewitness testimony. Yes, God is with us in the abstract, solace sense, but He is with us because He intentionally bound Himself to a broken humanity to save us. That’s what it means for God to be with us.

To know Jesus begins to show me the broken nature of myself, but it also shows me how much God loves me because He came in the person of Jesus to rescue me from myself.

How do I know He is real? I look to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Turn to the last page of the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 28. Verse 18 to the end where the resurrected Jesus is talking to His followers.

He came to deal with the sin of His people and absorbs it on on the cross and crushes death with His resurrection. Then He commission His people to go and proclaim to all the nations to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit because He is with us until the end of the age. Who is with us? Is it Jesus or God? The answer is Yes! It’s not just the Jesus of past history, but the Jesus of right now because He is alive.

He reminds us that He is present right now and these stories mediate His presence to us. He tells us that when we take the bread and the cup, when we pray to Him, and when we worship Him that He is here with us to remind us of what He did for us so that He can make us into the kind of people He created to us to be.

The rest of the Gospel is Jesus inviting become those kinds of people as we look to him.

Think about these things today we go to worship. Think about this when you pray. Think about this when you take the bread and the cup next time.

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