Unwrapped: Promises (2)

Video #1: It all begins here

It all begins here in the manger. Everything. Everything about this season. Everything about life. Because this manger is going to end in a cross. For me and for you.

What do you really want for Christmas?

Christmas is less than a week away. All of our anticipation will come down to Saturday. All the presents, all the lights. By the time Christmas morning arrives, Christmas Eve at the Little League field will be over. What are your expectations this year? What do you really, really want for Christmas? If money were no object, what do you want?

We watched a cute new Christmas movie called “8-bit Christmas” a couple of nights ago. There are no spoiler alerts here, I’m not going to give away the ending. It had a lot of the same plot lines that a lot of Christmas movies have. However, it did have the look and the feel of the classic Christmas Story. There were a lot of the same elements there, including the main plot line. Instead of a b-b gun, the main character of the story, living in the 1980s, wants a brand new Nintendo. It’s all he thinks about, dreams about, lives for… is the brand new Nintendo. And of course, it’s all part of the comedy. Along the way, though, this story about a quest for the Nintendo, like many of our Christmas movies do, rides on that question: what do you really, really want for Christmas?

Jesus’ family tree

That is the question we are asking ourselves this morning as we come to our text. We have been tracking the story of the birth of Jesus as one of his best friends tells it. Before Matthew gets to the good stuff about how Jesus was born, Matthew starts the whole thing off with Jesus’ family tree. Matthew is telling his story in a way to connect Jesus to King David, the greatest of Israel’s kings in the Old Testament. So this family tree is tracing the line of Jesus through King David. Matthew is saying “here’s how Jesus is related to King David”. Only he’s doing much more than this. We’re looking at the names of 5 women who are included in this family tree. Again, this is unusual because women’s names were not included in Jewish genealogies. These women are unexpected, unlikely, undeserving, and unworthy.

This isn’t your typical family tree. This little baby that is arriving in the story isn’t simply related to King David. He’s better than King David. And he’s going to save his people from their sins. That includes people in Jesus’ family tree. Jesus’ family tree is dysfunctional. Jesus’ family tree is littered with the pleasant and not-so-pleasant. Along the way in laying out the family tree, Matthew strategically and interestingly highlights some people in the tree who are truly a part of it but people who because of their past, because of their embarrassment to the family, because of their sin they are known for, might be people at least if they were in our family, we would try to hide and probably not invite to Christmas because of what others might think if they knew we were related. That includes these five women.

When Matthew included these women, he does so because they are connected to the men in Jesus line and they have some really interesting stories. Stories that are part of the lineage of Jesus because sinners aren’t just a part of the story they are the point of the story. Sinners who couldn’t make themselves worthy by trying harder and promising to do better next time. Sinners who needed a savior. Someone who could take care of their sin forever and transform their stories of brokenness to stories of forgiveness and grace.

This line includes Tamar who in her own bit of notoriety with Judah who was part of a promise that a special king would come through his family. There’s Rahab, another woman of notoriety, who places her faith in the same promises of a coming Messiah. And Ruth, the Gentile, who ties her destiny to that of Tamar and Rahab.

Woman #4: Bathsheba

And that brings us to the fourth woman mentioned. If Tamar is the story nobody wants to tell, Bathsheba is the story nobody wants to remember. Of these four women, Bathsheba is the one we all want to bury under the rug. This is who you don’t invite over for Christmas. This is the one who didn’t just bear the shame in her day, but the shame continues in the way people still talk about her. There is shame. There is failure. There is stigma. There is dysfunction. It’s all over Bathsheba and her story.

Just the mention of Uriah’s wife brings to mind David’s greatest failure and the dysfunction it caused. A failure as a husband, A failure as a father, A failure as a friend, A failure as a leader. And with just that one name Matthew is reminding his readers that as great as King David was. As much as people to that day still talked about the glory days in Israel when David was King and Solomon his son followed him. David was not perfect. That David was a sinner too. Instead of all the wonderful things he could have said mention about David he says doesn’t mention her name but instead says Uriah wife brings to mind His morality running around with another man’s wife, his character willing to commit murder, his ethics, his parenting with His kids went to war against him and killing each other. Dysfunctional family, yep that is David the 25th great grandfather of Jesus. And in the middle of it all, is Bathsheba. Her name is left out because make no mistake, even as this little one on the way, this Jesus is being tied to the royal line of David and is a legitimate heir to David’s throne, David is fatally flawed. Jesus is coming to save Bathsheba. Jesus is coming to save David.

David was the King of Promise. David is the Anointed One. He’s the Chosen One. Even God says, a man after my own heart. David gets a great idea that he wants to acknowledge the Lord God for all that God has done. The best way he can do this is to build a temple so that there can be in Jerusalem a permanent dwelling place for God instead of the mobile home tabernacle that they had been using since the Exodus days. God sends the new prophet Nathan to David to tell him that isn’t what I need from you. Instead, God gives David a Promise, a Promise that began way back with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Judah, and now will continue through David as a King with a throne. Here’s what Nathan tells David.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

The LORD himself will make a house for you. 12 When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals. 15 But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’

This is breath-taking. Abraham will have a people forever. Now one of his descendents, David, will have a throne forever. Between these two, that covers everything in all of history. A throne, a kingdom, and a people forever. It doesn’t get any grander than this. Those promises can’t get much bigger than this. David, I’m promising you the world. I’m promising you all of history, for all time. The entire kit and kaboodle. You think of all the stories and all the heroes, all of the most powerful and most glorious figures you can think of.. it’s the kind of stuff we try to dream up for the Marvel Universe. But this is real. The whole world. All people everywhere. One throne. One kingdom. One ruler. David, your royal line is going to have it all. “If I promise you the moon and the stars, would you believe it?” to quote a couple of British philosophers.

David’s colossal failure

But in the story of David that highlight moment gets virtually forgotten, if not ignored… in one of the most dramatic stories in all of scripture, and is considered, by many Jewish theologians, the most infamous chapter in Israel’s history. 40 second summary you can read it all in 2 Sam 11. David’s sees a woman bathing. Finds out that her name is Bathsheba and that she is the wife of one of his soldiers who is out fighting in war right now on behalf of David. He invites her over to the palace and they do more than have coffee and talk about the weather. And she becomes pregnant by David. David tries to cover it up, and eventually David arranges Uriah to be killed in battle. David tops off adultery with murder.

Bathsheba mourns the death of her husband and then is brought into David’s house as his wife because David is an honorable guy like that taking care of this widowed woman whose husband gave his life for King and Country. Yeah. Right. God is not pleased. God sends the prophet Nathan again to David, this time to convict David of his sin with Bathsheba and the cover up and murder that he committed. David owns it. David repents. David is sorrowful and Psalm 51 in our Bibles contains some of the most emotion-filled words of confession ever penned. David realizes he hasn’t just made a mistake or had a minor indiscretion, no he has sinned. And God forgives David of his sin. And there are some serious consequences to David’s sin in time especially to his family and his children for another time but let’s just say David would never win father of the year awards.

Will God be good on his promise?

But shouldn’t one of the consequences of his sin be that God changes his mind about the promise he made? Surely God can pick someone else because David let him down, David was not worthy to have a great name or an everlasting kingdom established by one of his decedents. You know who doesn’t forget the Promise? In the midst of all the tragedy, in the midst of all the stuff that goes down with David’s family as a result of his adultery with Bathsheba, someone is hanging on to the Promise. Years later, when David is old, his sons are jockeying to be the next king, and one of them has big plans to crown himself king. He’s not the child of promise. But David seems oblivious until Bathsheba shows up with Nathan and reminds Nathan of the Promise. Bathsheba hasn’t forgotten. She knows the Promise of Tamar and Judah and Rahab and Ruth and Obed and David runs through Solomon. So does David. All those years, through the heartache and the brokenness, Bathsheba has been hanging on to the Promise. Believing the Word that David’s forever kingdom would go through Solomon.

Solomon, of course, is not perfect either. Just like his father, his kingdom is not quite the kingdom it was supposed to be. The monarchy falls into corruption and collapses. Centuries roll by… what of that fantastic promise to David, a Promise of a worldwide kingdom, of the world’s people, with a throne that will be forever? As the kingdom crumbles and falls into ruins and gets run over by other dynasties, is God a liar? Did he decide the Promise is no good, both David and Bathsheba thrown on the trash heap of history?

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

and Jesse fathered King David.

FROM DAVID TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE

David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,

All the way down to...

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary,

who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.

No. God is not a liar. Bathsheba’s hope has been realized. Out of the brokenness and despair and the stigma of carrying the scarlet letter of adultery comes one who is everything David and Solomon were not and couldn’t be. Those Promises, held tightly by Bathsheba… now here

This one being born to Mary…

He is the one who will build a house for God’s name, and the throne of his kingdom will be established forever. God will be his father, and Jesus will be God’s son. David’s house and kingdom will endure before God forever, and David’s throne will be established forever.’ 2 Sa 7:13–16.

Jesus, the little baby in the manger, is Bathsheba’s hope. God keeps his Promises. Jesus is the Promise. The Promise made to unworthy, undeserving, unlikely, people like David and Bathsheba whose sin were so well known and so embarrassing. Promises to people like Matthew the one who writes the genealogy who knew first hand that no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t bring himself to God. So when he starts to tell the story he brings to mind the big scar on the story of David. Bathsheba is included in the family tree. It’s a reminder for Matthew and Matthew’s audience, that no matter the scars and the brokenness carried by Bathsheba, God is good on His Word. Bathsheba needed the Savior that came. Broken. Taken advantage of. Wearing the Scarlet A. Oppressed. A pawn. The object of lust. Nothing heroic. She held on to the Promise and she needed a Savior.

We still need that Savior:

Video #2: We still need a savior

Our dysfunctional family tree

That family tree that includes Bathsheba includes us. We’re in that dysfunctional family tree. The grace that came for Bathsheba came for us. Everybody in Jesus’ tree is a sinner. David would be the first to admit it. No one more eloquently talked about the need for a Savior than David. His confession after his sin with Bathsheba starts like this:

Christian Standard Bible Psalm 51

Be gracious to me, God,

according to your faithful love;

according to your abundant compassion,

blot out my rebellion.

Faithful love. Abundant compassion. That’s the kind of Savior who came for us. That’s the baby we celebrate this week. Beyond family. Beyond the lights and music. Beyond and above all of it is this idea that we still need a Savior. We must have a Savior. That manger is where your hope is this Christmas. That’s the Promise for you. This Christmas.

Let’s pray.

This table is for the broken. Those who’ve been taken advantage of. Those who wear scarlet letters. Those who are objects and subjects rather than persons. Those who need grace. This table is for the Bathshebas of the world. Everyone of us is Bathsheba. All of us need the same grace. All of us must cling to The Promise. Christ Promises to be here for you. Christ Promises to forgive and give you His life. Right here at this Table. For all of us who are the Bathshebas.