Unwrapped: Unbelievable!

Introduction

What were you expecting for Christmas? Really expecting? Did you get what you want? Christmas can be a hard time for many. Broken relationships. Loss of a loved one. Failed accomplishments become a little more pronounced. And even if you didn’t experience pain or grief like others, what about those expectations? Last night we watched Christmas Vacation. kind of an annual thing we do, along with Elf and Home Alone and other Christmas movies. At one point, the wife cautions her husband, who plans to have the big family Christmas he has always wanted and she says, “I know how you build things up in your mind...You set standards that no family event can ever live up to.”

We’ve all done this. But especially at Christmas. When this happens it is good for us to come back to the manger, because the manger is all about shattering expectations:

Video: It all starts here

It all starts in the manger. Your salvation. My salvation. The resolution for all of our unmet expectations. It all starts at the manger. It’s impossible to overemphasize how important the Incarnation is. God became man to save man. One of Jesus’ best friends, Matthew, begins his story about the life of Jesus with Jesus’ family tree. And whatever we’ve said about Jesus’ family tree these past few weeks, we can say this. Matthew wants his audience to see that Jesus is God among us. God has become human. He has a human ancestry. Into a certain family of Bethlehem whose ancestors include David and Judah. This baby is God with us. God come to save sinners as one of us.

Saving sinners is what Jesus does. That’s his mission. That’s Jesus’ purpose. We’ve spent the past five weeks talking about the grace that we find in Jesus’ family tree. While God is working in history to bring about His descent into our world, he is giving grace to sinners. And Matthew’s family tree has 5 women. These 5 women all share one thing in common: scandal. Sexual scandal. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba show up in the stories of the Old Testament and all of them involve some sort of scandal from relations that people just don’t talk about at the dinner table or if they do, it sounds like TMZ or the National Enquirer.

The 5th woman is the one we mentioned just moments ago.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary,

who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.

Mary is the 5th woman in Jesus’ family tree. She’s the most famous of all of these women. She is the stuff of headlines. She is certainly one of the greatest women who ever lived. Yet she, too, had to deal with scandal. Sexual scandal. Not of her own doing, but scandalous regardless.

It’s easy to miss the scandal. Matthew doesn’t. We miss it because we are too busy paying attention to other things. For one thing, even though she shows up in the family tree, she’s not the main character in the rest of this story. Joseph is. Here’s how the rest of that story is being told:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

We’re going to stop the story right here, because this 5th woman in Jesus’ family tree finds her commonality with the other names in this list right here. Jesus’ birth story begins in stress and anxiety over just how he came into the world.

The Big Dilemma

Four things we need to see here:

Mary was engaged to Joseph.

Engagements in those days were a bit more formal in those days, involving both sets of families. Not quite marriage, but still involving a contract. Mary and Joseph are bound in an engagement during which time they still live apart.

2. Mary was pregnant from the Holy Spirit (before they came together).

Hang onto this thought because we will come back to it. But this is everything that verse looks like. Mary is pregnant. Joseph is not the father. The Holy Spirit has produced this pregnancy. Does that seem far-fetched? Of course it does. It’s why Joseph does what he does next.

3. Joseph does not want to disgrace Mary.

Matthew is writing this story from the position of Joseph. The one to whom he is engaged is pregnant and he knows he is not the father. At this point we should note… the virgin birth is not something the church in history made up. Matthew has talked to the eyewitnesses. How does Matthew know Joseph’s inner thoughts there? He obviously talked to someone who knows… either Mary or Jesus himself, who would have heard the story from Joseph and Mary. But this story is not fiction. The virgin birth is a fact of history. In fact, in its earliest stages, it compels Joseph to act to end his marriage.

Matthew doesn’t tell us Joseph’s emotions, but the fact that he doesn’t want to public disgrace Mary suggests that if he feels anger, it’s on the back burner. I don’t want to get into any speculation, but Joseph’s motivation, as it is chronicled by Matthew has a lot of calmness to it that would not be true of a lot of guys in this position. We are not told if Mary told him and he didn’t believe it. We are not told whether Mary did not tell him. All we are told is that he did not desire to disgrace her.

4. Joseph decided to divorce Mary.

However, Joseph also decides that he will not be father to the child that he knows is not his and that he will divorce Mary. And that’s the dilemma of the story. Joseph intends to divorce Mary. Everything that happens in this story happens because Joseph is getting ready to divorce Mary. I think we tend to run right over this thought. We’re too busy focusing on the virgin birth. We’re too busy focusing on the angel who, in the next few verses will clue Joseph in with what is really happening.

The impending divorce is the reason there is an angel paying a visit to Joseph. It’s the center of the conflict. The big dilemma. Joseph is feeling the weight of having a bride who is pregnant from someone else. If Joseph is to the point of making plans for a divorce, just think about the families involved. Think about the small village of Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph are residents.

Joseph is looking for a private divorce to save Mary from the disgrace. What’s fascinating about what happens next is that when the angel encourages Joseph to go ahead and marry Mary and make the child his own, which he does, the unstated implication of this is that the angel is telling Joseph to embrace the disgrace. And he does. And so does Mary. Mary, Joseph, and the baby, Jesus, will live with this disgrace the rest of their lives. Because who in their right mind is going to believe that Joseph or anyone else didn’t father Jesus a bit early… before the wedding day? This is unbelievable.

And that’s the point. All of this is unbelievable. It’s why Matthew writes. It’s why Matthew is telling the story of Jesus. It’s all so unbelievable.

Mary: The 5th woman in Jesus’ family tree

And that brings us back to Mary, the fifth woman in Jesus’ family tree. Her scandal is a virgin birth. And that virgin birth is baked into the family tree. Let’s read that again:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary,

who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.

This is the only line in the entire chronology of the family tree that has no father. Joseph doesn’t father Jesus. We are simply told Mary gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah. When the doctor and nurses show up at the manger ready to give their shots and take the temperature and put the picture of little Jesus on the internet and have that birth certificate ready to be signed and stamped… the father’s name is blank. Not because the mother doesn’t want to name the father. This baby has no human father. The only parent on that certificate is Mary.

Mary is the greatest of these 5 women. We don’t worship Mary or pray to Mary, but Mary is to be honored. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba are shadows of what is to come in Mary. They all embrace the Promise in faith, the Promise that there is coming a Messiah who will be the savior of the world. They all play a role and embrace their roles in faith in the Messianic line throughout history. They died with unmet expectations. The baby being carried by Mary is the fulfillment of those unmet expectations.

Mary herself embraces the promise. The angel tells Joseph that Mary’s child is God becoming man and that his mission is to save His people from their sins. Mary embraces that Promise. Mary herself is unlikely and unexpected. She’s poor. She’s lowly. She’s not a queen. She’s not nobility. She’s unknown. She’s not a Kardashian with millions of followers and a lot of influence. And if this is anybody else she goes into this saddled with the Scarlet A. The subject of scandal.

She embraces the unbelievable. She embraces all of it. In faith. A popular song asks the question, “Mary did you know?” I’m all for poetic license. Mary does know. But there is a lot of pain and suffering she will endure because she embraces the promise. Whatever expectations she had going into this marriage with Joseph get shattered. They are blown up by the baby she carries. And she embraces it in faith becoming the mother of Emmanuel, God with us, the One who saves her and the others in the family tree from their sins.

Back to the question:

What were your expectations this Christmas?

What were your expectations this Christmas? What did you want? You know what we learn from Mary and her inclusion in Jesus’ family tree? Jesus is enough. Whatever the unmet expectations are… Jesus is enough. We have just come through a holiday season in which we are reminded over and over and over that we don’t have enough. And we look at all those pictures of all of our friends on Instagram and Facebook and we begin to think, wow… I’m not enough. We don’t measure up to those impossible standards of pictures that aren’t telling us the whole story. We’re not enough. We’re never enough. We never have enough. Those Christmas presents are now a day old and we find out it’s not enough. We made it through all the family get togethers and people still aren’t getting along. There was an empty seat at the table and we can’t fix it. We’re not enough.

Take it from Mary. Take it from Tamar. Take it from Rahab. Take it from Ruth. Take it from Bathsheba. Jesus is enough. The only thing you will never need. The only Person you will ever need. That’s unbelievable! The greatest need of all 5 women is our greatest need. Forgiveness. And it’s at the heart of the Christmas story. It’s the Promise all these women were hanging on to. This is what the angel tells Joseph:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

It’s the only thing we’ve ever needed: salvation from our sins. And that baby in the manger delivers. Years later, Mary’s son will go to the cross and save his people from their sins. The unlovely. The unlikely. The unexpected. The unworthy. The unbelievable. All of us. Mary gives birth to the savior of the world. Mary gives birth to The Promise. Mary gives birth to Grace. Jesus is enough.

Let’s Pray

Jesus is enough at this Table. Mary’s hope is here. All five women… their hope is here. At the Table. In Christ’s broken body and shed blood. This is where there is life and grace and the forgiveness of sins. This is where Jesus is enough for you and for me.