Living Stones – Monday, December 18, 2017
Who begot
Matthew 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
So, it is about that time of the year when folks everywhere are celebrating Christmas.
For some, this is a time set aside to celebrate the birth of Christ over two thousand years ago, even though we don’t have an exact date. For others, it’s the most wonderful time of the year where we feast on food and festivities based on a variety of myths, legends, pagan practices, and cultural innovations. For others, there is a mixture of the two without any clear dividing line letting us know where biblical truth ends, and the tales begin.
The 1963 Andy Williams hit, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, written by Edward Pola and George Wyle, captures the confusion of Christmas for us. – It’s the most wonderful time of the year / With the kids jingle belling / And everyone telling you be of good cheer / There’ll be parties for hosting / Marshmallows for toasting / And caroling out in the snow / There’ll be scary ghost stories / And tales of the glories of / Christmases long, long ago
This confusion is based on the fact that Christmas, as we know it, is a very recent invention, whose proponents have many interests and make very little attempt to fidelity to the New Testament narratives. The disciples and early apostles have no commemoration for the birth of Jesus Christ and Mark and John never even mention it in their Gospel accounts. The church did not recognise it in Acts, Paul never mentioned it in any of his letters, nor did James, Peter, or the writer of Hebrews.
The suggestion here is not to be like the Grinch (a contemporary fictional Christmas character) and steal the joy that people feel at this time, rather this is a call for us Christians to remember that if we want to claim this festival then it should at least, for us, be based on the Bible. We cannot do anything about what is happening in the culture, but at the very least we should be concerned about what is happening in the church. By the time our churches are decorated with Christmas Trees, holly wreaths, stockings, and candy canes; and then populated with fictional characters like Santa Clause and Frosty, we should know that we are in deep trouble.
The first thing we require is fidelity to the biblical narrative. After more than 400 years of silence, at lease the silence of writing prophets after the prophet Malachi, we finally have a new account in the canon of Scripture. The New Testament opens with a genealogy, the genealogy of Christ.
We love to start the Christmas story at Matthew 1:18, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother, Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.” But instead, we have this symmetrical carving from the family tree of Jesus as the place where we must start. The narrative about this special birth must take place in a context and for Matthew the writer, that context could be summarised in a genealogy. Matthew 1:1-17.
Matthew, we understand, was writing for a Jewish audience and, naturally, wrote with their religious and historical context in mind. Matthew’s point in his genealogy of Jesus was to establish that the child that was born was from of the line of David and was the son of Abraham. David and Abraham being critical markers in the nation’s relationship with God, and the basis of their expectations of Him.
The first thing that Matthew does is to anchor the child in the Jewish understanding of the world, the Judeo-Christian worldview, Creation – Fall – Redemption. We believe that God created man for relationship with Him, man sinned with rebellion in the garden and that relationship was broken, theologians call this the Fall, God then set the redemption story in motion in the Garden of Eden saying, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15.
As redemption history gains momentum, God calls Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 12: and says, “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.” Then God continues, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3.
If Jesus, this baby, was going to be presented as the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world, He first had to be seen as the seed of Abraham, destined to be the answer to the problem of sin and broken relationship with God, as established in Genesis 3:15. Jesus is the son of Abraham and we need to get that before we move forward at Christmas.
Think on these things:
- How far have you incorporated the myths, legends, and cultural lore into your celebration of Christmas?
- Are you able to distinguish where the Bible ends and where the inventions of Christmas begin?
- How are you preparing for this Christmas, apart from family, food, and fun, is there a place for sharing the Gospel story?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be able to ignore the distractions and remain focused on the meaning of the birth of Jesus at this time.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
