"THE FAMILY TREE"

Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:1-25, selected vss

Talking about today's reading from Matthew,

Tom Long asks a question

that just upsets the heck out of my nativity scene at home.

"If God is the father of Jesus,

why does Joseph even matter?" 

The other three gospels hardly nod to him,

or in two cases not even to the birth story.

Mark and John go straight into the ministry

without even pondering where Jesus came from.

Luke's birth account takes about two chapters

and is loud with praise along the way,

but Joseph is no more than a foil in Luke's gospel.

Now Matthew, on the other hand,

the whole of chapter 1

is devoted to proving that Joseph is the father,

and telling us about how he got the news

and how he chose to handle it.

It's Mary who hardly gets a nod this time.

What's up with that?

Does Joseph matter?

Or is pondering this question at all

like counting angels on the head of a pin?

In listing all of these forty-plus generations,

Matthew is evoking family stories

much like you and I are likely to do

over the next couple of days here.

You know how it is

when someone in your family starts off a story

talking about "Uncle Harry," the fun one,

or Granddaddy Jack,

the one who reminds everybody so much of you,

or crazy aunt Carrie

who got lost going to her own wedding.

Just to hear those names mentioned

tells you where the story is probably going.

And so it is with Matthew.

Matthew in listing all those names

is trying to evoke deeply-imbedded family memories

among an audience who was highly likely to know

most if not all of the players mentioned.

Some of the people named are nobodies,

like, for example Perez. 

If you can tell me more about him

than that he was the son of Tamar,

whose own story belongs more on Jerry Springer

than it does on scripture,

I'll buy you lunch!

Some of the names listed by Matthew

are never heard from again.

Some of them are heroes,

even giants of the faith,

like Abraham and David.

Surprisingly, maybe even in Matthew's time shockingly,

five of those named are women.

And none of them even Jewish!

Among them were a prostitute,

a foreigner from a despicable country,

a slave,

the object of a king's desire,

and an unwed mother.

That's not exactly DAR material!

The faithful people of that day

could read over that list

and hear those names

and begin to think things like,

"Now Perez, who was he?"

Or, "Oh, yeah, Gramma Rahab!"

Or, "Hezekiah, he was the good king they always talked about."

Just hearing those names

made them think about the blood coursing through their own veins,

and ponder how much of Abraham or Ruth or Josiah

might be part of their own DNA.

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Well, as cool as that all may be,

it only intensifies the mystery.

Who would Matthew go to all that trouble

to prove Jesus' lineage,

and in neat fourteen-generation packages at that,

when we confess that Jesus is the son of God,

born of the Virgin Mary?

I think what it shows

is that Joseph,

and through him Abraham and David and Ruth

and Hezekiah and even Perez

are more than God's people.

They have been grafted into the family of God.

What this says

is that Joseph and his ancestors

were much more than a nice bunch of people,

who God thought well of.

Through the birth of Jesus,

God took on human flesh

and came to look just like you and me.

And through the faithfulness of Joseph,

he and all line

became next of kin with the Son of God:

as much blood relatives of God,

through the birth of Jesus,

as if God had more than one child.

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This is why it's important for you and me.

What this means

is that through the birth of Jesus,

God has not only made us all kin with each other,

we are kin to God.

Later in the New Testament,

Paul writes to the Romans in chapter eight:

"We did not receive a spirit of fear,

to fall back into slavery,

but we received a spirit of adoption."[1]

And he says to the Ephesians,

"You are no longer strangers and aliens,

but you are citizens with the saints

and also members of the household of God."[2]

You and I are part of the story!

If Matthew had kept writing,

he might have added,

"the father of Glenn,

the father ofDoris,

the father of Madeline daughter of Johnny and Mary,"

the father of? you.

The family tree comes right down

to include your name, your face,

your shortcomings, your foreignness,

your belovedness of God.

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One more thing about family trees.

It almost goes without saying

that they're full of names -

and names are important.

All the way back to Old Testament times,

one's name often decided one's character or fate.

There was always the hope, or fear,

that one would live up to one's name.

(I wonder what they would make of some of the Hollywood names

like "Apple" or "Rumer" or "Dweezil!")

Matthew tells us

that the angel says to Joseph that this baby,

the one who brings together the entire family tree,

will be called Jesus,

for he will save his people.

The Hebrew name Jesus

is also the Hebrew verb "save." [3]

Imagine that:

on Christmas,

we have a baby named Save.

There were other "Saves" in the Old Testament -

Joshua, Isaiah, Hosea,

and they all saved in their own way.

But now, this baby to be born will save:

from sin and guilt,

from death and destruction,

from despair and hopelessness.

He lives up to his name, doesn't he?

Then the angel confirms the prophecy of Isaiah:

this baby shall also be called Emmanuel,

God with us.

He lived up to that name too.

Throughout all the rest of the New Testament,

we have all that evidence

that Jesus showed up when people were in need,

and he saved them.

His very presence makes new life possible,

because at the point of hunger,

and disease, and even death,

God is with us.

God has come to be with us

in this season of need and joy,

all through a baby named Save.

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It's all of a piece.

Neither Matthew's nor anyone's list of names

could be long enough to include all of God's children.

But genealogical accuracy is not the point.

Amid all the heroes and heroines of scripture,

the willing and the weak,

the compromised and the comforted,

Jesus does indeed save.

Like Joseph,

we have become part of that great heritage.

Like Joseph,

we may not always know what to do with it!

Notice, though,

that this story doesn't ask us to do anything.

It just invites us to be dazzled.

It invites us to ponder

that, while our world may feel unsavable,

here is the baby named Save.

While our world and our lives may feel abandoned,

here is the baby named God with us.

Friends, God is indeed with us,

as closely connected as our next of kin. 

May this coming Christmas Day,

and every day,

find that we are with closely connected with God.

Amen.