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His Brightness Ends the Darkness Text:
Matthew 1:18-25 Now wait a minute! That's the Christmas story? But where are the shepherds and the “multitude of the heavenly host” breaking into song? Instead there's only one angel, and he sounds more like an attorney in a three-piece suit giving Joseph marital counseling saying that he ought to see this thing through and try to work things out with Mary later. Where's the message of glory in the highest and peace on earth? Matthew says, “The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” No it didn't! That's not the way I heard it. Have you? He doesn't even tell us where the first Christmas happened! Oh! Wait! You have to keep reading. Chapter two mentions Bethlehem. Okay. Fine. But is that where Mary and Joseph lived? What happened to the long, arduous journey from Nazareth, the decree by Caesar Augustus, the mean innkeeper? And not only is there no manger, but in the next chapter Matthew says they were in a house! No, this can't be the real Christmas story. I don't like it. Anyway, how are you going to make a play or tableau out of this with the children? I like Luke's Christmas better: the one with shepherds, and singing angels, and swaddling clothes and the manger; Mary dressed in blue riding a little donkey under the bright, glitter of starlight.
Now you ought to interrupt me here and say, “Pastor! Preach the text. Tell us what's there not what's not there!” And you'd be right. That is your right—to make sure your pastor preaches only what God has caused to be written in the Bible, nothing more and nothing less.
Okay, then. This is Matthew, not Luke, not John, Matthew. Let's proceed as if this is the only story of Christmas we have. “The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” Notice, first, Matthew doesn't just call him “Jesus,” but his name with his title, “Jesus the Christ.” That's Matthew's first concern—to show and convince you that this is the promised Christ, the Messiah and Savior, not just someone who thought he might be the Savior. He just spent the first seventeen verses of his Gospel nailing that down for you with his three-stanza genealogy from Abraham to David to the Babylonian deportation to Joseph and Mary.
“The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” His mother's name is Mary. She is “betrothed” to a man named Joseph. “Betrothed” is way more than our modern “engagement” and not too much less than actual marriage as Matthew already calls Joseph “her husband.” Only now does Matthew tell us the dramatic eyebrow raiser, “she was found to be with child.” Well, it certainly raised more than eyebrows in that day. The fact that out-of-wedlock pregnancies have become no big deal today is more a commentary on the collapse of morality in our world. But notice how Matthew doesn't even let you begin to entertain any salacious thoughts as he immediately adds the phrase “from the Holy Spirit.”
Again, how this happened Matthew doesn't say. Luke does! We learn from him how the angel appeared to Mary and how she willingly submitted to God's plan. With Matthew we're left to wonder if maybe even Mary was going through some stress over the situation. We're not told. We don't need to be told. Matthew's Christmas has little to do with Mary at all, but seems to be more about Joseph!
He tells us Joseph was a “just man.” With this word he means to tell us that, with the Savior barely on the scene in the womb of his mother, the old rules are beginning to change. Joseph resolves not to expose his bride's great sin, which could result in her being stoned to death, but rather to “divorce her quietly.”
We're just like Joseph, at least in this way. Things happen around us that confuse us, things that seem to threaten our best-laid plans. The reverses and turns that come our way all-too-easily shatter our hopes and dreams. It seemed to be an impossible situation. But, as Joseph needed and got more information than he could figure out on his own from the angel of the Lord, so we need the understanding of faith, the light and enlightenment of God's Word especially in our darkest moments. Oh, Joseph's situation was truly unique, having a role to play in a bone fide miracle of God, but the Word of God enables us to see God acting behind the scenes, working even our setbacks and sufferings to serve our ultimate good and destiny as children of God and heirs of the Kingdom.
The angel calls Joseph “son of David.” Once again we are reminded of the Messianic thread! Then those wonderful words that so many long to hear from someone who has the authority to deliver on their word: “Do not be afraid!” “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” The Apostle John wrote, “perfect love casts out fear” [1 John 4:18 (ESV)]. Jesus our Savior is all about revealing the heart of God's love for you and for his whole world. In him, with him and through him you can receive and believe his authority to deliver when he says, “Do not be afraid!”
The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. Way before ultrasounds the angel is able to tell Joseph “she will bear a son.” It has to be a son, a male, for he is to be a priest, and it is not given to women to represent God much less to be God in the flesh.
The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. It is the father's prerogative to name his child. When the angel told Joseph, “and you shall call his name Jesus,” it was a reminder that Joe was only the step-father. And though the name “Yeshua,” “Joshua,” “Jesus” was a common name, this Holy Child would be the only One to actually live up to his name, for “he will save his people from their sins.”
The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way—no mention of shepherds, mangers or decrees. And it took place for this reason: it was God's plan from the beginning. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us).” And that's the really good news: Immanuel, God with us and God for us. In His Son God has literally, bodily joined with us so that we could be joined, reconciled, reunited with Him. For in his body he bore our sins away on the cross. In Holy Baptism we are united with that death of his, that death of ours. Now, as he is risen from the dead, he raises us to a hope so strong and sure that nothing can take it away, that we shall stand beside him for eternity. You know, we really owe Matthew our gratitude. For, while we gleefully celebrate with angels and shepherds “away in a manger,” we are not distracted from what is the most important: the birth of Jesus Christ that took place in this way and for this reason, to be our Savior and our Redeemer. ___________________
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