Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.47 – December 2006

 

A Fresh Start

 

An Advent Sermon by Rev John De Jongh on Matthew 1:1-17

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:4-9

Suggested Hymns:  BoW 250; 72a; 252:1-3; Rej 457

 

Dear Congregation.

There was a series on TV a while ago called ‘Always Greener’ or something like that. It was about one family from the city and another one from the country who swapped places. They both felt they needed a change, a new start.

In a far deeper and more important way, a world fallen into sin needs a fresh start. It needs to be made over, and become a new creation. And God’s plan is to do just that. His plan is to take the raw materials of a sinful humanity, and a creation ruined by sin, and remake them into a creation that’s new and perfect.

But how to start? Where to start? With the high point of the first creation being the creation of man, that’s where God decided to start his work of new creation. And so a second Adam was needed, a sinless Adam. A second humanity was needed, a righteous humanity – children of the sinless Adam. And finally, through the second Adam, the whole of creation would be redeemed and restored.

But what’s all that got to do with this genealogy at the beginning of Matthew? Well, this genealogy shows us that this new start comes in Jesus. He’s the New Adam, the New Creation, the New Humanity, and the New Israel that we need. The fresh start has already happened. It’s already come in the man we know as Jesus.

Point 1

The very first words here in Matthew 1 begin to make this point. They’re the same words that the Greek version of the Old Testament uses to introduce the creation account in Genesis 2 and the first main genealogy of the Bible in Genesis 5 from Adam to Noah. Jews in Matthew’s day knew it well. As soon as they read the first words here in Matthew, they would have thought of the words in Genesis 2 and 5.

The problem is, we often think that genealogies in the Bible are hard to read, easier to skip over, maybe even a waste of space. We don’t really see the point. But many other cultures understand the importance of genealogies. And the Jews in Matthew’s day certainly saw the point! They understood that one of Matthew’s claims here is that in Jesus we have a New Creation, we have a New Adam.

Other Bible writers pick up the same point – like Paul in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. He writes things like, “Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” And, “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. … The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”

And so if we want to be part of this New Creation that will be freed from the curse of sin and death, we must be united with this New Adam, Jesus. He’s the only way we can have our sins forgiven and be set free. Whether we like it or not, we’re connected biologically to the first Adam. He’s the one who took us into sin and condemnation in the first place. But in Jesus we find a New Adam who can set us free. If we put our faith and trust in him, commit ourselves to him and live for him, then we are a New Creation. 2 Corinthians 5 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

One other way Matthew makes the same sort of point here is through the structure of this passage – 3 lots of 14 generations. We read that and say, OK, so what? And we might especially question its significance when we find out that it doesn’t seem to be literally true. Matthew has missed generations out. There are kings after David that haven’t been listed. And Luke mentions 15 other generations from David to Christ that Matthew doesn’t. In fact, depending on how you count them, at least one of these sections of 14 generations doesn’t even have 14 generations.

But it’s not that the data is wrong – it’s just compressed – some things are left out. It was normal in Matthew’s day to skip generations in a genealogy to make a point. And in fact, throughout this whole gospel Matthew likes to arrange his material in groups of 3 or 7. Here he actually has 3 groups of 2×7. So what’s his point?

Seven is the Bible’s symbolic number for fulfilment and completeness. Matthew’s point in using these groups of seven is that in Jesus we’ve found the fulfilment for which the Old Testament was a preparation. The purpose of the Old Testament has now been met in Jesus. You could even say that in Jesus the seventh seven has begun. Matthew gives us six groups of seven in his genealogy, and in Jesus the seventh seven has begun – ultimate fulfilment has been achieved in him.

We can be a part of that ultimate fulfilment, too, if we aren’t already. We can have a part in Jesus. We can commit ourselves to him in faith as the fulfilment of the ages, the one in whom everything is complete. And then he will also complete us. He will begin a new work in us by his Holy Spirit, and we will have a place in his New Creation when he comes again and brings it with him.

Point 2

As well as being the New Adam and the New Humanity, this genealogy shows that Jesus is a true son of Abraham. It was through Abraham that One would come through whom all the nations would be blessed. And so if Jesus is the one Matthew claims him to be, he had to come from the line of Abraham. And here we see in black and white that he was.

Jews were very particular about keeping their genealogies accurate. People in Jesus’ day could prove that Jesus was descended from Abraham. As Jews read down through this genealogy that Matthew gave them, as they read one famous name out of the Old Testament after another, as they maybe did a bit of research on their own, it was clear enough that Jesus was a true Jew, a true son of Israel.

But Matthew’s point is even stronger than that. Jesus isn’t only a true son of Israel – he’s the New Israel. In verse 2 already, Matthew breaks his stride in the normal pattern here to mention Judah’s brothers. Judah and his 11 brothers became the 12 tribes of Israel. Maybe there’s already a hint here that Matthew is associating Jesus in some way with the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel.

And the link with the twelve tribes of Israel is especially emphasised when in chapter 10 Jesus chooses his band of disciples. Is it a coincidence that he chooses 12? Or is he presenting himself as the New Israel, and his 12 disciples as his 12 spiritual children who would become the foundation of the new spiritual Israel?

And as well as that, what’s the message he preaches to the physical kingdom of Israel? In chapter 4 he starts to preach with, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” His call to physical Israel is that they repent from their sin and enter his heavenly kingdom.

Once again, other New Testament writers pick this theme up as well. Paul in Romans 9 writes, “It’s not the natural children [of Abraham] who are God’s children, but the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” Peter in his letters uses the terms God described physical Israel with at Mt Sinai to describe believers – like a “chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, a people belonging to God.”

Matthew’s point is that as well as Jesus being the New Adam and the New Creation, he’s the New Israel. And we can enter his kingdom as well, and be citizens of the spiritual Israel that will be saved, through faith in him. Old Testament physical Israel was a dismal failure when it came to representing God to the nations. But Jesus as the New Israel won’t fail in that. In fact he’s succeeding right now through everyone who puts their faith in him. This is the Israel who will find themselves on the New Earth as the New Jerusalem that has been saved from the final destruction. We are a part of this New Jerusalem, too, if we have given our wholehearted commitment to Jesus.

Point 3

There is a further point that Matthew makes in this genealogy; Jesus is the True King. The crime he was crucified for was the claim that he was King of the Jews. The way it was written on the sign above his head was that he was King of the Jews. Pilate was being sarcastic; but it was true. Jesus is the true King of the Jews.

And so it’s made clear in this genealogy that he’s a son of King David. You could only be anointed King of Israel if you came from the line of David. And so David is a key figure in this list. Jesus is a descendant of David. But what about the fact that his parents weren’t married at the time of his birth? His legal father was Joseph, but he was not the biological father of Jesus. Jesus had no biological father. His mother was Mary. But Joseph and Mary weren’t married when he was born. Should that affect his right to the throne? People would have asked those questions in his day. It was probably something some people held against him his whole life. Why should they believe that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit?

Matthew answers those kinds of concerns by breaking from his normal pattern here again to highlight a number of other questionable relationships in the line of kings blessed by God. And so Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba all get a mention. At least 3 of them were Gentiles. Tamar slept with her father-in-law because he wasn’t keeping marriage commitments for her. Rahab had been a prostitute before joining Israel. Ruth was a Moabitess – they’d been forbidden by God from entering his assembly. And Bathsheba had been seduced by King David while being married to Uriah. But in spite of all that, God had even included these women in the line of promise. He’d used one of these marriages to provide an heir to David’s throne. Was the fact that Mary was unmarried and unknown really such an insurmountable hurdle to Jesus being heir to David’s throne?

And even more importantly, Jesus wasn’t only of the line of David, but he was in the line to the throne. Not all descendants of David had a right to the throne, but Jesus was a rightful heir.

You might know that through an irony of history a whole line of people have missed out on the British throne. Some time, hundreds of years ago, a crown prince chose to abdicate his position and so the whole line of his descendants since have missed out. And you can actually track down through the family trees and discover who would be ruling today if things had been a bit different back then. It turns out that a current would-be heir is actually living in Australia. You can be a physical heir without ever sitting on the throne. But Jesus was the rightful heir to David’s throne. If anyone was going to accept the position in his day, it should have been him.

And so, in Jesus, Old Testament history had reached its appointed goal. The period of preparation was complete, the period of fulfilment had begun. Jesus is the Davidic king in whom God’s promises to David in 2 Samuel 7 are fulfilled – that his house and kingdom will endure forever, that his throne will be established forever. Jesus is the true and eternal king.

We need to commit to him as our king, to submit to him as our king. I know that in our day and age people don’t especially like to submit to other people’s authority, but when it comes to Jesus, that’s beside the point. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. What we need to do is simply be what he wants us to be, do what he wants us to do. Through faith in him, he is our king, and we are his people. Our place isn’t to question him. Our place isn’t to resist him. Our place is to live for him in everything.

Conclusion

With Christmas coming closer, this probably isn’t the message of Christmas that we’re going to hear in the shops and the streets. We might not see a whole lot of it in the papers or on the television. In fact with political correctness going crazy, councils and shopping centres don’t seem too sure what to do with Christmas any more – we want to celebrate, but we’re not too sure how we’re allowed to.

But this is the real message of Christmas. It isn’t as romantic as a baby born in a stable on a silent night. It isn’t as contemporary as a baby born to unmarried parents in poverty surviving only on their love for each other and their wits. But it’s the real message of Christmas.

Jesus is a new beginning for the world, a new Adam, a new humanity. He’s a new Israel. He’s a new King of Israel. And we can be a part of this new beginning, this new humanity, through faith in him. The call to us in this genealogy is to put our faith in Jesus as our fresh start, our new beginning – to live for him as our King.

Amen.