December 31-The Eve of the Name of Jesus-St. Matthew 1:18-21

‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.’ (Ps. 19:14) Amen.

‘Grace, mercy and peace will be with you, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.’ (2 John 3) Amen.

‘Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.’ (Vv. 18-19)

The Book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. We see that in the very name of the book. The word genesis means exactly that, beginning.

When you read the first book of the Bible, you hear immediately of God’s creative work in the beginnings of everything that exists in our world and our universe. It does not seem terribly detailed in that account, but all that is necessary for life to become reality and to exist happened in those first six days.

So, do you make connections to any of the other later books of the Bible? Perhaps you do, perhaps not. Paul speaks of such beginnings in his letter to the Romans. The book of Genesis is full of events in the lives of the patriarchs, which look ahead to the life of Christ and His redemptive work for you.

So, what is happening here?

What Matthew is trying to tell us is that his narrative is similar to what we read in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Moses tells us of the creation of the heavens and the earth. Matthew intends to tell us, briefly, of the beginnings, Genesis, of Jesus. The Evangelist is going to describe here in these verses the genesis of Him who created the heavens and the earth. The One who will yet make a new heaven and new earth.

This is Joseph’s side of the story. The Gospel of Luke kind of tells us Mary’s side of this story. We hear of what the angel tells her and we hear about her hymn of praise, the Magnificat. We hear the songs of praise sung by Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin. Yet, here in Matthew, we hear from Joseph’s side. This entire first chapter of Matthew is not a competition between him and Luke, as some overly learned “theologians” would have us understand. Instead, Matthew’s genealogy and his nativity story are a compliment to Luke’s. Matthew fills in the part for us that Luke chooses to leave out.

Joseph begins thinking that he will do the just or right thing for Mary, his betrothed. After all, according to the Law of God (Gen. 29:21; Deut. 22:23f), betrothal was a serious a thing as marriage. The only difference being one of living together. Now, we know from Leviticus what the punishment was for adultery. Joseph could have put her out and made a public spectacle and she would have been stoned for what Joseph thought she had done.

In this case, the angel appears to Joseph in order to set him right in what had been conceived in his wife. As a just and upright man, the angel would have been asking this man to take a big leap of faith into the unknown. This was really a leap of faith for Joseph. He had to take the angel’s word for it that this was truly the will of God. Mary had not told him any of what had happened. After all, would any of you ladies tell your families or the one to whom you were betrothed a story like Mary had to tell? She had no right to expect that she would be believed.

Yet, this is the sort of position our heavenly Father and His Son our Savior puts us in throughout or lives. Our life as Christians is a life of faith. Both you and I are often seemingly left in a situation in life where we simply must trust that our God has not abandoned His promises or we His children.

Whether it is the actions of our government, the economy and our retirement savings or our livelihood. Or it could be any number of other events in our lives. In our area, this can easily happen even to those who are farmers. Farmers are often held up as ones who have more or greater faith than others in society. This is often the case. However, as I am sure you who are farmers know, you have just as much opportunity to doubt the steadfast love of God as any of the rest of us sinful humans.

Just as Joseph had no reason, humanly speaking, to trust the word of the angel. He had every reason to trust his own eyes and his reason that told him that he had been betrayed by Mary. So also, events in your lives give each of you reason to doubt the faithfulness of your Savior. This is not to say that you fall to that temptation. You may or, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, you may not.

It is as the eighth Psalm tells us, ‘what is man that you are mindful of him’ (: 4). Yet, your God is mindful of you. He has sent Jesus to be circumcised on this day and ‘to fulfill all righteousness’ (St. Mt. 3:15) so that your redemption may be made complete. He does this, not because of you, but because of His own great mercy (Titus 3:4-7). Jesus has redeemed you now. He will see you through all trial in this life as well. He has promised you this, Jesus has told us that He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5, 6), and that He will be with you unto the end of the age (St. Mt. 28:20).

With your redemption accomplished and now made yours by faith given by the Holy Spirit (Small Catechism II: 3rd pt.) in view, remember the words of the Psalmist.
‘O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all
the earth!’ (Ps. 8:1, 9)

In Jesus’+ Name. Amen.