Matthew 1,1-17
This Sunday and next we move fully into the celebration of Christmas I thought we might spend sometime looking at Matthew Chapter 1. Now you may wonder why I have chosen to preach on the list of names contained in the first seventeen verses of Matthew. It may be that you think that they are a great irrelevance. But there is no part of the word of God that is unfruitful for us to study.
Firstly we must note that this was an important aspect of Jewish culture everyone knew their ancestry in those days indeed there were extensive records kept. It was important for all sorts of cultural and religious reasons. And as far as we know they were accurate. No one for example could be priest in the temple unless he had the proper levitical ancestry stretching back to Aaron.
The names are arranged in three great sections based on the three great stages of Jewish history. The first section takes the story up to David. David, the great king was the man who moulded and welded Israel into a nation and who made the jews a power in the world. The second section takes the story down to the exile on Babylon. It is a section that tells of the nation's shame and tragedy and disaster. The third section takes the story down to our beloved Jesus. Jesus our Emmanuel, our saviour. Jesus who rescued us from disaster and who turned tragedy into triumph.
These three stages stand for the three stages in the spiritual history of Mankind.
The first is this: We were born for greatness. God created us in his own image. Let me quote to,you from a commentary on this:"As Cicero, the Roman thinker, saw it, "the only difference between man and God is in point of time - Man was essentially - man born to be king."
The second is this: Man lost his greatness. Instead of being a loving dutiful child and servant of God man became instead a slave of sin. GK Chesterton said, "whatever else is true of man, man is not what he was meant to be". We rebelled and we frustrated the whole plan of God for the cosmos.
The third is this: Man can regain his greatness. God did not abandon us to our own devices. He did not allow us to seek utter destruction. Into this world he sent his beloved Son - Our Saviour Jesus Christ.
And so the whole range of human misery is laid before us ending in the great hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Here therefore we see the mercy of God laid before us for each one of us.
But there is more for the passage stresses two special things about Jesus.
Firstly it stresses that Jesus was the Son of David. That is one of the main reasons for this list appearing. It is an important fact stressed throughout the New Testament. We find in Acts on the lips of Peter and in Romans and in Timothy on the lips of Paul. And indeed in Revelation 22v16 we read, "I, Jesus have sent my angel to announce these things to you in the churches. I am descended from the family of David. I am the bright morning star." And again and again in the gospels Jesus is addressed as the Son of David. It is the Son of David who is greeted as procession makes its way into Jerusalem. So clearly this is an important fact. Something of enormous significance.
The Jews were waiting. There was at this time a real sense of expectancy. They were the chosen people of God. Despite disasters, despite the Roman occupation this was never forgotten. They were chosen. They had a destiny. They had a date with God. Through the line of David there would arise a mighty leader, a messiah who would lead to them to glory. Jesus was the answer to their hope and dreams.
They dreamed of wealth and power and earthly kingdoms. So do we. Look how quickly the National Lottery tapped into dreams of untold wealth and with it power. But in Jesus came the real fulfilment of our dreams. The only way to real true everlasting wealth and peace and happiness in through Jesus Christ.
The second thing this passage stresses is prophecy. Jesus is portrayed as the fulfilment of that prophecy. As we search the Old Testament so we find it fulfilled in the new. Now that may not excite you immediately nor may it seem terribly relevant to today but it is. For it reveals beyond a shadow of doubt that this is a planned universe. There is purpose, design and point to the universe and to each individual life. God means and wills certain things to happen. We are not as Talking Heads once sang, "on the road to nowhere."
And that is a message of prime importance to this world of ours, to our neighbours and to our friends and to the great mass of the lost and confused, the people who still dwell in darkness. God is in charge. Jesus is here. And in him we may dream our dreams and live for ever.