The Third Discourseman
The following is a very lightly edited version of a practice evangelistic Christmas talk I wrote as part of my ministry training. I’ve edited it to be more ‘bloggy’, less ‘talky’. Feel free to share! It’s on Matthew 1:1-17, which I’d recommend reading and then having open in front of you.
Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. Hopefully most of you know this already, if not I’m glad we could get this point out of the way early. But of course, a birth doesn’t just happen, does it? Something needs to happen about 9 months before- again hopefully most of you know this already, and I’m not going to try to explain for those who don’t. But even that isn’t it. There have to be grandparents. Great grandparents. Each one of us comes into the world as the latest twig on the end of an enormous family tree, one stretching back to the start of humanity. A tree full of stories, couples, relationships. Some cute, some embarrassing, some disturbing. Muck ups and missed opportunities. First dates, dramas, deaths.
And these trees we belong to determine lots about us- perhaps more than we like. Where we’re born, how we’re raised, what the expectations on us are.
At Christmas we often hear the stories of Jesus’ birth- Mary and Joseph, wise men, Herod. I think I’ve heard every bit of the first two chapters of Matthew read or taught at Christmas, apart from the very first bit! But Jesus’ family tree is how Matthew starts.
And so I thought I’d write on it. I’m hoping it’ll provide something a bit unexpected and surprising. That it’ll give me a chance to say something different at Christmas, or the same things in a different way. And because Matthew himself thinks it’s important to read this before reading the other Christmas stories. This is how he says the story begins.
But I’m also hoping I’ll convince you that the Bible is more interesting than you thought, perhaps get you intrigued enough to read on in Matthew, or even to follow Jesus tonight. Because I imagine that most of us, if we think that the Bible is boring, outdated, irrelevant, see passages like this as proof. So I’m hoping you’ll give me this one blog to show otherwise. And that if I can convince you that even Jesus’ family tree is packed with gold, telling us who he is and what to expect from him, that you’ll be enticed to read the rest of his story too.
So let’s get cracking. Hopefully you noticed three key things that were repeated- Abraham, David, deportation to Babylon. In verse 1 Jesus is called the Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Then the descendants are listed, Abraham to David, David to deportation, deportation to the Christ.
So what is it about David and Abraham that’s so special? The thing that links David and Abraham and separates them from everyone else is that God made an important Bible promise with each of them. Specifically promises about their offspring, their family tree. When Matthew calls Jesus the son of David, the son of Abraham, and plonks him on the end of their family trees, he is keying into these promises. He’s saying that they’re about to be fulfilled.
So first let’s look at Jesus, the son of Abraham, who alone brings blessing to the nations
The promise God makes to Abraham can be found in Genesis 12. God says this, ‘I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
God promises that Abraham’s family tree will become a great nation, and that through it all the families of the earth will be blessed. International blessing. There can be no claim that God is racist or partial or stingy- he wants his goodness and blessing to go out to every different nation, people group and language.
In fact the genealogy has an international flavour to it. You may have noticed that at a few key moments Matthew breaks his pattern of ‘and x the father of y’. He does this four times to mention mothers- Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah. Two of these women, Rahab and Ruth, are some of the most important examples of non-Israelite women trusting in God and becoming included into his people. Ruth was a Moabite, but married into an Israelite family. When she’s widowed and faces famine, rather than return to her own country she sticks with her mother-in-law. She says ‘Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God’. Rahab was a prostitute in one of the cities Israel under Joshua were to defeat. And when Israelite spies came to her, she sheltered them and protected them, because she knew that God was with them, saying, ‘the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth below’. She recognised God as lord of all, the almighty creator, and so sided with his people. And thus she was spared.
Two women who took the God of Israel as their God, who sided with the offspring of Abraham, and so were blessed. That could be you- perhaps some of you feel like God would want nothing to do with you, like an outsider. But that’s not true at all! God wants to bring blessing to people from all over, to all sorts. To widows, to prostitutes. All you have to do is be like Ruth or Rahab- side with with Jesus. He is the son of Abraham who alone brings blessing to the nations.
Why ‘alone’? The flip side of the promise was, ‘him who dishonours you I will curse‘. This promised blessing is radically inclusive, for all the families of the earth. It is also radically exclusive. Only those who bless Abraham’s offspring will be blessed. Those who dishonour will be cursed. Rahab and her family were spared. The rest of her city was destroyed. Jesus is Abraham’s offspring. Bless him, and you will be blessed. Dishonour him, and you will be cursed.
Secondly Jesus, the son of David who rules as king
We’re told in verse 6 that David was the king. And the promise God makes to David can be found in 2 Samuel 7. God says, ‘I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.’
God promises that David’s family tree will become a great kingdom, that his offspring will rule forever. That’s Jesus, the son of David! He will rule forever, his throne and kingdom will stand forever.
I wonder how recent events in the UK have made you feel about leadership? We’ve had three different prime ministers in one calendar year, and the death of our longest ever reigning monarch. Perhaps that makes you wish for some security, some stability, some permanence. Or perhaps you look at the leaders we had, and are glad they didn’t last forever! I imagine most of us live in tension- on the one hand we long for stability, for strong leadership that’ll stick around and won’t let us down. But we’re sceptical that anyone is good enough to hold such a position. And whenever a good leader does come along, we’re acutely aware that they won’t last.
If you read on in Matthew you’ll see that Jesus is precisely the sort of king you’d want to stay ruling forever. He’s compassionate, kind, just. He rules as a servant, using his power to serve others. He’s a king who lays down his life for his people, dying for them on a cross. And he’s a risen-from-the-dead king, whose rule will last forever. He’s a great teacher and judge, who knows what is right and leads those who follow him into righteousness. Who will deal with those who don’t submit to his rule. There’s so much more that Matthew has to say about each of those ideas. Are you willing to look into what sort of king Jesus is? Whether he really is alive and reigning now? Whether he’s worth listening to and following?
This would be a nice place to end, but Matthew has one step further to go. He wants to make it clear that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham, who comes to an exiled people.
Because you see the elephant in the room is that at this stage in history, Israel’s king is Herod, a puppet ruler set up by the Romans. Several hundred years earlier, Israel had been sent into exile, invaded by Assyria and then Babylon. They had disobeyed God, worshipped other gods, and so were punished. So where was their great nation? Where was their great kingdom? Ever since their return from exile, they’ve essentially been under foreign occupation, with little autonomy or blessing to boast of.
Time to mention the other women. Tamar, verse 3, was Judah’s step-daughter. Her first husband died before they had any children. She married his brother, who refused to try to have children with her, and he then died too. And so Judah promised her his third son, but never married them, leaving her alone, widowed and destitute. In the end she took things into her own hands, and got pregnant by Judah her father in law, by disguising herself as a prostitute.
And David, the guy we’ve been talking so much about- how was he the father of Solomon? By the wife of Uriah, verse 6. The point is that she’s the wife of Uriah- not the wife of David! Perhaps you know the story- David sees her, Bathsheba, bathing on the roof of her house. He thinks she’s attractive, and so flexes his kingly muscles and gets his servants to bring her to him. Even though she’s married, he commits adultery with her and impregnates her, and then gets her husband killed to cover it up.
This genealogy is a history of muck ups. Men getting it horribly wrong. And not just individual men. The whole nation turning their back on God and so being exiled. And so God’s promises look unfulfilled.
Each one of us, on the day of our birth, comes into the world as the latest twig on the end of an enormous family tree, one stretching back to the start of humanity. A tree full of stories, couples, relationships. Some cute, some embarrassing, some disturbing. Muck ups and missed opportunities. First dates, dramas, deaths. Jesus is no different. His family tree is full of stories. It’s very human. It’s messy and morally questionable and full of tragedy.
This is the context into which Jesus was born. A family tree full of stories of God’s faithfulness and promises, both to members of the family and foreigners who sided with it. Full of stories of wickedness, deceit, sexual immorality, unfaithfulness to each other and to God. A family sent into exile, disgraced and shamed, facing death. If we’re honest, that’s not just Israel’s story. It is humanity’s. It is our own.
And Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Born to give hope to a people in despair- hope of a king who would rule forever, and who would bring blessing to people from every nation who put their trust in him. Hope of God’s promises fulfilled at last, for a people who did not deserve them. The possibility of blessing for all people- including you, if like Ruth or Rahab you side with the creator God and with his Son Jesus. If you acknowledge him as king. Christmas is all about his birth. I hope you can see why it’s a birth worth celebrating. Why he’s a man worth following- or at least worth investigating. Merry Christmas!
The Four Discoursemen 