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Fulfillment of Prophecy; The Messiah of the Jews Arrives
From Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Matthew felt an urgency to convince his countrymen, the Jews, to know that Jesus came for them. For Matthew, the story of Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that shows that from the Jews, as God promised, has come the Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. As he puts his gospel together, he makes sure that major events have OT backing or grounding. And he uses the phrase, "All this took place to fulfill" and then he tells you. Take a day to read all of Matthew and you'll see what I'm talking about. As we prepare for the end of our Advent Journey, we're starting to cover all the bases. This is Matthew's account of Jesus' birth. And it fulfills Isaiah's prophecy (Isa. 7:10-16).
The account comes with a scandal. A betrothed woman, who had not yet had sexual relations with her intended, finds out she is with child "from the Holy Spirit." Joseph, in this process of betrothal is already known and called her husband, and only in a case of unfaithfulness (adultery) can he call the wedding off. The year of betrothal was for the woman to fully decide if she wanted to marry her husband or not. But Joseph agonizes about this discovery, and knew that if he exposed her unfaithfulness the wedding would be off, so might her head. Jewish law allowed for Mary to be killed for this offense, so Joseph seeks to quietly divorce her, to spare her life and allow her to get on with her life. But look at the picture for this morning. The angel seems to be lecturing Joseph about his decision. The angel's statement says, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Not only should he not divorce her, his role in naming the son was crucial; Joseph was to name the child Jesus, a deviation of Emmanuel, "God is with us," as Isaiah had predicted. His role as earthly father was also seen as important and when the carpenter awakes he was faithful to the command from God and took her as his wife and upon His birth, named the child Jesus.
Jesus' role is defined in the angel's conversation with Joseph. He was to be born to "save His people from their sins." Joseph understood the need for if he was honest knew that he too, had sins in his life. Being chosen by God to be the earthly father of Jesus, he surely knew the law and its teaching and being aware of his humanness knew the weight and burden of sin in his own life. Joseph knew that people then as now, choose their own way and their own actions and some of these lead us away from God and bring to our lives the stain of sin. Theologically we also know that sin gives birth to death and death an eternal separation from God. Joseph knew that this birth was crucial for God's plan among humans.
The Advent journey should be a time when we ask ourselves how it is with our soul. Are we living an obedient life because we have been freed from our sins, as our Holy Communion ritual says? Or have we not given sin a second thought? Advent means, we realize why Jesus came that first time; to offer a loving, trusting, sin-free relationship with God through Him. And Advent gives us an opportunity to say yes to forgiveness of sin.
PRAYER: Loving God of Advent and Christmas, speak to my heart and allow the sin there to be removed by Your strength and grace. Help me journey forward in this obedient life that I need to have with You. I ask this in Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
