Thought for the Week 2020 – Advent 3

Matthew 1: 18 – 2: 2

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’

²² All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

2¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’

 

Advent 3 – God With Us

Our Nativity plays would be very different if we only had Matthew’s account, and didn’t have Luke’s version as well. Paintings and Christmas card pictures would also be very different. There would be no stable scene or innkeeper (not that Luke mentions a stable or an inkeeper anyway, but that’s another matter!). A ‘Matthew only’ Nativity would focus on Joseph, and whilst we might include an angel, we wouldn’t have the angel visiting Mary or the shepherds – his only role would be appearing to Joseph in a dream. There would be no explanation of how Mary came to be ‘pregnant through the Holy Spirit’ nor anything about the journey to Bethlehem – we would simply assume that Bethlehem was where they lived. The main part of the story would focus on the Wise Men and Herod – no shepherds! The paintings and plays would be set in a house in Bethlehem, with the Magi bringing gifts, and Herod glowering in the corner!

But our Bibles are rich because we have more than one angle on this story (and other stories). No contradictions in the different accounts – Matthew alone or Luke alone would be like black and white: together they give us a colour picture of the Nativity! And although Mark and John do not describe the birth of Jesus, their Gospel accounts add further dimensions to what we know of the birth, life, ministry, teaching, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus!

Two weeks ago we looked at the prophecy in Isaiah 7 that Matthew quotes here in verse 23 of our reading: “‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).” It was a prophecy written about 700 years before the birth of Jesus, and Matthew (inspired by the Holy Spirit) is in no doubt that it has reached its fulfilment in the birth of Christ which he is writing about. Both Matthew and Luke, writing independently (and each taking a very different angle on the story), include the fact that Mary was a virgin. And Matthew makes it clear that this is a fulfilment of prophecy. And not only that, but this ‘name’ (or almost a ‘nickname’) would apply – Immanuel, meaning ‘God With Us’. It is interesting that neither the son of Isaiah, born in Isaiah 7, nor the Son of God born in Matthew 2 was actually named Immanuel. Nevertheless, it is clear in both cases that God was with the people. That’s what the reminder was at the time of Isaiah; and most importantly, when Jesus came it was fully realised! When Jesus came, God was truly with us in a way he never had been before. He was fully man and fully God – ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’ (John 1: 14)

Today, we still have ‘Immanuel’ because God is still with us. He promised it and we can know that it is true. We face uncertainty, change and anxiety. Everything is different this Christmas compared to last year. And we are all hoping that next Christmas will be ‘back to normal’ – However, today there is fear and uncertainty. But through it all we can know Immanuel: God is with us, he never leaves us and he will come with us as we pass though these troubled times.

A few years from now (if we are still here) we will look back on this very different Christmas in 2020 – and I pray that we will say, ‘Yes, although there was a lot of uncertainty and worry, and so much was different, the thing that really marked out that Christmas was the knowledge of Immanuel – God really was with us in a wonderful and powerful way.’

 

Prayer

Almighty God, we praise you for the Good News of the incarnation at Christmas – a reminder of Immanuel, God With Us, and always with us. We thank you for your Word, recorded and preserved for us in the Bible, and for the joy of the stories of the Nativity that we find there.

Father, we come to you in worship this year, but you know that we also come with some fear and anxiety in our hearts at the moment. We pray for peace for all of us – may we trust in you to never leave us and to go with us through all that we are facing in our world and our community this year. Amen.