Matthew 1:18-25; Birthing the Christ

"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 fulfil 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."

I. Introduction

This is an easy passage from which to derive sermon titles, but it is much more difficult to figure out an actual message that would meet hearers with a sense of freshness and power for today. For example, you could get some attention if you entitled your thoughts, "Obstetrical Irregularities in Matt. 1." Or, then again, you might focus on Joseph's dilemma and entitle it, "A Nice Guy in the Dark." I think I will actually focus on Joseph (next essay) but on a different dynamic that the text suggests--the fact that Joseph receives contrary divine guidance after he has decided what he was going to do. The issue, then, is about his (and our) ability to think different thoughts even after we have decided on the correct course of action. In fact, as I will argue immediately below, focusing on Joseph, rather than Jesus, really is Matthew's concern here. The dynamics of the family of Jesus, rather than on Jesus and his appearance into the world, is Matthew's interest.

II. The "Birth" (or is it "Birthing"?) of Jesus

R.T.France, in his new commentary on Matthew in the revived* New International Commentary on the New Testament, makes

[*the current series editor is Gordon D. Fee, a former professor of mine. Fee brings a fairly different approach to the editing job than his predecessor FF Bruce. Fee will emphasize deep context, excellence in textual and linguistic work, careful rebuttal of the Germans...etc. I say the last with tongue-in-cheek, since I wrote my dissertation in NT when I was studying at Tuebingen, in Germany. The commentaries "lean right" theologically, and they will not indulge in many fanciful or even stunning new theories about early Christianity, but they will yield up good solid insights into the text--if you take your time with the commentary.]

the point that the word which begins our section is the same as that which begins the Gospel of Matthew: "genesis." The Greek word is actually genesis. He notes that there is a difference between genesis and gennesis in Greek, which actually is crucial to understanding this story. The latter, gennesis, is best translated "birth," and that is the way that Matt. 1:18 is usually rendered. But the word genesis (one "n") and not gennesis, appears here. In Matt. 1:1, we translate genesis "family" or "generations." Thus, what is happening in Matthew 1:1 is what you might call the "deep story" of Jesus' family and what happens in our passage for today is the "wide" story of Jesus' family. The first "covers" 42 generations before you can imagine six impossible things; the latter "covers" one generation by focusing on a crucial event in that generation's history--the birthing of Jesus. Matthew 1, rather than being a story about the birth of Jesus, is really a story about birthing Jesus.

Rather than being concerned with shepherds and wise men and inns and doves in the rafters high, who all make Jesus their focus, this story is concerned with the familial dynamics occasioned by the promise of the Christ child. These familial dynamics are what I mean by the word "birthing." While the Gospel of Luke focuses on Mary and her dilemma, Matthew lazers in on Joseph and his problems. And "problems" is not too strong a word. The birthing of the Christ is, for his parents, a big problem. There are things that have to be explained, potential obloquy which needs to be averted, decisions that need to be made. Jesus, in short, caused problems for his parents long before he was born. Most of us, in contrast, only do that once we appear on the scene.

III. On Mary

Now that we know the text will describe the people around Jesus but not Jesus himself, our eyes turn to the parents. Or is it the parent (singular)? We begin with Mary. She was engaged to Joseph but they hadn't yet consummated the relationship. But, she was, literally, "found having in her stomach" (en gastri echousa) from (or "by") the Holy Spirit." The unusual phrase "having in her stomach" is put there as a little signal from Matthew to the alert reader. What does it signal? Well, those same three words, with the verb in a different form, appear in that identical order in the Septuagint version of Isaiah 7:14. Matthew will quote that verse in 1:23:

"Behold, the virgin 'shall have in her stomach' (en gastri hexei) and shall give birth to a son...."

So, even before Matthew is kind enough to "explain" his unusual phrase in 1:18 by the quotation in 1:23, those readers of his text who loved the Bible would know what he was doing. Mary is the one spoken of in Is. 7. After that, however, Mary plays a rather passive role in the rest of the narrative, except for the quick reference to her giving birth (v. 24). Her role here is the counterpart to Joseph's seemingly rather passive role in Jesus' birthing in Luke 1-2. But if we think of this for a moment, it really is quite amazing. It is as if Mary is an almost invisible character in the birthing of Jesus.

The situation is reminiscent of the time when I used to take my son to the store with me when he was a little child. He looked exactly like me. People used to comment on it all the time. My response was, "Yes, we know who his father is, but we are still trying to figure out who the mother is..." You have almost that kind of emphasis in the Gospel of Matthew. So, what about Joseph?

He is really the interesting guy in this story. The next essay tells you about him.

3126