For our next book of study, I've chosen Matthew. It seems that sometimes, Western, Evangelical Christians (myself very much included) tend to lean toward Paul's writings because he gives us steps, and we can follow them. He tells us exactly how we should behave, what to do and what not to do. That's easy. We love easy "steps" to become a better Christ-follower, do we not? But what I have been thinking about is that the central figure in the Bible, Jesus, gives us a perfect picture of how to be when we read the accounts of His life. Yet, if you've grown up in the church, as I have, I think I've only read through any of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) only once. But Paul's writings, oh, I read those all the time. Yet, Paul is not my Savior! He is absolutely an inspired and authoritative Biblical author, and I am sure that His writings are God's words; however, I think it's about time that I looked directly at Jesus' life and examples. So, please crack open your Bible, or open a second browser window to biblegateway.com and follow along in Matthew. Read chapter 1.
Two things stick out to me most in Matthew 1. First of all, why another long list? I loved my creative writing class in high school, and I can distinctly remember the lesson on "catchy introductions" to grab your readers attention. Umm...Matthew... Buddy...that list does not grab my attention and make me want to keep reading! But, as I look down that list of names, it DOES grab me! This is Jesus' lineage. His family. The Jews were expecting someone of noble descent to be their Messiah. If you look at American Presidents in the past couple decades you might see some similarities: handsome, well-spoken, charismatic, sense of humor, lots of money. Apparently, in America, we have our own ideas of what leaders should be, too! I really wonder if FDR could be re-elected this day in age while speaking from his wheelchair...something tells me that our image-obsessed society wouldn't go for that. And neither would the Jews in Jesus' day. So when I see that in Jesus lineage is Jacob (a liar and manipulator), Rahab (a prostitute), David (a murderer and adulterer), Manasseh (an evil leader), and then a bunch of names I know nothing about because perhaps they were just "average", why would I expect God's son to be placed in that line?
But, oh how lovely it is to know that even Jesus' family wasn't perfect. Is there some craziness in your family? There was in Jesus' too! We do not have to have had perfect parents, grandparents and siblings to be welcomed into the arms of Christ! And just as God used the lives of all kinds of people to lead up to the birth of the Messiah, He can use all kinds of people to do His work today. I don't know about you, but seeing that list allows me to connect with Christ in a way that I can feel comfortable coming to Him in my great imperfection. Whatever I might have in my history will not shock or surprise Him. I can come as I am with whatever my history might be. Now THAT makes me want to read more about Jesus and who He was despite His family history!
The other thing that sticks out in a new way to me this morning is Joseph. What a tender heart he had! We are so used to talking about Mary, and she gets more of the credit for this "mother of Jesus thing" doesn't she? But what about Joseph? Three things stick out to me:
1) In verse 19, "Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly." He believes that his fiance, whom he loves deeply, has cheated on him! That's the only reason that she could possibly be pregnant! Yet, I know he loves her deeply and he loves God, because he wants to save as much of her honor as he can and break the engagement quietly. I tell you what, I hope I could have one tenth the grace he showed (believing that Mary had cheated and then lied about it). He still put her honor before his own pride and vengeful desires!
2) Not only that, but he then is told the truth by the angel and chooses to honor and obey the Lord by marrying her, which is what he was told to do. Knowing people, they did the math. When that baby was born, people probably could have figured out that something between the marriage date and the child's birth date didn't quite add up. I wonder how much grief those two suffered because people didn't know the truth -- but Joseph and Mary obeyed anyway.
3) Also, what blows me away is that after they were married, he again honored and obeyed God by not sleeping with her until AFTER the baby was born in order to fulfill the promise that Jesus would be born of a virgin! He's got the ring on her finger, he's a young man with...certain drives, we'll say, and he shows self-control until after Jesus is born. So I'm just wondering, why does Mary get all the credit?? What an incredible, honorable man Joseph was. If he can do it, so can I.
So what about you? Is there anything in your family history or your past that is less than "attractive"? That's okay with Christ. Allow Him to use you because of that. Or maybe you're just kind of average -- a blue collar worker, like Joseph. God wants to use you, too!
And don't you want to just give Joseph a hug? I do! Where in your life today can you continually surrender your will to God's and choose obedience to Him? It is possible, as we see in the young man Joseph's example. But it is a choice.
It's been a joy to soak up some scripture with you this morning! May it stick with us throughout the day...
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