‘It’s a strange way to tell a story” that’s how Matt Woodley
describes the way Matthew starts his gospel. It’s not till the end of the third chapter of the
story does the main character step centre stage. It’s not till chapter 3:15
that Jesus steps from the crowd and we hear him speak, then it is only “a quick
line to his cousin, to explain his own baptism”, and in “the first half of
chapter four it’s only three short lines this time… to the devil.” … In the
desert…
In fact Matthew’s gospel starts off as Joseph’s story and
John’s story, that’s John the Baptist. They are the focus… Jesus birth is told
from Joseph’s perspective, the story tells of Joseph’s encounters with God,
Joseph’s actions and reactions. John appears seemingly from nowhere, a voice
crying in the wilderness, and sets the scene, calling people to get ready for
the kingdom of heaven to prepare themselves for Jesus.
And it may seem a strange way to start the year. It’s like
looking at the last part of Josephs story is unfinished business from before
Christmas and the holidays. We had been going through Advent looking at the birth of Jesus in Matthew's gospel, We started with his whakapapa (genealogy), looked at his reaction to the angels message about Mary, talked about the three wisemen and Herod and we’d stopped like many do with Joseph andthe family fleeing to Egypt. But there is one more section of the story, one
more God moment for Joseph, one more journey, that tells us about who Jesus is,
and reinforces Joseph as a model for us of faith…of being prepared for Jesus.
It is also getting us ready for the new year. AS we are
going to be focusing in our services on Jesus teaching in the sermon on the
mount. John acts as a sign post for us pointing us to the coming kingdom of
heaven. Telling us about the heart attitude we need to adopt to hear and
respond to Jesus the messiah and what he is going to say and do.
This may seem a strange way to start a sermon. commenting on Matthew's quirky literary style... But let’s move
on to look at Joseph’s story and John’s story and what they have to say to us
about being Prepared to encounter Jesus. In the gospel and in our own lives.
Joseph had taken Mary and the child to Egypt. An angel had
told them to do this, to escape from Herod’s massacre of male children under
two. Now Herod is dead, Herod the great died in about 4BC. An angel again
appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him it is now safe to return home, to go
back to Israel, as those who are trying to kill the child are themselves dead.
AS we have seen all the way through Joseph’s story, when he hears from God he
obeys.
In Judea Herod’s son Archelaus has come to power, and really
its more of the same. Archelaus follows his fathers’ ruthless ways, however he
does not have his father’s abilities when it comes to organisation and his
reign is short lived. Again Joseph is warned, like his father Archelaus is a
threat and there is danger. Joseph is warned to take Jesus and to go to the
Galilee. Again he does what he is told and settles in a town called Nazareth.
From Luke’s gospel we know that he and Mary had lived there before Jesus was
born. However Matthew tells us that even this was in fulfilment of what the old
testament prophets had said, that he would be called a Nazarene. Josephs action
and all that happens here Matthew sees as being in fulfilment of the
scriptures.
In all of Josephs story we find that Jesus identity is
revealed to us through the names and titles he is given: The Messiah, the son
of David and the son of Abraham. Jesus which means ‘God saves” Emmanuel which
means “God with us”, this is God’s son. Now we see that in going to live in
Nazareth he is also fulfilling a scripture and is also given the title of the
Nazarene.
However, this title is a bit of an enigma, as Nazareth is
not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament. It could mean that Jesus was
identified as a Nazarite like samson, but we know from Jesus life that he did
not adhere to the stringent code for that… of not cutting his hair, abstaining
from alcohol. Some have seen it as a play on words for the word which we translate
branch in Isaiah 11:1 as in a branch from Jesse, a messianic title. But it is
more likely that the term was one of disrespect and distain. Galilee and
Nazareth were like saying someone was from Hamilton or from Gore, or even that
little known place with the Maori sounding name… nowhere… NO W H E R E. It was
seen as a backwater, a place where the pagans lived not a stronghold of Jewish
thinking or religion. Here at the end of Joseph’s story we get a complete
picture of who Jesus is, as it seems to fit in with the suffering servant in Isaiah
53, where the one who saves many is seen as coming from the wrongside of the
tracks with nothing to attract us to him.
But how does this story prepare us for Jesus? well Joseph is
an example for us of what it means to be a person of faith. Joseph is a man of
great faith and builds his life around Jesus. That is shown to us in that when he hears
God’s word he obeys and puts it into action.. While we may at times hear God
speak to us through a dream or a vision, or sense a messenger from God, the way
in which most of us will hear God speak is through his word, the scriptures.
Jesus at the end of his sermon on the mount will say to all who would follow
him, if you love me you will hear my words and obey them. You will hear my
teaching and put it into practise in your life, and Joseph is the example at
the start of the gospel of someone with that faith, someone for the love of
Jesus … does that. Matthew shows us the model of how we are to respond to Jesus
right from the start.
Now let’s turn to John’s story. John calls the people of his
day and his readers today to get ready for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.
He calls them to have the kind of faith that Joseph shows us…
If the gospel was a movie their would be an ellipse between
chapter 2 and 3. The screen would go dark for a while and we know by conversion
that it was to denote the passing of time. Matthew tells us that ‘in those
days, John the Baptist came”. In those days is used in the Old Testament to
speak not of a date but an important time in history. John comes preaching in
the wilderness calling people to repent for the ‘Kingdom of heaven has come
near’. AS Matthew paints A picture of
John’s clothing and diet, to his first century Jewish readers they would
understand that John is a prophet, they would note the similarities between him
and Elijah, and to their minds would come the words of Malachi 4 of Elijah
coming before the messiah… For us it’s a bit hard to hear John’s message
without that picture of hellfire and brimstone preaching, that we associate
with the word repent, and the picture of the wild eyed dishevelled man, with
bugs and honey on his breath does not help, it’s a negative not a positive.
I found NT Wright helpful in being able to look past that.
He says that the road, the water, the fire and the axe are four strong
metaphors that prepare us for the real start of the Jesus story. He likens John’s message to the declaration of a
royal visit, and how we respond to that. John is after all the one who goes
before like a herald with the good new that the king is coming.
The kingdom of heaven is not referring to the promise of
eternity when we die, Heaven is used in Matthew’s Gospel as a substitute for the
word God… Matthew as first century Jew would be reluctant to use God’s name so
substitutes heaven the place where God reigns. The kingdom of heaven come near
is the declaration that the long awaited rule and reign of God is coming near,
as Wright puts it “the King is Coming”… get ready.
When we have a royal visit the first thing that happens is
that the roads are made ready for them. I remember President Clinton coming for
a summit in Auckland and the whole of the motorway from the airport into town
was blocked off and watching on Tv fascinated as the motorcade swept into
town along the deserted roads. I worked in the BNZ queen street when Charles
and Princess Diane first came to New
Zealand, and they were going to do a walk about outside the bank. The ropes
were up in the morning and the crowds built. You weren’t going to get any work
done when they came…The traffic stopped, as we got ready for them. The passage quoted
by Matthew from Isaiah 40 of make straight the way of the LORD, was a message
of hope for the exiles coming home from Jerusalem, and as John tells of the
Kingdom of God coming it is positive message that when the King comes the
people will find freedom and liberty, justice and mercy and peace.
The another thing that happens when there is a royal visit
is that there is a spring clean. I wonder what feverish activity would happen
at your house if the queen were to let you she was coming to your place. I know
there would be a lot of activity at our place, simply from what happens when
the mother in law comes to visit… and yes I do like to live dangerously… The
call to repent we see as a turning away from sin, but in scripture it is turn
away from all the things that would distract you and come concentrate of the
things of the king, of Christ. The spring clean the baptism calls us to wash
away the stuff that would get in the way. For the Jewish people they knew what
the king required of them and so as they got ready for the king they confessed
those things and were baptised for forgiveness. Baptism was a ritual that was
reserved for the gentiles who converted to Judaism, it was a way of signifying
that they were cleansing themselves. But John was baptising Jews and The
baptism of John, has to do with the forgiveness of sins, but also with identifying
with God’s people again. Spring clean putting it all in order to be ready for
the royal visitor.
We live in a town house, but I know that if we had a royal
visitor coming there would be some gardening that needed to be done as well. John
says that because the king is coming there is going to have to be some
gardening done as well. The metaphor for Israel in Isaiah is that of God’s
vineyard, and John says that as the king is coming the trees that do not bear
fruit will be cut down with the axe. John applies that to two groups. The pharisees
and the Sadducees that had come to John’s Baptism. It is ambiguous if these
groups were coming to be baptised or coming to simply check out what was going
on.
The pharisees were a group within the Judaism of the day who
believed strongly in keeping the letter of the law, of external observance, it
resulted in them having a real sense of pride in themselves a distain for
others and a dependence on their own goodness before God. They believed that
their heritage as sons of Abraham put them in a privileged position before God.
John dismisses that by saying that God can raise up descendants of Abraham from
the very stones. Here is a foreshadowing
of what will happen in Christ where you and I are adopted into be sons and daughters
of Abraham, through Christ. John’s challenge to them is to show fruit worthy of
repentance, that their lives should reflect a change from the inside.
The Sadducees were a smaller group in the religion of the
day, they were mainly based round the temple and they focused on the rituals of
the temple, and John as well says to them that rituals without the relationship
behind them, will not bear fruit… when the King comes these things will be
removed. Only the trees that bear fruit will remain.
John speaks of the one who comes after him will baptise with
the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Holy spirit speaks of the fact that because
of Christ his life and his death and resurrection, the king not only comes to
visit but to dwell with in us by the Holy Spirit. The fire speaks of purifying,
the rubbish being burned away but the great harvest and good stuff being keep,
while its not used here you get the idea of a precious metal being made ready
for the use of the king as well.
Joseph and John’s story call us to be prepared to encounter
Jesus. In the gospel as after this strange start he steps into the story, and
in our lives as we meet Christ in the scriptures as we read them and they are
illuminated by the spirit within us, as we are aware of Christ’s abiding loving
presence with us. We prepare ourselves for the kingdom of heaven by being
willing to be open and ask what road needs straightening? What fire needs to be
lit? what rubbish cleared away? What dead trees need to be cut down? And with
the love and faith that joseph had for Jesus, hear God’s word and being willing
to put it into practise. The kingdom of heaven has drawn near, the King has
come…you are loved and welcomed into the Kings family … let’s be ready.
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