How do you start to talk about someone like Jesus? If you bump into someone and they say to you, ‘Who is this Jesus? I’ve heard of him - who is he?’, where do you start? Do you say, ‘He’s the Son of God’? That’s not very clear to people. Do you say he’s the Christ, the Messiah? That would take some explaining. How about ‘The Miracle Maker’? That doesn’t quite do it either.
Matthew starts his account of Jesus with a trace back through time - a long family history of Jesus. He starts to talk about Jesus with the hopes and expectations of over 2000 years of history, and he says in this one man, it all comes together!
Jesus, coming to earth, brings the answer to all the troubles, all the longings, of the world … of our lives. He is “the son of David, the son of Abraham”.
It’s an exciting thought: all those generations of people before Jesus were looking forward to God
doing something, something that he promised. He promised Abraham that one of his offspring would
be the answer to the world’s problems. He promised David that one of his offspring would be king
forever. In that baby born in Bethlehem, both these promises take shape.
Now, in the birth of Jesus, all is fulfilled.
Jesus will not allow us to think of him as just some religious leader. He’s far more than that. The history of the world has been aching for him. God’s plans have been looking forward to him. And now… he’s arrived.
How strange to have Christmas and think nothing of him!
