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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 7:10-14
Romans 1:1-6
St. Matthew 1:18-21
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Who speaks to us on this eve of His own nativity, saying,
“Joseph, son of
David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in
her is from the Holy Spirit”
Thus far heard from our Gospel reading and God includes St.
Joseph in His Word to prove to us His Word that says, “the prayer of the
righteous man is strong and effective” from James 5:16. This points us to
belief that we are made righteous only by Faith from God, thus we should return
to our Righteous Man, Christ, often and make His Church our priority, as St.
Joseph did.
The heroes of Advent give way to the heroes of Christmass,
first of which is our own St. Joseph, who, true to saintly form, appears out of
nowhere, does his work, and promptly disappears to nowhere. St. Joseph is
brought in as the Guardian of Jesus, that is, that he gives Jesus paternity and
security, as a father is supposed.
In the first place, St. Joseph secures St. Mary’s place in
the world. Though God could have done it all from her womb, He willed that
Joseph perform his godly duties of fatherhood towards Him, just as He did not
spurn the virgin’s womb. God accomplishes all His work through men, through
means and His birth is no different.
However, there seems to be a problem with St. Joseph. Not
only is he criticized by unbelievers to be only a foster-father, as if that
makes him less and Jesus even lessa, but he is also an excommunicant of his
father, David’s throne!
Let me explain.
After the summary statement that Jesus was the son of David
and of Abraham, St. Matthew’s gospel follows Abraham’s line through Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph down through David and the sons who followed him as kings of
Israel and then sons who went into captivity, ending with “Jacob, who begot
Joseph the husband of Mary.”
As we read through the genealogy, we run into a problem,
allegedly. We go through all the “begots,” which simply means that A was the
father of B, even though “B” is a strange name for a child…until we get to
verse 11, which reads “Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time
they were carried away to Babylon.”
Jeconiah.
Also known as Coniah and Jehoiachin, he was not one of the
good kings of Judah. In fact, “he did evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all his father had done” (2 Kings 24:90). You can read about
his father and the great sin he committed in Jeremiah 36. Coniah reigned just
three months before Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and took him prisoner.
Jeremiah gives us more about him, as well as the problem he
brings with him to the genealogy in Matthew. In Jeremiah 22:24, God says, “’As
I live,’ says the LORD, ‘though Coniah the son of Jehoaikim, king of Judah,
were the signet on My right hand, yet would I pluck you off; and I will give
you into the hand…of Nebuchadnezzar.’”
In v. 30, Jeremiah wrote, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Write
this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; For none
of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling
anymore in Judah.’”
Here is another verse skeptics misread. They look at
the word “childless” and point to 1 Chronicles 3:17 and even Matthew 1:12,
where Coniah does indeed have sons and shake their heads:
“Contradictions, contradictions.”
If they would actually read the text, they would discover
that it refers to the throne of David. Coniah would be “childless” as far
as any of his descendants ever sitting on that throne.
None of Coniah’s descendants ever sat on David’s throne.
None of them ever can.
When Nebuchadnezzar deposed Coniah, he put Mattaniah,
Coniah’s uncle, on the throne and changed his name to Zedekiah, 2 Kings 24:17.
Coniah went into captivity. Zedekiah was the last king to sit on
David’s throne. No one has sat there since.
So what?
Joseph is a descendant of David through Coniah. This,
apparently, puts God in a catch-22 and His critics begin foaming at the mouth.
See?? Jesus can’t be God or David’s heir because God kicked his fathers off the
throne and therefore no Christianity. Checkmate Christians! Happy Holidays.
Repent. What is true of the sins of the Jews is true of our
sin, when Jesus says, “you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God”
(Matt 22:29). You believe God’s Law to be the end of all things. If, like a
lawyer, He and we do not keep to the code, then all of reality unravels, our
faith is in vain, and chaos rules the universe. God can’t even keep His own
Law.
Hahahaha, silly mortals. We always believe that because God
gave us reason, that somehow that reason can reach above and beyond God,
dethroning Him. We completely, utterly, and continuously miss the fact that all
things come from Him. He has created all things.
Are Christmass trees pagan? Um, God created trees, so He
calls dibs.
Is December 25th pagan? Well, December 25th and all dates
come from God, so He gets first priority on what they mean.
Does God’s Law contradict God, or do His prophesies not line
up, or is there an evil and apostate man in His family tree? He Who gave the
Law to Moses, knows best what it means. He Who gave the prophets and all
writers of the Bible the thoughts and words they expressed, knows what He is
doing. He Who made man, knows also how to make him righteous who is unrighteous
in his sin.
The quick and easy fix for this apparent “problem of St.
Joseph” has already been heard. For the same Word that created the heavens and
the earth out of nothing, declares for all people of all time that, “Joseph was
a just and righteous man, because he believed the Word of the Lord and He
counted it to him as righteousness (Matt 1:19; Gen 15:6; Gal. 3:6)
Scripture goes on to explain further: “Understand, then,
that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture
foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel
in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who
rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal 3:7-9).
The curse on Coniah is not greater than God. God is He Who
cursed (Gen 5:29), so God is He Who lifts the curse, in other words: forgives
(Dan 9:9). The only way Coniah’s curse would stick with his descendants is if
they loved the curse more than God’s declaration of Confession and Absolution.
Dearly Beloved, if God cannot save Coniah’s sons, then what
hope is there for you? But this is the mercy of God: that Christ was made man
for us. That He was born into our human nature and assumes it into His divine
nature. Not that God is changed, but we are. We are made Christ-like, such that
we also become fellow heirs, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if
so it be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom
8:17).
The world wants us without hope, because it has no hope. It
wants us spinning through an endless abyss of darkness and despair, simply
because that is their belief and they want the same for everyone, if they must
suffer it.
Yet upon that abyss, darkness, and despair has the Light
shined. the morning has dawned upon us. The Virgin bears a Son and the glory of
the Lord shines round about us. He matures, carrying the cross for us. He rises
again to create His Church, where His praises and glory have no end,
distributing His Light in Word and Sacrament.
The curse we share has been lifted and we are made righteous
by the righteous, innocent, and precious Blood of the Lamb of God, born to His
mother, to save His people from their sins. St. Joseph, now also our guardian
and hero, secures us by his fatherly and manly example, making sure that the
Faith is handed down to us, simply by being a righteous man in Christ. Thank
God.
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