Deleted Scenes: Son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1-17

Last Sunday here at The Bridge, I preached on the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17. I heard from multiple people that when they first heard that long roll call of strange-sounding ancient names being read out, they were prepared to pack it in and catch up on some sleep. Those same people were then pleasantly surprised by how much meaning is actually tucked away in that genealogy. And here’s the crazy thing: there’s even more! That’s the point of most of these weekly posts that we call “deleted scenes”: to unpack an aspect of the biblical text we looked at that we didn’t touch on sufficiently on Sunday. That’s how deep and rich the Scriptures are, that we can spend 40 minutes talking about a genealogy and still leave lots of territory uncovered. 

Something I didn’t really say anything about is the headline in Matthew 1:1 that Jesus is the son of Abraham. We talked lots about Jesus being the son of David. That’s where we discussed the fun Hebrew practice of gematria (finding a numerical sum that represents a name, which in David’s case is 14, the same number of generations Matthew is intent on recounting). But that’s only part of the story. Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the son of Abraham too.

As soon as we say that, we’re back to so much of what we talked about from Romans this fall. Abraham is a pivotal turning point in the Old Testament. As the world has descended into the chaos of sin, God calls this man in Genesis 12 and promises to build him into a nation that will both be blessed and be a blessing to the nations of the world. Because of this, some Jewish teachers regarded Abraham as the first Gentile “convert”. As we saw in Romans, Abraham was accounted as righteous before God (as in, God declared Abraham to be acceptable and on right standing before Him) on the basis of faith. This was long before Abraham was circumcised and centuries before God gave Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, His law. Abraham was essentially a Gentile who became part of God’s new people on the basis of faith.

Here’s the connection with Jesus’ genealogy. As we said on Sunday, one of the most noteworthy features of Matthew 1 is the inclusion of a number of women. These women were not the typical heroes of faith. They seem to have been highlighted specifically because there was some kind of scandal attached to them, and through this Matthew is showing us how Jesus enters right into the messiness of our lives to redeem them. What I implied but didn’t say directly is that all four of these women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba) were almost certainly not Israelites. They were outsiders to God’s people. But then, not only were they brought into God’s people, they ultimately became ancestors to Jesus! Jesus being the son of Abraham, along with the descendant of these particular women, means that He is not only saviour to the law-abiding “insiders” who grow up saturated in this. He is saviour for the “outsiders”, those who have no pedigree, those who might be ashamed of their backgrounds, but who have put their trust in Him.

Christmas is, as the angels announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:10, “good news that will cause great joy for all the people”. It’s clear of course, that this is not the case for everyone. People are free to reject the good news of Jesus, whether they’re “insiders” or “outsiders”. But Christmas- the announcement that God has become flesh and made his dwelling among us- can be good news for anyone. The invitation is made available for all who hear it. Regardless of your background, regardless of how familiar you are with the Bible and church and all the rest of it, God invites you to be part of His family through faith in Jesus. May that encourage you today!