The Everlasting Light Shineth—Lectionary Reflection for Advent 4A (Matthew 1)

Holy Family in Saffron - Frank Wesley 

Matthew 1:18-25 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

²³ “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,

    and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” ²⁴ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife ²⁵ but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus.

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O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

                The day we’ve all been preparing for is about to dawn. In our imaginations, we will go to Bethlehem where we’ll find the Holy Family. There we’ll find the eternal light that will light up our lives, engendering in us a faith that can transform us, if we allow that light to shine within us.

                The New Testament offers us two very distinct infancy narratives. Both take place in the town of Bethlehem, but Matthew and Luke tell the story very differently. As for Mark, he doesn’t have an infancy narrative and John offers us in its stead a philosophical prologue suggesting that Jesus is the enfleshed/incarnate Word of God (John 1:1-14). What John does, however, is let us know that this Word made flesh is the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn. 1:15). While Luke takes us to a manger where Mary gave birth to Jesus, surrounded not by kings and courtiers but shepherds (Lk 2:1-20). As for Matthew, it would appear that the Holy Family is living in Bethlehem when the birth of Jesus takes place. Mary is engaged/betrothed to Joseph, but they have not yet, it would seem to consummate their marriage. Nevertheless, Mary is pregnant, and Joseph is concerned. Joseph soon learns from an angelic visitation that there is more to the story concerning Mary’s child, who is according to Matthew the Messiah (Mt. 1:16).

                According to Matthew Jesus’ conception is a bit out of the ordinary. It is said that “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” While that might be true, Joseph didn’t know this, so he needed some convincing. He considered setting her aside quietly so as not to disgrace her publicly, but the marriage was out of the question, or so he thought. However, an angel appeared and explained the situation. The angel told Joseph not to be afraid to take her as his wife because this child had been conceived in her from the Holy Spirit. Not only that but this child should be named Jesus (Yeshua/Joshua) because he would save his people from their sins. In other words, this child will be special. So, keep your vows. Mary hasn’t done anything untoward. In fact, she has been specially chosen to be an agent of God’s mission to save the people from their sins, though who the people are is not specified. For Matthew, it would seem to be, based on the message of Matthew 28, the nations.  

                To give gravitas to this mission, Matthew prefaces the story with a genealogy that links Mary (and therefore Jesus) to Abraham through David and then through Joseph. That is, Jesus is the son of Abraham and of David, therefore, in Matthew’s mind, he is the heir to the promises of God made to Abraham and David. As such, he has a messianic calling.

                While Luke focuses on Mary’s response to this calling, Matthew focuses on Joseph. Mary never speaks nor is spoken to in the passage. Rather, Matthew offers this word of assurance to Joseph, who is described as being a righteous man, and as such must decide how to proceed. Will he disown her and make her a spectacle? He would be within his rights to do so, but as the angel reminds him there’s no need to take this path. Rather, there is a holy path to be taken and that requires that he stay with Mary and help bring into the world this child, whose birth is somehow the product of an act of the Holy Spirit. Now, we could try to find an alternative answer to the question of Jesus’ birth. All manner of suggestions have been offered, from a Roman soldier being his father to Joseph himself. While many have pursued those threads, they are not Matthew’s concern. He focuses instead on the mission of this child. That involves the Holy Spirit.

It's important that we not forget the genealogy (Mt. 1:1-17), which links Jesus to Abraham and the promise that through his seed the nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-2).  As for David, it was the promise and hope that his throne would continue forever. If he is understood to be the Messiah, then he must be a descendant of David. In his dream, Joseph is reminded that he is a son of David (and thus of royal lineage). Therefore, he will be the Messiah. We should also take note of the name Jesus (Yeshua), which takes us back to Moses’ successor, Joshua, who led the people into the Promised Land (salvation?).

                There is more to Matthew’s story, however. Not only was Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit, but his mother fulfills the promise of Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin shall bear a son. It’s important to remember that Matthew is concerned with finding ways in which the story of Jesus fulfills scriptural (Old Testament) promises. Matthew reads the Old Testament as predictive of Jesus’ ministry, reading into passages like Isaiah 7:14 references to Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. It’s also important to remember that Matthew drew not upon the Hebrew Old Testament that most of us are used to using, but the Greek translation known as the Septuagint. Sometimes the readings in the Septuagint offer interesting interpretive possibilities. That is true here.

                The lectionary pairs this reading from Matthew 1 with a reading from Isaiah 7, which allows us to reflect on both readings. In Isaiah 7, the prophet is focused on the situation at hand, where the king (Ahaz) faces a dilemma. The Assyrians are on the march. His neighbors want to force him to join their alliance against the Assyrians. Ahaz is considering aligning himself with the Assyrians, hoping that becoming a vassal state will save his throne (that’s what he ultimately does choose). Isaiah, however, wants Ahaz to go in a completely different direction, and that is to trust not his neighbors or the Assyrians, but trust the God of the covenant promise. To support this vision, Isaiah offers a sign—a child will be born to a “young woman” (Heb. ‘almah) and before he is weaned his neighbors will no longer be a problem (they’ll be destroyed). So, put your trust in God (Is. 7:10-17). Matthew reads Isaiah very differently. In Matthew’s interpretation, Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit fulfills the promise that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” Is it virgin as in Matthew or young woman as in the Hebrew version of Isaiah? The complicating factor is that the Septuagint uses the Greek term parthenos, which can be translated, and often is, as “virgin.” While Matthew makes use of Isaiah to undergird his vision of Jesus’ identity as one conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, there is no prior usage of the Septuagint reading of Isaiah before Matthew.  

Now, most English translations of Isaiah 7:14, for theological reasons, sought to align Isaiah with Matthew’s reading of the Septuagint rendering, that is, until the 1950s when the Revised Version was published. The translators of the RSV chose to follow the Hebrew and translate ‘almah as “young woman.” That led to a great outcry against the translation, with some opponents going as far as to burn copies in protest. How could they go against Matthew? The translators had made the right move, but it put the two passages and their interpretations at odds.

                Matthew’s move here, which leaves much to the imagination, opens up many other questions concerning what it means (theologically) for Jesus to be conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin (as the Apostle’s Creed declares). Is he somehow a demigod and the product of some kind of divine-human sexual relationship? It’s not as if there weren’t plenty of stories of such unions. Consider Heracles, the son of Zeus by a mortal woman. Early Christian interpreters made it clear that this is not what is envisioned. For example, Justin Martyr made it clear that no intercourse was involved, otherwise, Mary would no longer be a virgin. Thus, “it is wrong, therefore, to understand the Spirit and the power of God as anything else than the Word, who is also the first-born of God, as the foresaid prophet Moses declared; and it was this which, when it came upon the virgin and overshadowed her, caused her to conceive, not by intercourse, but by power” [Apology, ANF]. Ultimately, Matthew leaves the question of how this all takes place rather opaque. We’re told that Jesus is conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, and Matthew leaves it at that.  

                If Mary’s status as a virgin is drawn from Isaiah 7, so is the next word. That has to do with further defining Jesus’ identity as Messiah and Savior. According to Isaiah, this child born of a young woman will be called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” That is, this child’s birth will be a sign that God is with the people, so they can put their trust in God’s continued presence even in a moment of crisis. While Mary’s son will be named Jesus, he fulfills the promise of Emmanuel (and thus at Advent we sing: “O Come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that morns in lonely exile until the Son of God appear.” The fourth verse (in Chalice Hymnal) invites us to sing: “O come, Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind; bid envy, strife and quarrels cease, fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.” If Advent serves as a moment of preparation for the coming of Emmanuel, and thus in the person of Jesus, God is present, it is worth turning to the closing of Matthew’s gospel, where in the final verse, after Jesus commissions his followers to make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they are to remember that “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:18-20). Thus, the message at the beginning of the Gospel continues through the end, reminding us that Matthew has in mind an eschatological message. The work of God initiated in Jesus’ birth continues beyond his death and resurrection in the ministry of the church.

                With this grounding of Jesus’ birth and identity in the promise of Isaiah, that he is Emmanuel, and thus the sign that God is with us, Joseph wakes up. He now knows what he must do. Despite the messiness surrounding the birth of Mary’s child, he must accept that it is a matter of divine purpose. So, however the birth transpired, this child is the result of the Holy Spirit acting upon Mary, (though not through intercourse lest she no longer is a virgin). We, who read this word from Matthew, also have a choice to make. Will we receive this word as Joseph did as a word of encouragement and hope, such that in Jesus God is present with us to the end of the age? As such the everlasting light of God shines in our midst!

O holy Child of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Cast out our sin, and enter in; be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our God, Emmanuel.

Phillips Brooks, “O Little Town of Bethlehem, (CH, 144, vs. 4)

 

Image Attribution: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Holy Family in Saffron, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59201 [retrieved December 10, 2022]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.