The Christmas Jesus #1: Included in a New Story

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers...

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Matthew 1:1-2, 17

One of the main ways we understand life is through stories. We each have our own personal story. Our families have a family story. Our church has a story. Our nation has a story. Stories embody the values of the groups to which we belong. They shape how we think about things in everyday life, such as money and friendships and family and food and sex and everything else.

For Christians, the most crucial story for our identity, for shaping the way we think and live, is the biblical story – God’s story. And when we become a Christian, God’s story becomes our story.

It’s tempting to think that being a Christian involves inviting God into a little part of our story, where we give God an occasional walk-on part in the drama of our life – the ‘religious’ part of our life. But it’s not like that at all. God calls us into the bigger story that he is weaving. And it’s God’s story that shapes how we think about things in everyday life, such as money and friendships and family and food and sex and everything else.

The Christmas story reminds us that God calls us to be a part of the bigger story that he is working out.

Matthew begins his gospel by telling us that Jesus stands at the heart of this epic tale the Bible tells, and that he brings the whole story to its goal. His opening phrase – ‘This is the genealogy of’ – would remind Jewish readers of similar phrases in the early chapters of Genesis. Matthew is placing the story he’s about to tell in the larger story of God’s dealings – not just with Israel, but with the whole of creation. It’s Jesus who is the promised son of Abraham who will bring blessing to the whole world. It’s Jesus who is the promised son of David who has come to be king over his people. He is the one towards whom the story of Israel and the nations and the whole of creation has been moving.

By God’s grace, we are included in this story. As Christians, we find our identity, with others, in the one who stands at the heart of God’s plan for the universe – the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Messiah, the true king, the true Israel, the Saviour, the one who saves his people from their sins, Emmanuel, God with us.