The Advent in Matthew I

The other day, Fanny and I were discussing the genealogy of our Lord recorded in Matthew’s gospel and the profound significance it has in connection with the first Advent of our Lord in history. In the next few posts, I'll share some of those observations.

Matthew 1:1 is a flag, evoking in the readers’ hearts millennia of salvation history. Approximately 2000 years before, God covenanted a people for himself. Through the loins of Abraham would come One through whom God would bless “all nations” (Gen 22:18); and through this coming One, Abraham would, with all his spiritual children “inherit the world” (Rom 4:13). Matt 1:1 is the cry that salvation history was climaxing...the coming One had come!

If the Promise-Fulfillment paradigm for understanding the unity between the Old and New Testaments is taken up, few verses could challenge the sheer volume of that motif when compared to Matt 1:1.

From v. 2 through v. 16, Matthew gives us a detailed catalogue of names. The Advent of the Messiah was not happenstance; it was sovereign Providence. Furthermore, despite a history of bitter warfare and all the best efforts of the “seed of the serpent,” the “Seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15) had arrived; he had come to take possession of the “gate of his enemy” (Gen 22:17). This covenant promise of God to Abraham, that his seed would posses the gate of his enemy, was also a blessing over Isaac’s—“the son of Abraham”—bride, Rebekah (Gen 24:60). In it’s fulfillment, the same blessing is given to Jesus’—the Greater “Son of Abraham”—bride, the Church (Matt 16:18).

How often do we slog and plod through this genealogy (if not simply skip it altogether) in order to get to the “good stuff”? But this is the “good stuff”! Matthew did not include this list merely to prove Jesus regal right to David’s throne. That’s one purpose to be sure, but that’s not all.

From the time of Yahweh’s special, redemptive promises and purposes, beginning in his sovereign election of Abram (Gen 12), til the climax and fulfillment of that covenant in the Person and work of Jesus, the epinarrative of history—historia salutis—was being wrought by God through the micronarratives of the lives behind these names. This is Gospel! This was the soil in which the Seed of the woman, of David, of Abraham would be planted; from this loamy heritage the “Root of Jesse” would shoot forth his branches, creating a plant so great that “all nations” would come and find their eschatological Rest beneath its boughs (Matt13:32).

The chapters immediately preceding the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham (Gen 10, 11) and his Seed is the table of “all the nations” in rebellion to God, God’s judgment and his turning from “all nations” to one nation—one family, Israel. Matthew’s genealogy takes us from that great turning point and its Promise to the Great turning point and its Fulfillment, when God’s Kingdom would turn again. Thus in the chapters that follow Matthew 1, we see God through Jesus turning from that one nation in judgement to again adopt and baptize “all nations” (Matt 28:19) into his one family, the New Israel.

And who is at the center? Christ Jesus our Lord, King of Israel, King of Kings, King of Glory. Promise at one foot and Fulfillment at the other, they bow and kiss the Son:

A. Abrahamic Covenant (Promise – Gen 12 – 22)

B. Davidic Covenant (Promise – 2 Sam 7; Ps 89)

C. “Jesus Christ, the son...” (Matt 1:1a)

B'. “...of David...” (Fulfillment – 1:1b)

A'. “...of Abraham.” (Fulfillment – 1:1c)

Matthew’s genealogy, therefore, is a list of those who “all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar...And all these, though commended through their faith, did not received what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:13, 39—40).

“And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:29). And through your adoption “in Christ Jesus you are all son’s of God, through faith!” (3:26).

Therefore, the names we too often slog and plod through are the first half of the Great Drama of Grace, the story of redemption; it’s their story and it’s our story too. In Christ, the Center, their promises are ours, and his fulfillment becomes theirs. We share their history, they share our future. It’s the history and the future of a people created and redeemed by God, for his glory. Christ, the Center, is Father’s gift to us; we are the Father’s gift to him, the Bride of his choosing.
Redemptive history is not over; it’s accomplished in Christ, being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit daily in our micronarratives and throughout the world in God’s epinarrative. “Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” is at the center of the latter, by grace, O’ Lord, let him be at the center of the former!