A few weeks ago, as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowd asked, “Who is this?” Who is this? It’s the most important question that we can ever ask, and Advent gives us the answer. Who is this? The crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” To them, Jesus was a teacher and miracle worker Who came from backwater Galilee. That isn’t too far off from what people say about Jesus today. A recent survey revealed some disturbing results. A little over half our country, 52%, believes that Jesus was a human…and sinned, just like us! Another 52% believe that Jesus was a great teacher, and not God, including 30% of evangelicals! About 78% of evangelicals believe that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God, which is a heresy from about 1,700 years ago. Just as alarming is the fact that 69% of Americans believe that the smallest sin doesn’t deserve damnation, and another 59% believe that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being. Yikes! “Who is this?” is a bigger question than we may have initially thought. Who is Jesus? A therapist, great teacher, tragic figure, life coach, good example, spiritual guru, miracle worker, prophet, fraud, God, sinner, holy, or a created being? Is he some of these? None of these? Matthew gives us an answer.
He gives us the real Jesus—the biblical Jesus, the Jesus of Matthew 1. Matthew 1 announces that Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham and the Son of Solomon. Today, we’ll focus on the fact that Jesus is the Son of Mary, the Savior, Immanuel, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:17 says, “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 Christ.” Matthew summarizes biblical history in three sets of fourteens—or six sevens. Now, if you’re a Hebrew reader, a story can’t end with six sevens. That’s not a complete story. There must be another scene—you need a seventh seven. This is a genealogy—and a story—a story that lacks an ending. That’s Matthew’s point.
Who is Jesus? Who is this? Jesus brings the story to completion. Jesus ushers in the final act in God’s plan of salvation. Jesus brings our story to completion. How so? His two names connected to Mary complete everything that is lacking in our lives. Jesus is our Seventh Seven! Let’s see how.
Matthew 1:18 says, “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” Mary conceives Jesus through the Holy Spirit. At first, Joseph is hesitant to believe it, and we can’t blame him! So God sends an angel who speaks to Joseph in a dream. Joseph believes the Word He has heard and his anxiety is gone.
Joseph believes the unbelievable, and alters his plan. Joseph chooses to trust God and love Mary. The two now live together and share a home. This will most certainly raise some eyebrows in their hometown of Nazareth. Busybodies standing on the street corner will assume that Joseph and Mary conceived the child during their engagement instead of waiting to be married. They might have said, “What nerve, those two! How dumb do they think we are?” Nazareth was a very small town—only 2,000 people lived there—so gossip of this sort would travel quickly.
Matthew continues, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” “Jesus” is the English form of the Hebrew name, “Joshua.” It means “Yahweh (the LORD) saves.” The child’s name is Joshua—or Jesus—because this Son will save his people from their sins. Jesus will forgive all sin—lock, stock and barrel!
And we need it! Oh, do we need it! We are so incomplete without it! We have economic problems—yet if all our economic problems vanished today, our lives still wouldn’t be perfect. If all our political problems vanished today, our lives still wouldn’t be perfect. If all our psychological problems vanished today or all our family problems or all our health problems were solved, our lives would still be empty and lack completion.
Who are we? We are people who need to be saved from our sins. That’s because—contrary to what most of us think most of the time—we are not Superman or Superwoman. We cannot save ourselves. There’s an saying that hits the nail on the head. “I have met the enemy and he is me!” Every political, social, or family, health, or psychological problem is the result of our fallen condition. That’s why Jesus didn’t come as an economist, a sociologist, doctor, or as a family therapist. “Who is this?” His name is Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins.”
We experience joy and peace when we recognize that we can’t bring our life to a successful conclusion. We just can’t. I’ve tried. You’ve tried, and the result is always the same: failure. Our biggest problem is ourselves and so we need a Savior to rescue us from our sins. If we come to Jesus for any other reason—maybe we hope he will make us popular or successful, we will be disappointed. Jesus has more important problems to solve than our unpopularity or our failures. Those are just symptoms. Jesus treats the root cause, the illness, and the underlying problem: sin. Jesus lays down his life to save us from the sin alienating us from God and from each other, and the sin threatening to destroy us.
Jesus, the Son of Mary, is our Savior. That is Who He is. Jesus isn’t another prophet; another Rabbi; another wonder-worker. Jesus was the one they had been waiting for—to complete God’s story of salvation; to deliver his people from exile; to establish God’s reign and rule; to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, freedom to the prisoners and proclaim Good News to the poor; to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is our Seventh Seven!
Matthew continues: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us.’” “God with us” is what Matthew’s Gospel is all about. It appears here, in the beginning. Then in the middle, Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three gather in my name, there I am in their midst.” And then in Matthew’s last verse. Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Think he is trying to make a point?
Jesus, the Son of Mary, is not only our Savior from sin. Jesus, the Son of Mary, is Immanuel, God with us—He is God up close and personal. Immanuel is also God in us and God behind us and Immanuel is God going before us. Jesus is God—up close and personal—entering our muck and mire, our chaos and our deep confusion.
We see it most profoundly on the day of deepest darkness. On that day we all grabbed hold of Immanuel, nailed him to a cross and cried out, “Leave us alone! Leave us alone!” To this day, our every sin demands just that—for us to be left alone by God, forever. On the other side of Good Friday, though, Immanuel lives! There was the cradle and there was the cross. But, conquering death, Immanuel now wears the crown.
Jesus, God with us, completes our story! Jesus fulfilled the commandments, and Jesus reversed the curse. Jesus has come to crush the serpent’s head; be our Great High Priest; be Isaiah’s Suffering Servant; Jeremiah’s Righteous Branch; Daniel’s Son of Man; Amos’ Roaring Lion; Haggai’s Desire of all the nations; Zechariah’s King riding on a donkey; and Malachi’s Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings. Jesus is God predicted through the prophets and prepared for through John the Baptist.
Jesus, the Son of Mary, our Savior and our Immanuel isn’t a figment of our imagination or the projection of our own desires. Jesus is the Lord our God. Jesus is the Savior of the world, and the substitute for all our sin. He is sinless. Jesus is more loving, more holy, and more wonderfully merciful than we ever thought possible.
Every last bit of God’s forgiveness, grace and love are packaged and delivered to us in two marvelous Hebrew names—Jesus and Immanuel—our Seventh Seven. They complete your life, your story, and these names are His early Christmas gifts for you, forevermore!