Matthew 1:18-25 (NRSV)
Read Matthew 1:18-25 on biblegateway.com
Verse 18Now 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 with child from the Holy Spirit. Verse 19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. Verse 20But 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. Verse 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Verse 22All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: Verse 23"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." Verse 24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, Verse 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Devotion
For the Advent season we are looking back and reflecting on the previous week's readings.
"She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." The restoration for which Psalm 80 cries out—"Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved"—is now fulfilled in God’s promise, Jesus. Jesus saves from sin. We have so quickly interpreted sin as our personal failings or individual faults. But the Gospel of Matthew is not only referring to personal sin and the mending of a relationship between Jesus and "me." Matthew writes about saving the people, the community. Sin is the breakdown of community. It is living in isolation, individually or as a self-sufficient group. God-with-us calls us out of our isolation into the beauty of a vast and splendid universal communion. May our Advent hope always throw us into the beautiful messiness of humanity, of an infant born on the road, in a crowded town, without a home, in a manger.
Prayer
O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver, the hope of all peoples and their Savior: Come and save us, O Lord our God. Amen.