Matthew 1:1-25 2024/01/05 Osaka Church
Christ is born!
In today’s Gospel, many names were read out, and it concluded with “God is with us.” This string of many names is the genealogy of the Israelites from Abraham, the patriarch of the Israelites, to Jesus.
Genealogies are usually made to boast about one’s family background. However, this genealogy leading to Jesus highlights the tragic history of the Israelites and the stain of sin that cannot be erased. The Jews of that time, especially those who believed in Jesus and were united with the church, would have naturally been told repeatedly from childhood about the mistakes and sins committed by the people whose names were on the list. This genealogy was a history of family feuds, tragic killings, deception, the conflict of love and hate between men and women, rebellion against God… and a history of sin that continued to deepen. How must they have felt when they heard the name of Christ called at the end of the genealogy? His name must have resonated in the hearts of those who gathered together in faith, as the one who bore the history of a nation scarred by sin and who would save them from that sin, as the long-awaited Messiah.
Each of us has a history in our lives. Look back on your life. There have been mistakes that you would like to erase if you could. You may have insulted and humiliated people, played with people’s hearts, betrayed your friends with cowardly behavior, inflicted deep emotional pain with harsh words to children that can never be wiped away, those weaker than you, or even on your family, stolen from them, or even violated marital fidelity… Through these many mistakes, we have inflicted countless wounds on ourselves. There may be shallow wounds, deep wounds, and even serious wounds that break even to the bone. We suffer and groan from all kinds of pain: burning pain, piercing pain, cutting pain, dull, pressing pain. We almost want to scream.
When we first truly encounter the person called Jesus…that is, when we look up at Jesus, whose name is at the end of the genealogy of sin since Adam and Eve, whipped, nailed with thick nails, and bloody, hanging on the tree of the cross, what we see is not Jesus suffering “for” us. It is God who “became man” in order to share the wounds we have inflicted on ourselves, even though he himself is not sinful in the slightest, and to suffer with us our suffering. We can also say the opposite: I, covered in wounds, was received by Jesus, who, although he is God, descended to human form, and I am nailed there together with Jesus himself. To die with Jesus.
This person was resurrected on the third day. We, wounded and bloody, died with Jesus, wounded and bloody. And we have risen with Christ, who rose from the dead. Our wounds have healed. But the scars will remain, and they will ache violently at times. But those healed scars are now a sign of resurrection. They are a sign that we, who had hurt ourselves so deeply that we could not repair it, have been healed by the Lord. A new life has begun…a life in which we fight against sin with Christ, offer ourselves to God with Christ, eat with Christ, work with Christ, pray with Christ, rejoice and sing with Christ, mourn with Christ, and laugh with Christ. And we are no longer alone. We are with everyone. Together with Christ Jesus, who is called “God saves,” and at the same time Christ Emmanuel, who is called “God with us,” the “I” is reconnected to “we,” and we begin our journey toward the Kingdom of God.
A new time in which God walks with us begins “now” with Jesus, who was born quietly in a cave where livestock were tied up.