1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation for our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word for our 2nd Advent Midweek Service as we focus on the genealogy of Jesus is taken from Matthew 1:1-2, which says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.” The message is entitled, “Jesus: The Son of Abraham,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. People who research their ancestry often hope to discover that they’re related to some great historical figure. Maybe some distant relative fought with George Washington at the Battle of Bull Run, or maybe your ancestor was a swashbuckling pirate. Genealogies are fueled by a curiosity to see what wild stories might be discovered and how far back one can go.
3. Jesus’ family tree in Matthew’s Gospel goes back some 2000 years, all the way back to Abraham. Not only is Jesus a descendant of King David, but his line goes all the way back to Father Abraham. It’s the kind of genealogy that would thrill the most casual observer—2000 years! For us, that would take us back to the reign of Caesar Augustus, to the very birth of Christ! The tracing of Jesus’ lineage back to Abraham would certainly be a great source of pride for any Jew of Jesus’ day. It was that lineage by which they had long ago received the land in which they lived. But for those who came to understand, it wasn’t the land but Jesus himself who mattered. And Matthew tells us about this genealogy all the way back to Abraham in order that we would understand that, through the Son, God promised Abraham, and through His greater Son, Abraham and His descendants have inherited a better country.
4. God’s plan to make Abraham the father of many nations seemed unbelievable. The Lord God called Abram from the land of Haran and told him to go to a new land where he would make him into a great nation, even though he was already well advanced in years. In fact, God goes so far as to tell Abram that all families of the earth would be blessed through him. Then, God promised Abram that Sarai would give birth to a son and that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky. Abram was old and Sarai was considered barren. All the evidence seemed that this would not be possible. But all things are possible with God. Abram believed God’s Word, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness. From Abraham would come Isaac, then Esau and Jacob, and then his descendants would continue to grow in number all the way to the child born to Joseph and Mary, a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.
5. Most people who spend time researching their ancestry are disappointed to find there’s no one particularly famous in their family tree at all. Their ancestors were all common, ordinary people. The same can be said for Jesus’ family tree. Abraham was actually nothing special. While his wife, Sarah, must have been quite attractive to catch the attention of two different kings, Abraham was so cowardly that he repeatedly would claim she was his sister rather than stand up to defend her honor. When Sarah directed Abraham to seek an heir through her maidservant Hagar, Abraham failed to honor Sarah and instead had a child outside of God’s plan, an unsurprisingly common discovery in family trees. The father of many nations also passed on to his descendants a legacy of lies and lust, deceit and adultery. Father Abraham was really no one special. He was just another sinner, like his ultimate father Adam, who would pass on to those who would come from his seed a heritage of hard hearts and sinful deeds.
6. In Jesus’ day, there were definitely those who found security in the fact that they were descendants of Abraham and felt that was the source of special standing before God. Those who claimed to be the offspring of Abraham were certain that they would never be the slaves of anyone. The ridiculousness of such a statement notwithstanding, they failed to see how they had been enslaved by their own sin. Like Abraham before them, sin had also ensnared them, and unless they were brought to faith, the promise of God to Abraham would be cancel out. It was not that the promise of God would fail them, but that the descendants of Abraham had failed, rejecting both the promise of God and the Promised One of God.
7. We are children of Abraham because we are also those who cannot be saved by our lineage, our obedience, or our good deeds. Like Abraham, we’ve failed again and again, fallen into the same sins repeatedly, and, like the Pharisees, we’ve trusted in our family or our status. The only difference between Abraham and the Pharisees was faith. They were all sinners, but Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Rom 4:21).
8. Abraham is a lesson in humility for all of us. We do not place our hope and trust in a birthright, but in the One who was born for us. God looked upon Abram and Sarai and their need, and, in love, he promised them a son. God looked upon the need of all his beloved children, and his solution of making things right was to promise a son. God most certainly kept his promise to Abram by sending a son, Isaac. But the ultimate way that God met the need of Abram and Sarai and all of his creation was by sending his own Son, Jesus. For Jesus was the son of Abraham, sacrificed in the place of Isaac, Abraham, and all of those who are Abraham’s descendants.
9. The promise that God made to Abraham is fulfilled each time a child is marked by the sign of the cross over forehead and heart and baptized into the name of the triune God. It’s also accomplished when the promises of God are proclaimed and people are brought to saving faith through the working of the Holy Spirit. God continues to raise up children for Abraham as you are made sons and daughters of Abraham through faith in Jesus. The promise God made to Abraham has been kept, for all the promises of God find their yes in Christ. God has called us like God called Abraham before us, and we have received his promises by faith.
10. During World War II in England, the most threatening sound one could hear was the air raid siren. For a nine-month period between 1940 and 1941, the Germans attacked Britain’s airfields and then cities with nightly bombing raids. The sound would start softly but would continue until it reached a spine-tingling trumpet sound. The constant threat of the sirens over those months led to dread every evening as the sun would set. It was during this time that Rev. Eric Milner-White was serving as dean of the famed King’s College at Cambridge. Understanding the fear that gripped the people, he wrote a prayer befitting the people’s uncertainty: “Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen” (LSB, p 311).
11. Such words describe the uncertain path that Abraham walked as he trudged toward a new, unseen land. But he walked by faith, not by sight. He walked forward, trusting that God was leading him and with his love supporting him. In our gray and latter days, we are troubled by so many and great temptations. Life in this fallen world means the threat of mental sirens blaring is always there. For us, they do not call for impending bombs but hearken the same fears as we worry about doctor’s appointments and car repairs. We live with anxiety over our uncertain future. But God forgives us for our fears and doubts for the sake of Jesus. The Holy Spirit sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith, even when all around us are things that would drive us to despair.
12. Our confidence is that God has made us sons and daughters of Abraham by faith in Jesus. For we, too, are looking forward to a better country, the heavenly one. We face each day with good courage as we walk by faith not by sight and as we wait for the fulfillment of the promised land that lies ahead in the resurrection on the Last Day. So, we are bold to claim Abraham as our father, not because of something special about him, but like him, we believe the precious promises of God. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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