THE 4-DIMENSIONAL PRESENTATION OF THE INCARNATION

By Joseph Quayesi-Amakye, Chaplain, Regent University College of Science and Technology

Matthew’s Account on the Incarnation
Matthew writes more from a typical Jewish perspective that downplays the capabilities of women and thus glosses over the angelic visitation to Mary, Jesus’ mother. In Matthew’s account it is Joseph, the husband of Mary who is the hero but not Mary.

It would seem that Matthew assumes his readers are aware of Mary’s pregnancy. He makes us believe that it was Joseph who received the angelic revelation of the identity of Mary’s unborn baby, the Messiah of Israel.

Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy from Abraham and David. His trace to Abraham is significant when we understand that Abraham was the first and most important patriarch of the Jewish people.

But lest any people from one of those Abrahamic lineages such as the Idumeans should seek to contend for a right of relationship with the Messiah Matthew takes pains to trace Jesus’ Jewish tree. This he promptly achieves by establishing right from the onset that he was a descendant of David.

Actually, in his painstaking tabulation of the genealogical account Matthew makes it abundantly clear that Jesus’ descent from and title to David’s throne was by legal means via Joseph, his mother’s husband. But being Joseph’s adopted son Jesus could still sit on the throne of David.

By presenting Jesus as the descendant of both Abraham and David Matthew thus seeks to show that Jesus fulfilled both the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants.

The Abrahamic covenant stipulated that through Abraham’s seed God would bless the whole world. Israel as the inheritor of this covenant with its associated responsibilities and blessings failed to carry out their missionary ministry to the Gentile nations. With time they were spewed out into those very nations they abhorred and refused to disseminate God’s word to when they went into exile in Babylon.

The Davidic covenant assured David of God’s eternal mercy that would ensure the perpetuity of his kingly rule over Israel, despite the disobedience of his descendants. This future Davidic rule was anticipated to bring about the peace, righteousness, justice and security that had long eluded Israel.

Matthew now tells us of the angelic declaration of the identity of Mary’s unborn son. He is to be known and called Yeshua (Jesus), Yahweh is our salvation and Emmanuel, God is with us. Thus, this son of Mary was actually Yahweh, Israel’s salvation or Saviour who had broken through into human history to be with his people.

But more than saving the people from the socio-politico-economic oppression, this Yeshua, being God with his people, would save them from sin. For all the oppressions that had befallen them were as the result of their rebellion against God. No human effort had successfully dealt with their sin problem. It had therefore become necessary that God himself would interfere, interrupt and intrude into this human sinful situation to correct it and thus save them from its power and ripple effects.

In Matthew Jesus’ birth is revealed to wise men from the east (not shepherds tending their sheep in the field as Luke tells us).

These wise men saw the star of the infant Jesus (perhaps Balaam’s predicted star of Israel). In this sense Jesus becomes the new and true Israel of God who fulfills the ‘out of Egypt have I called My son’, the ‘beloved’ and preferred of God, indeed the ‘Jacob I have loved’. Again just as shepherds naturally go where there are sheep so do wise men always go out in search of wise people and wisdom.
But Jesus is more than a wise person; he is the very personification of wisdom, the very divine wisdom Israel and all humanity have great need of. In Matthew Jesus’ birth threatens and challenges the status quo (represented by Herod) and all false and imposter authorities. His birth compels both political and religious authorities to rethink their positions and convictions.

We find in Matthew (and it is also the same in Luke) that Jesus being God needed angelic annunciation to his earthly creation. Luke says it was Mary who received the angelic message whereas Matthew tells us it was Joseph. The important thing is that both evangelists make it clear that in Christ Jesus God is prepared to cross the gender barrier to reveal his counsel to both sexes.