Tuesday's SOAP - Matthew 1:19-23

¹⁹ Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

 ²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

 ²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

 ²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
      She will give birth to a son,
   and they will call him Immanuel,
      which means ‘God is with us.’”

S(cripture) - “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

O(bservation) - This is the Gospel story that Isaiah was pointing to (yesterday's SOAP). Matthew cited Isaiah to drive home the significance of Mary's conception and the meaning of the Child within her. Immanuel. God is with us. Matthew's "Bible" was what we today call the Septuagint - abbreviated LXX which is Latin for "70" - the number of scholars who translated the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament) from Hebrew into Greek. The common language in Jesus' day and of the early church was koine (common) Greek. This was the Greek that the New Testament was written in and also the language of their Bible. So when Paul writes, "All Scripture is inspired by God (God-breathed)," he was speaking of the LXX. He wrote his letters in koine Greek. And Matthew wrote his Gospel in Greek - the common language of the people.

As I read this text, I'm drawn to the name given the child. Our English translation is Jesus. In Matthew's hand it would look something like "Iesous" where the e sounds like a long a and the I is more an 'h' or breath sound - so something like He-a-sus (said rapidly and very similar to the Spanish' Jesus (Haysoos). The Hebrew (what Jesus would have been called in his native Palestine) is "Yeshua." This is a derivative of Joshua - the Old Testament hero who led Israel into the promised land. It was a common name in Israel. Click the embedded links to read more. Here's a sample . . .

The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": Yeho- is another form of Yahu, an element standing for the personal name of God - YAHWEH and shua‘ is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry",that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue. Together, the name would then literally mean, "God is a saving-cry," that is to say, shout to God when in need of help.

What a name. You shall name him Jesus, for God has heard his people's cries (like Moses). When Matthew mentions sin (hamratia - missing the mark), he's doing more than suggest that Jesus will rescue people from their moral failures. He's also writing of how Jesus will call people out of their destructive systems - religious, political, and economic as well as their moral sins (like the woman caught in adultery). Matthew in no uncertain terms was not suggesting that Jesus mission was to get people to heaven - rather he came to bring heaven to earth - to save, to deliver, to rescue - all beyond the reality of a Jewish messiah who would sit on King David's (Israel's) earthly throne. His dominion (rule) was to be far greater. Jesus' call for righteousness surpassed that of the Jewish super-religious of Jesus day. A call for love, servanthood, generosity, simplicity . . .

What's in a name? The embodiment of Yeshua's purpose and mission.

A(pplication) - I need rescued. Do you? From my sin. From politics and economics and religiosity. From living in a world that is not very much like the Kingdom. I need a Savior. I need a Liberator. I need a Lord. Do you?

P(rayer) - Abba, thank you for sending Your Son, yeshua to this planet to save us and rescue. Here my cry for help.