Summary
This Christmas reflection centers on a single verse in Matthew's Gospel and asks a question that gets to the heart of the holiday: What exactly are we celebrating? The answer is more urgent and more profound than most Christmas traditions suggest.
Key Takeaways:
- The name "Jesus" is a translation of the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), meaning "God saves" or "God rescues."
- The angel's announcement to Joseph names sin as the core problem Jesus came to solve.
- From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible consistently frames sin as humanity's deepest and most urgent problem.
- Christmas loses its meaning when we lose sight of what we are being rescued from.
- The most important question each person faces is not about worldly achievement but about how they will stand before a holy God.
- Embracing the rescuer is the most important thing any of us can do in this life.
Matthew 1:18–21
18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:18-21
You're probably familiar with the basics of the Christmas story. Joseph and Mary are engaged. When Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant, he assumes she has been unfaithful to him and resolves to quietly break the betrothal.
Then an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. The angel tells Joseph to take Mary as his wife because she is about to have a son through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the angel tells Joseph something else about this son. That's what I want to talk about today. Who does the angel say this child is?
What's in a Name: The Meaning of "Jesus"
The first thing the angel tells Joseph is that he should name the child Jesus. But Jesus is not really called Jesus. His name in Hebrew is Yeshua, which we think of as Joshua. When this name gets translated into Greek, it becomes Iesous, which then comes into English as Jesus. The Old Testament name Joshua is the same name.
Somewhere back in church history, translators decided not to translate the Hebrew Yeshua and simply went with a transliteration of the Greek version. That's an interesting bit of Bible trivia to know and share.
More importantly, the name Joshua or Jesus means "God saves" or "God rescues." That meaning is significant because the angel tells Joseph, "You will call this child 'God Saves,' for this child will be the savior of his people." God has sent this child to be their rescuer and their deliverer.
A rescuer implies there is a problem. If you are in need of being rescued, you must be in some kind of situation you cannot solve yourself. So what is this child rescuing his people from? The angel tells us plainly: he will rescue his people from their sins.
Why Sin Still Matters
In many churches today, talking about sin is not cool. We would much rather talk about how much God loves us than about the fact that God is holy and we are not. The world around us does not enjoy hearing a message about sin. Many see it as intolerant to call someone a sinner. And those of us who do talk about sin are often ridiculed as old-fashioned, fire-and-brimstone teachers without an ounce of compassion.
But it is important to recognize that on Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth of the child who will rescue us from sin.
If sin is not a problem, then Christmas is not a big deal. Because Christmas is about the birth of the one who saves us from sin.
The Bible is very clear that the biggest, deepest, most urgent problem every person in the world has is sin. Let me take a quick tour through several passages that make this point.
A Biblical Survey: Sin as Humanity's Central Problem
The Bible begins with the creation of Adam and Eve and their rebellion against God in the garden. As a result of their transgression, mankind lives under God's wrath. Even the children of Abraham sin. God makes great promises to them and they don't believe him. He leads them to the promised land and they want to go back to Egypt and kill the prophet who freed them. The theme emerges again and again: sin is a huge problem for everyone. Mankind has a desperate moral problem and needs a solution.
The prophet Jeremiah speaks directly to that solution:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." - Jeremiah 31:31-34
God says two things here.
- He will forgive his people's iniquities in spite of the fact that they rebelled against him.
- He will write the law on their hearts.
No longer will they be the sort of people who rebel against him and hate his law. Instead, they will be the sort of people who love him and love his law. That is what God's people need, and that is what he promises to give them.
When we come to the New Testament, the father of John the Baptist speaks about the child about to be born.
"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins." - Luke 1:76-77
John the Baptist had one very important job: announcing that the Messiah had come, and that his salvation is the forgiveness of sins.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus forgives sins, just as John predicted. In Matthew 9:2, some men bring a paralytic to Jesus while he is teaching:
"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.'" - Matthew 9:2
Jesus does not say, "Take courage, you're going to walk again." He says, "Take courage, your sins are forgiven," because that is the man's real problem.
At the Last Supper, on the night before his arrest, Jesus says:
"Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." - Matthew 26:27–28:
Jesus himself understands that he is offering himself on the cross to secure the forgiveness of sins for his people.
After the resurrection, as Jesus prepares to return to the Father, he says:
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." -Luke 24:46–47
His apostles are to go out and call people to repent and receive the forgiveness of their sins. That is the mission. In Acts 2:38, the Apostle Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost:
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:38
Later, Peter stands before the Jewish ruling council and says:
"The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." - Acts 5:30–31
And when Peter visits the home of a Gentile named Cornelius, he says:
"To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." - Acts 10:43
The Apostle Paul carries the same message. Summarizing what Jesus commissioned him to do, Paul quotes Jesus directly:
"Rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness... to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." - Acts 26:16–18
In Romans 3:23–24, Paul writes one of the classic statements of the gospel:
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." - Romans 3:23-24
In 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, Paul says this is the message "of first importance":
"Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." - 1 Corinthians 15:3–4
Peter writes in his first letter:
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." - 1 Peter 2:24
And in the final book of the Bible, we read:
"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." - Revelation 1:5–6
From beginning to end, the Bible tells us we have a desperate problem. We are sinners and one day we will stand before a holy God.
The Most Important Thing We Can Do
We tend to write history around grand human events: the rise and fall of nations, conquest and discovery, economic progress, famous names. We think our own personal stories are about triumphs over adversity and the pursuit of our dreams.
But the Bible tells us our stories have a different plot. The most important story is whether or not we understand our sin and where to find forgiveness.
Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. The story of the human race is how we have failed to keep those commandments.
Watch the news on any given day. It screams that humanity mocks God and preys upon its neighbors. The world is filled with millions of individuals, each convinced that he or she is the center of the universe. That is a recipe for disaster.
If we are honest, we are not the people we should be. We hurt those we love. We trample over others to get what we want. We speak thoughtless and cruel words in the name of sarcasm. We tear down relationships when we mean to build them up.
Sin is not just a force that makes life unpleasant. There really is a holy God who is coming to judge. By his standard, which is the only one that matters, all of us will be found guilty unless we seek the mercy offered by Jesus Christ.
That means the biggest question any of us faces in this life is: how am I going to face my creator? That is the great drama of this life. And it is a question each one of us has to come to terms with. We need rescuing. Will we embrace our rescuer or reject him?
Christmas Is Not a Sentimental Holiday
There is nothing wrong with sentiment. Silly Christmas movies, carols in the snow, toasting marshmallows, giving great presents, all of that is wonderful. But this holiday celebrates the birth of our rescuer. It marks the birth of the only one who can solve our biggest problem.
Think about the movie Independence Day. It is the story of Earth being invaded by aliens and of how humanity defeats them. Imagine a holiday that commemorated that kind of rescue. You would have images of the battlefield, of destruction, of people who are bloody and exhausted but triumphant when the hero finally turns the tide of the war. That would be a tremendously joyful celebration of victory.
But the joy of the victory depends entirely on what people were saved from. Without the bloody battle, it is not much of a rescue.
Celebrating Christmas without understanding what we are saved from is not much of a celebration either. Christmas becomes shallow and sentimental when we lose sight of the rescue.
In many places today, especially in America, there is active effort to remove Christ from Christmas. The carols that speak of the world "in sin and error pining" or of being saved from going astray are disappearing. The songs we hear now talk about presents under the tree and getting home before it snows.
It may not be possible to rescue Christmas from the culture. But when believers gather to celebrate, we can remember. Christmas points us to the fundamental issues of this earthly life. What is God doing? How am I going to face him? What is my real problem, and where is the solution?
The Real Story of Christmas
Christmas is about the birth of the Savior who will rescue us from sin. That is why Jesus came.
Instead of requiring us to pay for our guilt, he delivers us from it. Instead of continuing to hurt ourselves and others, he brings us into his kingdom where we will be freed once and for all from sin. The Christmas story is the beginning of that process.
As we get into the busyness of the season, it is easy to lose sight of that. On Christmas, we celebrate the birth of the Savior who came to save his people from their sins.
The angel said it plainly to Joseph, and it is still the most important message of the season.
Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.
Series: Christmas
Photo by Leon Oblak on Unsplash
Season 20, bonus episode 25, track #66
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