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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 271

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

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II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
us all tremble with fear every time we hear it told. Matthew
simply summarizes the whole complicated situation by saying, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken
by the prophet” (verse 22).

The spring from which the expectation flowed is God’s
promise to David that a Son from his royal line would
“build a house” for God’s name, and God would establish his throne so that he would rule over the people of
God forever. This king would be God’s “Son,” and God
would be his “Father” and never withdraw his favor
from him (2 Sam 7:12–16, 1 Chr 17:11–14). Although David’s immediate son Solomon, who enjoyed a long and
peaceful reign and built the temple, clearly was an aspect of the fulfillment of that promise, the subsequent
history of the kings of Israel and Judah makes abundantly clear the need for a greater fulfillment of the
promise to David. Thus, through prophet and psalmist
the hope for a greater “David” remained alive, and
Israel continued to look forward to the fulfillment of
what God promised David.20

11. How often do you find yourself in situations where you
simply don’t know what the right thing to do might be?
What do you do in those situations? How does God
still reveal His righteous ways to us today?

8. Which of the three positions do you prefer? On what do
you base your preference?

Focus Question: Matt. 1:19
6. What is Matthew telling us about Joseph when he refers
to him as “just/righteous”? In the context of verse 19,
we need to expand the question to read as follows:
What does Joseph’s decision to end his engagement
quietly have to do with the fact that he is righteous?

Raymond Brown outlines three ways in which Joseph’s righteousness and his “decision” have been related to each other
and to the rest of the verse.16 As we will immediately see,
this discussion is inseparable from the question of what the
word δίκαιος (dikaios, “righteous”) means here.

9. What, then, should we think that Matthew would mean
by “righteous” when he uses it to describe Joseph in
the opening chapter of his Gospel? That may very well
be just the question that Matthew wants us to be asking
ourselves at this point in his story.

C. “Obedience to the Law was the key factor in Joseph’s uprightness or justice …” Those who hold this view would
translate 19bc “an upright man but unwilling to expose
her publicly.”
If the Greek grammar alone could answer this question,
there would be just one position and no need for discussion.

12. Why is it important that Joseph be involved in naming
the Child?

The “book of origin” [Matt. 1:1–17] has left us with an
unresolved problem. Joseph has been shown to be
the “son of David,” the heir to the royal dynasty of
Judah, but in v. 16 Matthew has abandoned his regular
formula to indicate that Jesus, the son of Joseph’s wife
Mary, was not in fact Joseph’s son (and Matthew carefully avoids ever referring to Joseph as Jesus’ “father”).
What then is the relevance of this dynastic list to the
story of Jesus, son of Mary? These verses [Matthew
1:18–25] will explain, therefore, how Jesus came to be
formally adopted and named by Joseph, despite his
own natural inclinations, and thus to become officially
“son of David”; the angel’s address to Joseph as “son of
David” in v. 20 will highlight the issue.18

An angel came from heaven and said: “Fear not.
There is no dishonor or disgrace. She is with child
by the Holy Spirit.” Joseph had nothing to go by save
the word of God and he accepted it. A godless man
would have said it was just a dream, but Joseph believed the word of God and took unto him his wife.17

A. “Kindness or mercy was the key factor in Joseph’s uprightness or justice …” Those who hold this view would
translate 19bc “an upright man and therefore unwilling
to expose her publicly.”
B. “Respect or awe for God’s plan of salvation was the key
factor in Joseph’s uprightness or justice …” Those who
hold this view would also translate 19bc “an upright man
and therefore unwilling to expose her publicly.”

Focus Question: Matt. 1:21-25

R.T. France sets up the question this way:

In one of his sermons on Luke 1:39–56, Luther mentions
the events of our text in passing. He paraphrases and then
comments on Matt. 1:20:

In the end, Matthew leaves us in no doubt about the course
of the righteous man in a situation he cannot possibly comprehend: Joseph believes the word of God and obeys it. For
obvious reasons, the adult Jesus cannot say, “Whoever does
the will of my Father in heaven is my father,” but notice how
Joseph’s actions in this case bring him within the definition
of Jesus’ family — a definition that transcends both biology
and law (cf. Matt. 12:46–50).
10. What have these first two questions concerning
Matthew 1 taught us about justification?

Given the OT’s view of the king as God’s “anointed,”
this second title [“Son of David”] has some theological
overlap with the declaration that Jesus is “Christ.” “Son
of David,” however, specifically evokes what might be
the dominant strain of messianic expectation in both
the OT and in Second Temple Jewish literature.[19]
18
R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, New International Commentary on the
New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 47.

The three positions below summarize Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the
Messiah (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 126–128.

The Martin Luther Christmas Book, trans. Roland H. Bainton (Philadelphia:
Muhlenberg Press, 1948), 30–31.
17

Justifying Christmas — Participant’s Guide |

Jesus’ identity will be even further clarified by the names
given Him by God through Joseph: “Jesus” and “Immanuel”
— but you already know that!

Concluding Discussion
This final question has important ramifications not only
for how we think of Jesus’ identity but for how we think of
our own.
13. What are some of those ramifications?

Think of the many ways our identity as God’s sons and
daughters is called into question, ways that might even
tempt us to doubt our identity as God’s sons and daughters.
Against all of these questions, arguments and temptations,
we can cling to the following assurances (among others)
from God’s Word:
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God, who were
born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will
of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13).

Session 3: Luke 2:1–14
Introduction

There is a danger that in all this discussion of Matthew 1, we
might lose another very important dimension of the text.
The word that Matthew uses for “betrothed” or “engaged”
is the usual Greek word for that relationship — yet it is not
simply a legal term. The history of its usage includes the
ideas of courting, of “wooing and winning” a woman’s heart.
The story of our Savior’s birth is a love story on many levels!
We must not lose sight of that. How can our lessons about
justification taught by this text enhance rather than diminish its power as a love story?
Drum, frommer Christ,
wer du auch bist,
sei gutes Muths und laß dich nicht betrüben.
Weil Gottes Kind
dich ihm verbindt,
so kanns nicht anders sein, Gott muß dich lieben.23

This session will follow a different format than Sessions 1
and 2. We will let Luther himself provide our outline for
Session 3, an outline found in his sermon on “The Gospel
for Christmas Eve,” which comes from his 1521 Christmas
Postil when Luther was a “guest” at Wartburg Castle.25 It is
doubly appropriate that we should take a look at this sermon today. First of all, it’s only fitting that we should hear
more directly from Luther during this anniversary Advent/
Christmastide. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, it’s appropriate that we look at this sermon because the
Postil “does not contain actual sermons, preached by Luther,
but sermon guides, homilies written by him for the use of
other ministers.”26 What we find in this “sermon” is the way
Luther instructed his fellow pastors to preach on Luke 2.
For this hour, then, we, too, will become Luther’s students.
Luther offers a cursory overview of the matters narrated
in the text and then gives us our two-part outline for this
session:
Now let us see what sort of mysteries, hidden things,
are presented to us in this story. Generally speaking, there are two matters which are expressed in all
mysteries — the gospel and the faith, i.e., what one is
to preach, and what one is to believe, and who are to
be the preachers and who are to be the hearers. Let
us have a look at these two matters.27

Thou Christian heart,
Whoe’er thou art,
Be of good cheer and let no sorrow move thee!
For God’s own Child,
In mercy mild,
Joins thee to Him; how greatly God must love thee!24

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,
by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if
children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with
Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may
also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:14–17).

[The following non-metrical translation of Gerhardt’s verse
captures the important thought of the final line that is not
represented in the TLH translation:

Like any good preacher who wants to keep his hearers
guessing, Luther immediately reverses the order he has just
proposed; he begins with faith. It may come as something
of a surprise to some students that Luther begins by saying
that what follows is not enough to believe:
This faith does not merely consist in believing that
this story is true, as it is written. For that does not
avail anything, because everyone, even the damned,
believe that.28

25
23
Paul Gerhardt, Paulus Gerhardts geistliche Lieder: Getreu nach d. b. seinen
Lebzeiten erschienenen Ausgabe wiederabgedruckt, 5th ed. (Stuttgart: Samuel
Gottlieb Liesching, 1869), 26.

Translation composite. “O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is” (TLH 81:4, LSB 372:4).

Justifying Christmas — Participant’s Guide |

In Matthew’s Greek, the angel uses the second person singular form of the verb
≈ “you, Joseph, shall name him” rather than the second person plural ≈ “you both
shall name him.”

Raymond E. Brown, “The Annunciation to Joseph (Matthew 1:18–25),” Worship
61, no. 6 (1987): 487–488.

Discussion Questions
Read together Luke 2:1–14.
1. What do you think we are to believe on the basis of
this passage?

Luther provides the following answer to our question:
Rather the faith that is the right one, rich in grace,
demanded by God’s word and deed, is that you firmly believe Christ is born for you and that his birth is
yours, and come to pass for your benefit.29
It is a little unfortunate, though understandable, that English translations try to smooth out the very choppy sentence that forms the heart of the angel’s good news. In the
original, it reads as if each word were to be pondered and
savored before moving on to the next, and yet each word
builds to the climax of the whole. Translating word by word,
we would have,
“because | there is born | for you | today | a savior | who is
Christ the Lord | in the city of David.”
2. Put your thumb over the words “for you.” Is there good
news of great joy in anything that remains?

The First Matter: What One Is to Believe

Therefore, good Christian,
Whoever you may be,
Be of good courage and do not let yourself be dismayed.
Since God’s Child
joins you to Him,
it cannot be otherwise: God must love you.]

Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1–11:1 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
2006), 75. Gibbs provides the following passages as examples of this Davidic
expectation: Is. 9:7; 16:5; 22:22; 55:3; Jer. 23:5; Ezek. 34:23; 37:24; Amos 9:11;
Zech. 12:10; and Ps. 89:3–4, 49; 132:10–11, 17.

10 | Justifying Christmas — Participant’s Guide

When God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), it didn’t get
“sorta” light out. In the same way, when He declares us to
be righteous, we are not “sorta” righteous; we are righteous
indeed. When He calls us sons, we are not “like” sons; we
are truly His sons.

“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of
Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand
to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal. 3:7–9).

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,
who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge
against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that,
who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who
indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:31–34).

19
Jewish literature written between the years (roughly) 500 B.C. and 70 A.D.,
the time of the “second temple” in Jerusalem, which was built by Zerubbabel and
renovated by Herod I.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”
(John 8:36).

Closing Thought

But for Judaism, as the genealogy indicates, the royal
lineage of the Messiah had to be traced through a
series of fathers to David. Matthew gives the answer to
the modern question [“How can Jesus be Joseph’s son
if Joseph did not beget him?”] when Joseph is told,
“She is to bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus.”[21] Judaism wrestled with the fact that it is easy to
tell who is a child’s mother, but difficult to tell who is a
child’s father. To establish paternity, it is not sufficient
to ask the wife because she might lie about the father
in order to avoid being accused of adultery. Rather
the husband should give testimony since most men
are reluctant to acknowledge a child unless it is their
own. The Mishna Baba Bathra (8:6), written some 200
years after Jesus’ birth, is lucidly clear: “If a man says,
‘This is my son,’ he is to be believed.” Joseph gives such
an acknowledgment by naming the child; thus he becomes the legal father of Jesus. (This is a more correct
description than adoptive father or foster father.) The
identity of Jesus as Son of David is in God’s plan, but
Joseph must give to that plan a cooperative obedience
that befits a righteous man.22

Jeff Gibbs points out the significance of Jesus being the “Son
of David”:

7. How can we as readers move toward an interpretation
we feel confident in? What sort of questions do we
need to be asking? Where can we look for answers?

Brown explains how God provided this greater “David” in a
way that satisfied the Biblical and cultural requirements for
a child to be a “son of David”:

But, again, why is this all so important to Matthew (and,
therefore, should be to us)?

Discussion Questions

271

Many of us know the joy of having a child born to us, but
what exactly does it mean to have a child born for us? In answer to this question, Luther introduces a very fundamental
theme of his theology and a very fundamental theme of
Biblical theology.
For the right foundation of all salvation which unites
Christ and the believing heart in this manner is that
everything they have individually becomes something they hold in common.30

AE 52:7–31.

26
Hans J. Hillerbrand, introduction to Sermons II, vol. 52 of Luther’s Works by
Martin Luther, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), x.
27

AE 52:14.

AE 52:15.

12 | Justifying Christmas — Participant’s Guide

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