Today’s Gospel: http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Matthew+1
Anthony de Mello, SJ, tells this story in The Song of the Bird. A pilgrim was on a journey and he stopped as night was falling at the edge of a village. He laid out his blanket under a tree and prepared to settle down for the night. All at once a villager ran up to him and demanded that the pilgrim give him the precious stone. Puzzled, the pilgrim asked what stone he meant. The villager went on in great excitement to tell the pilgrim that an angel had appeared to him in a dream the night before. The angel told him that if he went to the edge of the village at night fall, he would find a pilgrim who would give him a precious stone that would make him rich for the rest of his life.
The pilgrim poked around in his bag and sure enough he found a stone. He handed it to the villager, saying, “The angel must have meant this one.” He explained to the villager that he had found it on the path some days before, and the villager was most welcome to it. The villager took the stone and stared at it, stunned. It was a perfect diamond, possibly the largest in the world. He thanked the pilgrim and went home. That night he could not sleep, he tossed and turned until dawn. As soon as it was light he ran to the place where the pilgrim lay and he woke him up. “Give me,” he pleaded, “the wealth that makes it possible for you to give this diamond away so easily.”
We could say that today’s Gospel reading shows us that wealth. The reading is taken from the first chapter of Matthew which sets out who Jesus was. Do you recall the opening paragraphs? They used to be referred to as the begats. It starts, “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob….” And it went on for forty two generations, “Asa begat Jehoshaphat; and Jehoshaphat begat Jehoram….” It goes through David and culminates in Joseph, “the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”
Directly after the begats comes our reading for this morning, which describes the naming of Jesus. He was to be called Jesus, which means God saves. He is also to be known as Emmanuel, which means God with us. So the whole opening chapter of the Gospel has to do with identifying who Jesus was. The begats tell us the origin of Jesus’ family name: Davidson — Jesus son of David. That identifies his earthly heritage: a descendant of Abraham, so a Jew; and a descendant of David, so of the royal line.
If his family name came from his human lineage, his given name, Jesus, came from God; for an angel told Joseph in a dream what to name the baby. This name identifies him, uniquely. His family name told what clan he came from; this name singles him out from all the other members of the clan. His family name ties him to the world; this name is his tie to the kingdom of heaven.
Now there is a great difference between the way God names a baby and the way we name a baby. For us, for the most part, we choose a name that has some significance for us. Maybe it’s the name of someone we admire; maybe our family tradition dictates what the name of the child will be; maybe we want to honor someone; maybe we just like the sound of a certain name. With God, however, the name he gives the child is a message from God to the world — a message of timeless truth.
Take Jesus for instance. The message to the world is, “God saves.” That was not a new revelation, but in Jesus God said this in a new way. Jesus’ other name, Emmanuel, says to the world, “God is with us.” Again, not a new message, just a new way of understanding it. Putting them together we have: “God saves” and “God is with us and within us.” In short, God saves by being with us and within us.
If the story ended there it would scarcely be worth telling. The story goes on, however, to describe for us how Jesus Emmanuel Davidson lived out those names. He lived out an earthly life as a Jew, within Jewish religious and social traditions. At the same time he lived in an eternal dimension, in communion with God, filled with God’s spirit. We could say he lived a double life.
It is all very well to say this; what is our evidence that he lived in two dimensions? Our evidence lies in Jesus’ actions. He spent his whole life giving away one precious stone after another; that is, giving away all his chances for worldly power, even worldly comfort – all that the world holds dear he treated as trifles. Was he mad? No, he simply had wealth of such value that worldly goods held little appeal. What he had outshone the rest the way full sun makes candle light almost invisible.
How does this save? It shows us that Jesus’ power, his joy, his freedom and compassion could not be attributed to anything he possessed, but must come from within, from the presence of God within him. If this presence were unique to Jesus’ alone it would not save us. That is not the case, however. Jesus spent his whole life of ministry in an effort to share that life with us, to wake us up to our possibilities.
As we approach the moment of Jesus’ birth, perhaps we might accept the salvation that God offers through Jesus Emmanuel Davidson. “Come,” we say, “be born in my heart, and share with me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give diamonds away so easily.”
1. de Mello, Anthony, The Song of the Bird, Image Books, Garden City, NJ, 1984 p. 140
