Two of my favourite books as a youngster were “The Once and Future King” and “The Lord of the Rings.”
From “The Lord of the Rings” my favourite character was Aragorn – an anonymous Ranger who is slowly revealed to be the long awaited descendant of Isuldur, the King of Arnor and Gondor. A man of humble beginnings who rose to return the kingdom to its former glory and lead the defeat of the evil and darkness of Mordor.
From even more humble beginnings the boy “Wart” in “the once and future king” is tutored by Merlin and rises to be the King of England, head of the Round Table. To be honest, I prefer the first section of the book with it’s boyhood adventures than the rest with it’s betrayals and disappointments, but I guess it’s all part of the Arthur myth. This myth, of a great King who drew a country together under God is one that has been retold hundred and one ways. I wonder if you have a favourite Arthur – maybe Sean Connery with his ubiquitous Scottish accent, the Disney cartoon of “The Sword in the Stone”, or the romantic poetry of “Morte D’Arthur”.
The place of King David and his heirs held a similar place to these stories in the culture and national life of the Jewish people around the time that Jesus was born. There was one big difference, of course. Unlike Aragorn who is completely fictional and Arthur who is mostly fictional, and is impossible to place in actual British history, David was a historic King of the people of God. They knew when he had reigned, they had kept his genealogies, they had written Chronicles and records of his reign.
He was the one who had drawn the twelve tribes of Israel into a formidable kingdom under one King. He was the one who had given them a capital city, an identity as a nation under God, who had begun the process of building the temple that was completed by his son, Solomon. He was the great, founding King of the kingdom, chosen, anointed, blessed by God. His “Mighty Men” were the leading warriors of the time. In 2 Samuel 7:16 we read this promise that God made to David:
“Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me, your throne shall be established for ever.”
Now, following David’s death his son, Solomon, had been crowned and led the people, but after his death there was a dispute over the succession and the kingdom split into two, north and south. Eventually these kingdoms were defeated and the people were taken into exile. Eventually they returned but the kingdom was not re-established. By Jesus time there were “kings” – various Herods, but they were a pale shadow of the great King David. They were client kings, dependent on their power on the Roman overlords.
By Jesus’ time the title of “Son of David” had come to mean a descendant of David who would be sent by God as a fulfilment of that promise that had been made to David, someone who would re-establish the Kingdom, reform the nation under God, drive out the Romans, free the people from darkness and evil.
It is all this historical and cultural understanding that lies behind the references to David in our two readings this morning.
In Paul’s letter to the Christians living in Rome he refers to Jesus as “a descendant of David.” This might initially strike us as a bit odd, but it reminds us that Paul was a Jewish scholar, who loved pointing out the different ways in which Jesus fulfilled the promises of God made in the Jewish Scriptures. In this, he had a lot in common with Matthew, who more than any of the other gospel writers is at pains to point out the consistency between what God said through the prophets of the Jewish scripture, and what Jesus was and did. He uses the title “Son of David” significantly more often than the writers of the other accounts of Jesus’ life, and in our reading this morning we have the only time that is used to refer to anyone apart from Jesus.
But even here, when he have Joseph called “Son of David.” the whole point is to emphasise that Jesus, legally Joseph’s son by his marriage to Mary, was legitimately a “Son of David”, heir to all the promises that were made to David about his eventual successor.
The important of this to Matthew is clear when we go back to the very beginning of Matthew’s eye witness account of Jesus’ life, to verse 1 of chapter 1, where we read:
“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:”
Setting out his stall to his readers, Matthew leads with the three things that are to him the most important things to say about Jesus – he is the Messiah, God’s chosen one, he is the Son of David, heir of the kingdom, and he is the Son of Abraham, the one who will fulfil Abraham’s vocation to be a blessing to the whole world.
So, from this brief survey I hope that we can see that it was really important to Matthew and to Paul that Jesus was the Son of David. It was important to them because it was important to the Jewish people – Jesus was the one they had been waiting for. But what about us, why might it be important to us that Jesus is the Son of David, particularly in this season of Advent?
The first thing that it reminds us is that Jesus was fully human. He was born into a real family that had real ancestors. That family was messy. If you read through the rest of Matthew chapter 1 you will find a list of names, ancestors of Jesus. In there you will find people who committed murder, rape, adultery, bigamy, who failed as parents and leaders, who were unfaithful to God. Whatever we might have or uncover in our own family trees, it’s almost certain that it is there in Jesus’ family tree. He wasn’t limited by that, in fact he can to redeem it all. He can do the same for whatever we might feel overshadows us from our ancestors.
The second thing that we might draw from this is that Jesus is King. He did come to establish a throne that will last forever. He spent a lot of his time on earth talking about this kingdom. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. He insisted that this kingdom is near at hand, that it was breaking through, that it could be seen and experienced. His death, resurrection and ascension to heaven were his enthronement, his coronation.
This kingdom will have no end. The challenge for us is that we don’t see it in all it’s glory yet. I believe that it is near, that when we see the kingdom values of love and joy and peace at work it is evidence of the Kings rule over his kingdom. I’ve been thinking a bit about the fruit of the Spirit recently, they are listed in Galatians 5:
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
It has struck me afresh that whenever we see fruit it is evidence that a fruit tree or bush is there. Think about it for a minute. If you’re out for a walk in the autumn and you see blackberries in the hedge, if means there’s a blackberry bush there. It seems to me that the same is true of the fruit of the Spirit. Where ever we see this fruit, then it is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work, producing that fruit in the world, even where he is not acknowledged. This is the Kingdom that is near in our everyday lives.
And yet, we know the kingdom is not yet fully realised. There’s too much darkness still in the world. In advent we look for, we pray for, we yearn for the return of the King, when he will bring in his kingdom in all his glory, and the promise made to David, which has begun to be fulfilled in Jesus, the son of David, will be completely fulfilled as Jesus’ reign is recognised and acknowledged by the whole of creation.
Thirdly, it might be helpful to remember that while Jesus was the Son of David, and did come as God’s chosen one to establish this kingdom, and to free the people, he did so in a way that was completely unexpected. He was the king who came to serve, who defeated death by dying, who forgave those who persecuted and killed him. We might find that in a similar way he does things in our lives that we do not expect, that he answers prayers and fulfils promises in ways that we do not expect. That following him is likely to lead us down unexpected paths.
So, this Advent, as we wait for the King, let us be open to the unexpected, let us look for signs of the Kingdom to celebrate, and let us worship the one who took on our humanity and raised it to the heights of heaven’s throne.