Daily Reading
Maybe there's a reason Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus is normally (around Christmas anyway) overlooked in favor of the account recorded in the Gospel of Luke: it's much less fun. Mostly, Matthew presents a rather dry, matter-of-fact explanation of how an out-of-wedlock pregnancy was still able to be kosher. In fact, more is said here about Joseph than Jesus. But in this brief passage, a confluence of facts about this baby Jesus frames the entire reason we observe Advent and the coming Christmas. All at once, Jesus is the Son of God, a son of two fallible humans, the Savior of His people from their sin (earlier, in verse 21), a complete fulfillment and embodiment of ancient prophecy, and "God with us."
The pedestrian manner in which Matthew conveys these facts brings into relief—through contrast—the counterintuitive love God has for His people. The Advent of the Christ is full of juxtapositions that normally just don't compute: a King born amid scandal and in a pile of hay, a virgin birth, the Creator incarnate as creation, and, perhaps the most vivid and audacious, "God with us." These are all seemingly contradicting claims, but it is through their combination that we have hope: a God with us but not our Savior would be crushing; a Savior who is only human and not both God and Man would be worthless; a King which knows only lavish palaces and bejeweled thrones would do us no good, because we are no more distinguished or worthy than Joseph or Mary. God give us the grace to never cease marveling at the unlikely reality that He is both with us in our humanity and was named Jesus, the Savior of His people.