The first book of the New Testament starts off with a bang. Right out of the gate, Matthew strikes the right note for the world-changing events and universe-altering story that he will tell. He starts with: a genealogy!
Oh, yeah! High drama, indeed. Reading someone else's genealogy is even less exciting than seeing someone else's vacation pictures. Verse 9: "Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah." Spectacular.
My favorite new anecdote about this passage is that one of our youth interns had to pick a passage of scripture from a list to do a Bible study on in one of his religion classes. After scanning the list, he picked the one from Matthew. "It's one of the Gospels," he thought, "plenty of information." When he got home and looked it up, it was Jesus' genealogy. Awesome.
But, as with most things in the Bible, there is more here than meets the eye. In fact, there is a lot more. We could talk about how the entire scope of God's relationship with Israel is encapsulated in this list of names. How the calling of Abraham, the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the glory days of the Israelite monarchy, the Exile, and the return all form the backdrop for us to know exactly what it means for Jesus to be "Messiah." The major points in Israelite history that Matthew summarizes are Abraham, David, the Exile, - and the birth of Jesus.
We could talk about all the suspicious characters Jesus has in background:
Abraham lied about his wife being his sister and basically gave her away as a concubine - twice!
Jacob lied to his blind father and stole his brother's birthright.
Judah left his brother in a pit and sold him into slavery.
David committed adultery and conspired to have a man murdered.
Solomon was an idolater and polygamist to a disgusting degree.
Solomon's son Rehoboam ruled the kingdom so badly it split in two.
Jeconiah ruled the kingdom so badly the Babylonians burned Jerusalem to the ground.
But even more interesting than that, is the fact that Matthew includes women in his genealogy. This is pretty unusual in its own right. Even more unusual are the women he names. Let's take a look shall we?
Tamar (v.3)- A Gentile. Twice widowed and then deprived by her father-in-law Judah of the chance for children, she dressed up as a prostitute, had sex with Judah, and bore twins. Her story is in Genesis 38.
Rahab (v.5) - A Gentile. If this is the same Rahab (which some scholars dispute), she was the prostitute who hid the Israelite spies in Jericho and was then spared.
Ruth (v.5) - A Gentile. Widowed, came to Israel with her mother-in-law and got herself an Israelite husband. Depending on what happened on that pile of grain in the middle of the night in Ruth chapter 3, she may be a little suspect as well.
Bathsheba (v.6) - We all know Bathsheba. Originally married to a Gentile. Interestingly, the verse literally says "She who had been the wife of Uriah," to remind us specifically of the adulterous relationship. We never know she feels about anything that happens to her. The only words she says in the story in 2 Samuel 11 are, "I'm pregnant." She is a widow, too.
And the fifth woman is - Mary. We'll find out later in the chapter that she becomes pregnant before she and Joseph get married. Put yourself in Joseph's sandals. Your fiance comes to you and says, "I'm pregnant. And it's God's baby." No wonder he wanted to quietly get divorced.
So, Jesus has suspicious relatives. The Messiah's line is a line of liars, thieves, adulterers, murderers, fake or real prostitutes, Gentile women, idolaters, and screw-ups.
"And you shall call His name 'Jesus', for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21
"And they shall call His name Immanuel, which means, 'God with us.'" - Matthew 1:23, quoting Isaiah 7:14
God is in the business of redemption - always has been. Jesus' genealogy is filled with refugees, Gentiles, failures, widows, desperate people doing desperate things, and sinners who may or may not have asked for forgiveness. In the first days and months of his life He was homeless, son of an unwed mother, and a refugee. He spent the rest of His life having dinner with prostitutes, healing Gentiles, blessing widows, forgiving adulterous women, inviting Himself to dinner at the houses of thieves, putting the man who failed Him in charge of His disciples, and asking God to forgive the very people that murdered Him. That's God with us. That's the kind of Messiah I need.
P.S. Here's my friend Taylor's favorite interpretation of this passage: Andrew Peterson's "Matthew's Begats." Very impressive.
