Advent - Day 7

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. (Matthew 1:1-6 ESV).

Our reading today is not particularly jolly. In fact, this may be a portion of some of the Scripture that you “speed read” just to get past it. I know that the names are difficult to pronounce and most have no history or background of any of these individuals. There are merely names without context. However, to Matthew’s readers they would have great meaning and carry a particular message that is essential to the gospel. The most glaring truth about the family tree of Jesus is that it is not nice and neat and pretty. It is because of that the angel’s message to Joseph later in the chapter becomes so meaningful. He said, “He will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). We’ll see more about that in the coming days. Today I want you to really look at some of the descendants of Jesus. For instance, there’s Abraham, who tried to cut his son Isaac’s throat. Isaac survived to be the father of Jacob, an unscrupulous but entertaining character who won his position in Jesus’ family line by lying and cheating his blind, old father. Jacob got cheated himself when he ‘got to know’ the wrong girl by mistake and became the father of Judah. Judah made the same mistake with his own daughter-in-law, Tamar. Tamar had cheated him by disguising herself as a prostitute. There’s a man named Boaz in Jesus’ family tree. Boaz was seduced by a foreigner named Ruth. He woke up in the middle of night and found Ruth climbing in to bed with him. Not that Boaz ought to have been shocked. His mother, Matthew tells us, was Rahab, a prostitute who betrayed her people. Boaz’s son was the grandfather of David. David was a power-hungry peeping-tom, who spied on Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop one evening. David arranged for her husband, Uriah, to be murdered. David and Bathsheba went to become the parents of Solomon, the next name in the family tree of Jesus. And, the family tree ultimately winds its way to Joseph, wasn’t the father of Jesus at all. He was just the betrothed of Mary, the teenage girl with a child on the way and no ring on her finger. Some might says, “It’s scandalous.” However, this is the beauty of the Bible. It remains truthful and consistent with the grand narrative of scripture. God knew well the complete impotency of man to redeem himself; therefore, he took on the flesh of humanity and accomplished the task of atonement on our behalf. That’s the good news! That the Gospel!