The Genealogy of Christ

(I asked my husband, Alex, to proofread this post. He left some thoughts to challenge me and I loved what he wrote so much - and the way it turned this into almost a conversation - that I left it in. The things that Alex wrote are in green italics.)

Growing up, the genealogies in the Bible were always the hardest part to read. So-and-so had so-and-so with so-and-so who had so-and-so. On and on. I would skim it at best, skip it at worst. But this afternoon, as I opened Matthew to begin my journey through the Gospels, I was arrested by the very first line: The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. It hit me for the first time how impressive it is that all of this was common knowledge, passed down orally from generation to generation until it could be written down. Thousands of years of familial knowledge. People knew who they were, they knew where they had come from.

I have to pause and wonder: when did we stop doing this? Is it simply because it is too hard to keep track of thousands upon thousands of years of family history? Or did we start to become so wrapped up in ourselves and the immediacy of our lives that we can't be bothered with knowing where we come from? And yet, at some point or another, we all wonder where we came from. Adopted children often seek out their blood families to try to understand themselves. People pay hundreds of dollars to companies like 23 and Me or Ancestry.com to find out more about themselves. I have considered doing it myself (have you done it? Was it worth it? Let me know!).

Jesus was able to track His line. He knew who He was and where He had come from on both sides of His family - earthly and divine. His line has a few impressive members and a few who are not as shiny. David - the Man After God's Own Heart - who also had a man killed to cover his infidelity. Rahab, infamously known as "The Harlot." The twice widowed and cast aside Tamar who tricked her father-in-law into impregnating her. Batsheba who was forcibly taken from her life with Uriah after being impregnated by David. Solomon who, for all his wisdom, seems to have been prone to depression and had a weak spot for women. He allowed idol worship in Israel for the sake of his many foreign wives and concubines. Solomon's son, Rehoboam, was party to the division of Israel. He shattered the unity of the Apple of God's Eye. Abraham and Isaac, the time honored patriarchs of Israel, both liked about being married to their wives to protect themselves. Jacob, whose name means "He grasps the heel" or "supplanter," lied to his ailing father and stole his brother's birthright.

So, more than a list of names, Jesus is heir to a certain story. Matthew's Gospel highlights certain elements of that story in his genealogy. What sort of theological claims are being made? 

In his commentary on the book of Matthew, Stanley Hauerwas asserts that "in Jesus we now rightly understand the beginning because we now see the end." Matthew begins with Jesus' family tree as a reflection of the creation story in Genesis. "Jesus' story is the story of new creation," says Hauerwas. Isn't that something we hold dear? The old has gone and new has come? Jesus did away with the old law as a sign of the new covenant? I never before considered how, as the first born, Jesus inherits the story of creation. Specifically, He inherits the story of Israel. As we will see later in His story (spoiler *Wink*), Jesus follows the path of Israel through Egypt and the desert. His life story is symbolic, step by step he redeems not only his family tree but Israel's history.

Likewise, we live storied lives, i.e., we are recipients of a story that we had nothing to do with but instead has shaped our lives in more ways than we can know. All in all, this is not the shiniest family history. And yet, it is the family line chosen to be the earthly family of The Messiah. 

In my opinion, there are two ways we can look at this lineage:

1. Wow! isn't it amazing how God can redeem anyone's sin - including mine? God really can do amazing work with cracked vessels. (Even more than working with cracked vessels, Jesus identifies with these marginal elements in Israel's story. 1. How does this already color vs. 1, "Jesus the Messiah the Song of Abraham the Son of David? 2. What does this say to your initial question in this blog: What/Who is God? 3. These pivotal, though perhaps disreputable, women culminate in the life of a young Jewish girl suddenly finding herself with child. What could this framing of Jesus' genealogy say about Mary and her role in Israel's story/the story of God?)
2. Wow! How can I be so judgmental of (insert any person you have judged for leading a "sinful" life - including yourself)? I don't know what work might be being don in and through that situation.

I don't think either view is any more or less correct than the other. Honestly, I think they should be merged into one beautiful view. How might we live differently if we were to truly look at everyone - the single parent up the street, the homeless person on the corner, the illegal immigrant, the gay couple, the drug addict, the Trump support, the person who has an "I'm with her" bumper sticker - through the lens of the family line of Christ? God didn't deem anyone on that list as not good enough, though many of us would have been the first to say they should have been excluded. Instead, as Alex pointed out, Jesus identified with them. We will see this again and again as Jesus moves into ministry.

Those who the culture at the time deemed to be less than Christ used to further His ministry and story.

So, then, my question that I have been pondering recently: How can we call ourselves Christians - "little Christs" - if we are the first to cast stones and build walls?