Commentary on Matthew 1:1-17

Wherever the “buckle of the Bible Belt” is, it can’t be far from my hometown. Every year the Gideons would show up at my North Alabama elementary school to pass out free New Testaments: little King James Version copies with flexible covers and tiny print. Having grown up with grandparents who went to church and watched Billy Graham crusades, I received the message that I was going to hell if I did not receive Jesus. So a couple of times—imagine this 11- or 12-year-old kid—I determined to read that New Testament. 

Each time I made the same mistake. I began at the beginning: Matthew’s genealogy. “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren…” (1:2, King James Version). I never got past the genealogy. “If the Bible is this boring,” I reasoned, “I’ll never read much of it.” Hellfire or no hellfire.

Boring?

But you, preacher, know the riches of this genealogy. The trouble manifests itself with the glazed-over eyes of your congregation, which occurs about five verses into its reading. How do we communicate the wonders of this remarkable passage to our people?

We might take the predictable strategy: “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking nothing could be more boring than a genealogy.” But that path leads us into pleading with folks to abandon their skepticism. We don’t want to argue our way toward the gospel.

Alternatively, we might try a more personal approach. Like I did above, we might tell the story of our own conversion to the wonders of Jesus’s genealogy. But that’s our story, not theirs. We could try a related angle: “I know some of you are into genealogical research,” or “Have you ever been surprised by something you learned about your family history?” This way holds promise, but lots of folk roll their eyes at genealogical research.

Scandal?

I suggest that we dive right into theology, bringing it to life. Let us invite our congregations into the struggles early Christians faced in telling Jesus’s story. I can imagine two approaches that might prove effective. I also suggest that preachers choose only one for a given sermon. One focused word of good news is more than enough. Each strategy begins with a question.

Question 1: Why sprinkle a few women into a genealogy composed of 42 men? This is highly unusual for biblical genealogies. But four women appear in Matthew’s genealogy before it mentions Jesus’s mother Mary: Tamar from Genesis 38; Rahab from Joshua 2; Ruth from, well, Ruth; and Uriah’s wife from the David narratives. These women share interesting social histories: Tamar pretends to be a sex worker in order to conceive, Rahab actually is a sex worker, Ruth seduces Boaz prior to becoming his wife and conceiving David’s grandfather, and Bathsheba becomes pregnant when David sends armed men to bring her to his bed. Alert readers will find these stories scandalous. Matthew must be up to something. By associating these four women with Mary, and only these four, Matthew prepares for Mary’s irregular conception—and for Joseph’s perception of it. God works through some convoluted histories. 

The genealogy ties Jesus to Joseph who is, we shall learn, a righteous man. And as it prepares for Mary, it introduces four women, heroes all, whom we might not call righteous without help. Preachers do well to remind congregations that in Genesis 38 Tamar deceives her father-in-law Judah by pretending to be a prostitute and allowing him to impregnate her. In the end, however, Judah declares Tamar “more in the right than I” (38:26). Despite the complications, these women all prove heroic, as will Mary. The community of Jesus honors all types.

Let us ponder

Or let us invite a congregation to ponder a second line of questioning: What names would you pick to tell America’s story? Can you pick just three? Someone who knows their Bible history can likely identify Israel’s three most prominent characters. Would we not expect Abraham, Moses, and David? Abraham stands as Israel’s great ancestor, Moses delivers Israel from slavery and mediates God’s law, and David represents Israel’s great, albeit imperfect, king. (Moses is absent from the genealogy, but Matthew turns to him in chapter 2.) These three mark the high points of Israel’s history. This Gospel locates Jesus firmly within the whole story of Israel.

But Matthew does not restrict Israel’s story to its high points. The genealogy summarizes Israel’s history in a most orderly fashion: 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile, and 14 from the exile to Jesus. In a sense, the genealogy communicates that Israel is in trouble. Abraham and David lie in the past; 14 generations have suffered foreign domination. Israel’s Messiah will deliver the people from their sins and from their oppression. 

But does Jesus constitute the end of Israel’s story? Many Christians are unspoken supersessionists, believing that Israel’s story concludes with Jesus and the movement he inspires. Matthew is fond of the term plēroō, the verb often translated “to fulfill,” using it over a dozen times. Popular piety imagines this fulfillment as a finishing point, but Matthew imagines something more akin to filling up. In Matthew Jesus fiercely denies that he puts an end to Torah-observant Judaism, declaring that he has not come to abolish but to fill up: “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (5:18). 

Jesus does not bring an end to God’s covenant with Israel; instead, he lives it.

Matthew’s genealogy reminds Christians that we are living into Israel’s story rather than living after it. Christians and Jews will never imagine Jesus and his relationship to Judaism in the same way—that is a fact. But neither do Christians have any business imagining that Jesus has brought us beyond Israel. We share in the whole story: from Abraham to David and even to the exile.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Holy Parent, you blessed Jesus with a rich line of diverse and interesting ancestors. Bless our families; those related by blood and those brought to us by love. For the sake of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

HYMNS

All are welcome  ELW 641
If you but trust in God to guide you  ELW 679, H82 635
Blessed Jesus, at your word  H82 440

CHORAL

Under the Stars, One Holy Night, Jocelyn Hagen
God of our life, Sally Ann Morris
Come, Let Us Anew, Mack Wilberg