Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - Wednesday in the Third Week of Advent
[Genesis 49:2, 8-10 and Matthew 1:1-17]The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the so of David, the son of Abraham.......
The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus Christ! The text is the terror of priests and deacons everywhere because of the names and the seemingly numbing repetition. It is still an optional part of the Christmas liturgy to SING this genealogy on Christmas Eve! Yet, it is a prfoundly theological part of the gospel and it is there for a reason! My father spent a lot of time amassing genealogical data on our family and put together a book that is still prized by all of us! It's not a matter of making any of us superior to anyone else but it does give a sense of identity. There are no colorful stories in the book since it is a collection of standard genealogical forms with names and dates. The stories survive in a few memories that have been passed down. In the list that Matthew provides, we have to go elsewhere in the Bible to find out what a colorful set of roots Jesus came from! In an oral culture like the MIddle East, many of these characters would have been well known to Matthew's community. Most of them appear in the Old Testament. The list includes patriarchs, kings and nobodies! It includes people of doubtful moral standing and clever rogues! The list is also artificial in that the number of generations is not chronologically accurate but that is not Matthew's intent. He means only to tell us that Jesus is from the House of David but also descended from the Patriarchs and from some ordinary folks as well. (The reading from Genesis today reinforces the patriarchal connection!) I recommend reading the genealogy slowly and thoroughly before hearing it. Perhaps the reality of the deep biblical roots will come through and we begin to see that God truly writes straight with crooked lines. Jesus' family background is no exception! AMEN
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