RBWords

     My father was very much interested in genealogy and put together a considerable amount of material about our family in a book entitled, LOVE OF FAMILY.  Only a few copies were made, just enough for immediate family members, and now these books are considered a precious resource!  A genealogy is part of a person's "narrative" - the bigger story that one is part of.  In Jesus' time, his genealogy would have been important to those who wanted to learn about him.  This would have been particularly important in the Gospel of Matthew which was written for a community that had many members of Jewish background!  The first lines of this gospel are quoted above and they say "everything."  Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and to David!

     A genealogy can be like a family photo album that one of the elders of the family can go through with us and identify various characters.  Some of the names in Jesus' genealogy were less than noble!  Then there are characters like David and Solomon, Tamar, Ruth.....  The "plan of salvation" in the genealogy runs through many hundreds of years and Matthew doesn't try to be precise.  He has constructed a "narrative" about Jesus' background in order to say who Jesus IS.  

     As we move into the final week before the celebration of Jesus' birth, we can realize from Matthew's genealogy that we are part of the history of the proclamation of Jesus as well as its present and future!  We stand on the shoulders of all those who have gone before us in faith.  AMEN