Lineage of Sinners

Advent: 17 December 2018

Genesis 49:2,8-10. Psalm 72:1-4,7-8,17. Matthew 1:1-17.

“Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.”

Today's gospel presents the genealogy and the ancestry of Jesus according to St Matthew. One of the most boring readings I guess. Some of us may be wondering why the Church presents this reading, except for the connection to Jesus' nativity. When we deal with this gospel passage, it is with good reason that we may feel a kind of embarrassment. Some might think that the reading of such a text is a meaningless exercise, an almost annoying repetition. Others simply read it rapidly, making it incomprehensible to the listeners; others abbreviate it by omitting some passages or names. Yet we know the list is significant because they form the mysterious plan of God's intervention in human history. (The Mother Church presents this reading at least twice a year: during Advent, and on the feast of the Nativity of Mary.)

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan has a beautiful reflection on this passage in his work Testimony of Hope. He says the mystery of vocation, of the choice on God’s part, as seen clearly in this genealogy, is unbelievable and perhaps at times even scandalous. May we reflect on a few highlights that Cardinal Van Thuan offers us.

Abraham does not choose Ishmael his firstborn, but chooses his second-born Isaac, the son of the promise. Isaac wishes to bless his firstborn Esau, but in the end he blesses Jacob. Jacob’s firstborn son Reuben is not historically linked to the Messiah, but Judah, the fourth son, who is equally responsible for selling Joseph to slave traders. If we consider the names of the kings in the genealogy, we realise that before the exile only two kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, are faithful to God. The others are idolaters, assassins, and people without morals. Even among the kings of the post-exilic period, we find only two faithful ones: Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. The others are obscure figures or sinners. If we consider David, in him both sin and sanctity are mixed.

There are only five women named in this genealogy. We must understand that in Matthew’s Jewish world, genealogies typically mentioned only men. The inclusion of women in a list is itself something wonderful. But what is more suprising is that our Blessed Mother is named along with four other women who have somewhat spotty reputations. These women (in contrast to Mary, the mother of Jesus) evoke certain emotions. Tamar is a sinner, Rahab a prostitute, Ruth a foreigner. The gospel does not even dare to name the fourth woman; she is simply “the wife of Uriah,” who is Bathsheba.

These women, mostly poor, mostly misfits, widows, unimportant, unknown, sinful women who changed the course of history by their simple, obedient lives. One might suppose that the women in Jesus the Messiah’s genealogy should have all been the finest Jewish women, but they weren’t. Most weren’t even Jewish at all. And except for Ruth and Mary, they had tarnished sexual histories. They were ordinary women, trying to get life right, but missing the goal. In other words, they were women just like us: ordinary, tarnished by sin, unlikely to shape the course of history. They are in the Saviour’s genealogy to give us hope, and to foreshadow the kind of people Jesus the Messiah came to save.

The disturbing mystery of God’s choice in the line of the Messiah is a case in point. It also, of course, sheds light on the mystery of our own vocations. The river of history is full of sinners and criminals; the Matthean list of sinners does not scandalize us, but it exalts the mystery of God’s mercy. Jesus Christ comes from a lineage of sinners to save sinners. This gives us tremendous hope.

For God, problem becomes a part of the solution. God does not shy away from the disorder and mess of our human lives. Similarly, our wholeness is born only when we include the problem into the solution. If it is wholeness, then it is always paradoxical, and it holds both the dark and light sides of things. Christ is born into a line of sinners and imperfect people, perhaps just to reiterate His divine love. Nothing human, nothing sinful can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern of God’s love even by our worst sin.