Thoughts for the Day

Matthew 1: 1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Matthew 1:16-18 … and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.  Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

This Advent series will mainly follow the first 100 verses of Luke’s gospel which culminate in the birth of Jesus.  But before we get to Luke, I want to spend a few days looking at the opening of Matthew’s gospel.  At first glance this may appear to us a rather dull narrative – a family tree going back 42 generations.  At second glance we may notice this father-to-son family tree reaches Joseph and then has to side-step to his wife Mary, because, as Matthew makes very clear, Jesus is not the son of Joseph.  Then we may see the emphasis on three sets of fourteen generations, and, while wondering what that implies, notice that the lists are incomplete.  What are we to make of all this?  Matthew was writing especially to the Jews of his day.  They would not have missed these inconsistencies, but evidently weren’t bothered by them.  Instead they saw something deeper in Matthew’s style and symbolism.  Matthew identifies Jesus as a Jew and sets him firmly in the context of the history that this list of 42 people represents.  Furthermore, he asserts Jesus to be the Messiah, the anointed one to whom all this history is pointing.  It is an arresting opening.  But more than that.  Even if we struggle to appreciate all the details of his symbolism, let’s not miss the things that are in plain sight.  In identifying three periods each of 14 generations, Matthew is identifying pattern, and in the pattern he sees not coincidence but the unfolding plan of God.  And the third of those periods comes to its conclusion in Jesus.  Somehow Jesus will be the climax of all that has gone before, and then what?  Momentous events are afoot!