Thoughts for the Day

Matthew 1: 2-16 (an extra dimension?) Perez whose mother was Tamar … Boaz whose mother was Rahab … Obed whose mother was Ruth … Solomon whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.

I imagine Matthew pondering his list of 42 names, not only discerning the big picture, the pattern of God’s unfolding plan, but dwelling on the life and significance of each person.  And then I note these additions, references to these four women.  They don’t seem essential to the narrative, so why did he include them but only them?  Each is, of course, part of this long history recorded in the Old Testament; each in her way is a surprising, even shocking, link in the genealogical chain.  But is that reason enough?  When I began thinking about this, I expected to end up focussing on some aspect related to the women.  That may yet be the answer, but I found myself still searching for a common thread.  So, here’s a different thought I’ve not come across elsewhere.

Matthew was born a Levite yet somehow had chosen to become a tax collector.  Whatever the story behind his journey, the consequence was that he was stigmatised and rejected by his community.  And we know he felt it.  For, as he himself records in his gospel, one day he was sitting in his tax booth when Jesus walked past and called out, “Follow me”.  It was unthinkable to those around that Jesus should make such an offer.  And it was not without risk or cost for Matthew, but he records no hesitation, simply that he got up and followed Jesus.  So perhaps the thread linking these four references is not so much the women but Matthew’s empathy with the (admittedly presumed) stigma borne by the sons: Perez the outcome of his father’s dishonourable behaviour, Boaz the son of a former Canaanite harlot, Obed the son of a marriage to a Moabite, which was treated like a forbidden marriage under the Mosaic law, and Solomon the result of his father’s adultery.  Whatever reason (or reasons) Matthew had to include these references, they certainly add some “warts and all” colour to the narrative.  This is no sugar-coated view of Israel’s history, but complete with references to its failings, flaws and pain, both in its grand plan and for the individual.  And Matthew knows, from his own experience, that Jesus will be the answer for nation and individual alike.