St. Matthew

Chapter 1: 1-17

St. Matthew begins his Gospel with a genealogy. The listing may be broken down into three time periods.

Abraham to David Solomon to Exile Return to Birth of Jesus

The linkages are extremely important. Matthew begins with the covenantal material with Abraham. It was with Abraham that the covenant began. You will recall that Abraham was called from Ur of Chileans and blessed by God so that he could be a blessing “all nations”. This was a call to spread the news of God’s loving call and presence into the entire world. It all began with Abraham. It was to Abraham that the two-fold promise was made: 1) Abraham and Sarah would become the parents of a great nation; 2) they would receive a land flowing with milk and honey – a home where they would be to God a holy nation. This is an important beginning for Matthew’s point because Matthew is writing to the Jews spread out after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD. This was a Jewish audience and the connection between Jesus and Abraham was critical. Showing Jesus’ descendence from Abraham connects him to the covenant people. Through Abraham Jesus is linked to God’s plan.

David is the next vital link in the chain. David became God’s choice for a king. David was singled out from the rest of Jesse’s sons. David was God’s choice after Saul fell out of favor with God as the king. Despite David’s sins of adultery with Bathsheba (Urriah the Hittite’s wife) and murder (the killing of Urriah) after David got Bathsheba pregnant, David become the emblem of kingliness over Israel. David the anointed becomes the model of the Messiah (the anointed one) that is to come. David is promised through the prophet Nathan that one of David descendants would remain on throne forever. The connection of Jesus to David lends his place in the story a Messianic validation. No Messiah could be disconnected from David.

Solomon was David’s promised heir and the builder of the Temple in Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God Most High. This was an import link. As the Jews were not allowed to have anything physical to represent God (it was forbidden by the law to make graven images) God gave them the temple. This was a concrete presence in the community where the people could go to meet God. It was in the temple that God was perceived to dwell on earth. Jesus’ link to this dwelling as the understanding of Jesus is that he is the new temple. Jesus is, the incarnate God, is the place where God has come to dwell on earth among mortals. There is no further need of the temple as the dwelling place of God. God has come to dwell among mortals.

The Exile was the event that changed that changed everything for the people of God. From Abraham to the David, and even through Solomon, God’s promise of a great nation grew and prospered. The Exile to Babylon represented the time when God’s promises were taken away from them. The land that had been promised was no longer under their authority and the action of God was seen as punishment because the covenant with God had been broken. The people went after other gods and they broke covenant with God. Their land was therefore forfeit. Once they returned, their land was always under another’s authority. First, it was governed by the Persians. Next it was governed by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. Finally, it came to be governed by the Roman who were in authority when Jesus lived. The Jews had puppet rule, but never the final word over their land and their lives.

The Birth of Jesus signals a return to the Plan of God with several significant differences. 1) The people of God now included the gentiles. Jesus’ appeal was to Jew and gentile alike. This was what God had in mind from the beginning. Abraham was to be a blessing to all the nations (the goim). 2) The Promised Land was no longer a land connected with this world, but was a kingdom of God that would be eternal. The Promised Land was to be a land ruled by God exclusively; God was to be their king. In the land of Israel it didn’t work out that way. The people cried for a king as the nations have. In the new Promised Land God would rule supreme for all eternity. In the Birth of Jesus, Messiah through the Davidic Line and child of the Covenant through the line of Abraham, Jesus was to put the plan back on the track that God intended.

As we look through Jesus’ genealogy we notice a few distinctive aspects. There were a good many skeletons in the closet. Some of the noteworthy people in Jesus’ family tree were Rehab, the Canaanite prostitute who lived in Jericho and help the Israelites conquer. Ruth was Moabite women. These were Gentiles in the family tree of Jesus. David was a great king, but guilty of adultery getting Bathsheba pregnant while her husband, Urriah the Hittite was at war, fighting in David’s army. When Urriah wouldn’t sleep with his wife while on leave, a simple act that would helped account for why she was pregnant, David had him killed so that he could marry her.

The Rev. Dr. Kipp W. Zimmermann

Thursday, January 12, 2006