The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. Matthew 1:1-17
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 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.
I suspect that this particular passage is one that you haven’t read very often! It’s the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel and the first part of the Christmas story. It’s one of those “gloss over” passages. We normally begin reading at verse 18 and ignore this rather long genealogy. It rather like one of those sets of terms and conditions that you have to agree to when you buy something online. You are told that you cannot continue without agreeing to them, so you quickly scroll down, and tick the required box, without ever having any intention of reading the contents. So why does Matthew include this rather tedious account in his Gospel?
Tedious it may seem, but it is actually rather important.
The first thing to note is the importance of belonging. The Old Testament is full of genealogies. They were an important way of establishing a sense of identity. In a society with no birth certificates, passports or driving licences, you needed something to prover who you are and where you came from. There’s something intrinsic about the human condition that means we need to know where we fit it, hence the desire of many adopted children to know who their birth parents are.
Matthew is showing us how Jesus fits into God’s grand scheme of salvation. He is authenticating his story. Christianity is not just a creed or a philosophy that we can choose to belief – it goes deeper. It is based upon faith in a real person, in real time and history.
The genealogy outlined in Matthew’s Gospel spans the history of God’s plan of salvation, beginning with Abraham, the father, not just of the Jewish race, but of all who believe in God through faith, continuing through David, and is presented in six groups of seven names. In the Bible, the number seven symbolises perfection, or completion (note the seven days of creation; the repeated ‘sevens’ in the Book of Revelation) and this structure underscores the completeness of God’s plan. The genealogy reaches its climax in Jesus. God had long been preparing the way for the coming of His Son.
At the heart of the list are two important points: Jesus Christ is the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham. He stands in direct line with the two great figures of Israelite history. What is the importance of this?
David first: God’s promise to David is that his royal line will last for ever. 2 Sam 7:16: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.” Jesus is the direct descendent of David. In him, God’s promise to David is fulfilled. Prophecy is fulfilled. David’s posterity will rule for ever. Note the similarities with the message of the angel to Mary, when he tells her that she’s going to have a baby: “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end.’ (Luke 3:31-33).
Promise and fulfilment: Jesus is the promised King. Now he is the actual King. He who is King of kings and Lord of lords. Earthly kingdoms come to an end. Now we have a kingdom without end. We see the ultimate fulfilment of this in Revelation 5. We meet a King – the Lion of the House of Judah, who inaugurates a different kind of kingdom: this King alone is worthy to open the scrolls on the Book of Life:
‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!’ (Revelation 5:12). Jesus is our King!
But there’s more. Matthew takes us further back – beyond David to Abraham – the father of all who believe. Remember the covenant that God makes with Abraham: “I will make you a father of many nations… All the nations of earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 17: 4-5) What a promise! A blessing to all the nations of earth! In Jesus, this promise is fulfilled. Here is the promise of salvation. Jesus is the one through whom salvation comes. Paul picks this theme up when he writes to the Galatians in chapter 3. He shows that Jesus is the seed of Abraham. “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’” (Galatians 3:8). In the babe of Bethlehem, God is fulfilling the promise to Abraham. We need reconciliation with God. Jesus is the means of this salvation.
Read Matthew’s genealogy and you will note that it lists a wide array of people—holy figures, sinners, and those of questionable reputation. Rahab, the prostitute gets a mention. In fact all three of the named women in the list - Tamar, Rahab and Ruth – are Gentiles. And the “mother of Solomon” – Bathsheba – (Matthew can’t quite bring himself to record her name), is hardly a paradigm of virtue. And when we get to the kings, they sure are a mixed bag, yet God worked with and through all of them to bring about the coming of Christ. The post-exilic period lists a whole series of ‘unknowns’, yet each is important. They are each a link in the chain – part of God’s plan. This list reminds us that, like them, we too can be partners in God’s plan, participating in His ongoing work of salvation, even whilst accepting that we are still sinners.
So Matthew is telling us: it has all been long foretold. Now the promise is fulfilled. It has taken a long time – 42 generations to be precise. But that doesn’t matter. God’s plans are infinite. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90).
The message is clear: we can trust the promises of God. We worship a Saviour who is our King and the means of our salvation. We can be sure that God will do what He says He will do.
So, let’s click on “agree to proceed”. And then we can move on to read, “This is how the birth of Jesus came about.....” (Matthew 1:18).
Christmas can begin.
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