MATTHEW 1:1+

Matthew in the Margins…Christmas Day…Revised 2016

Matthew isn’t set among the eucharistic readings for Christmas Day. However, the Genealogy has some interesting margins of its own. Read on. Or, go to jottingsonjohn.blogspot.com 

The genealogy may be a bit wobbly, but make the most of it. Everyone in it once had a name, a face, & lived, once, as we live now. If they are Jesus' family then they have to be is some sense our ancestors, our family, too. Can we see any of them mirrored in our own souls? Recognize any of their faces in our own? Some don't get into the story. Then, or now! Forage in the margins for those who are left out. It hurts to be left out. Those pushed out & left to lurk in the background can tell us a lot about those who do the leaving out, too.

The apostolic church connects to Jesus' resurrection, not his birth. The birth stories crystalise later. Some think they're a beat up! Even if you sense beat up, don't use that to beat someone else's faith down! The genealogy wobbles its way along to 'prove' Jesus' royal line & Messiahship, & give him, via  these ancestors, standing in a society described as revolving round poles of honour and shame.¹ Both poles are evident in Jesus' line. What about in our own? Are we ashamed of someone, or love to bask in someone's honour? Does one pole colour our story more than the other?

If we could summarise our own genealogy as MT summarises Jesus' in this one verse, would anyone stand out as MT tags David  & Abraham here? Do we have a source, an Abraham? A ‘king’, a David? Can we identify inheriting anything in our make-up from either the original David & Abraham, or their ‘successors’ in the margins of our personal lineage? Abraham stands for a faith that dares adventure & journey for God beyond the margins of his day. David for a faith with warts on it, that should put him outside the margins of God's Rule if that Rule had limits. If we don't have an Abraham or a David, not to worry. What's at stake for us is our faith journey, not theirs. The ancestor we become is more important than the kind we inherit.

¹  Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Malina & Rohrbaugh, Fortress, Minneapolis.,’92