Matthew 1:1-17
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Reflection:
My Uncle Tom is very into genealogy and has become somewhat of our designated family historian. He has all of these journals, birth and death certificates, immigration documents, and much, much more. We have lots of family stories, but his favorite one to tell is always the story of how our family came to the United States: Prussian refugees fleeing Catholic persecution in the midst of the Russian Revolution. They made their way by ship into Ellis Island and settled in Plantersville, Texas where Grandmama — the youngest of her siblings and the only American-born child to her parents — grew up. It doesn’t surprise me that my uncle likes this story so much. It’s filled with struggle, ends with a family finding safety, and perhaps even more than that, it’s his story, too. And my grandparents’ story. And my parents’ story. It’s my story.

I’m convinced there’s not a single person who looks at the genealogy in the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel and doesn’t hurry and skim through it to get to the “good” parts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it. Jesus had all of these relatives. Now let’s get onto the parables, and the Sermon on the Mount, and the Last Supper. However, when we actually take the time to look at this list of names, we find that they’re more than just names of Bible characters with whom we’re familiar. Each one tells its own story, and put together in this list, we see that these are the stories that culminate in the story Matthew wants to tell about Jesus. But this is more than just a list of names. 

The Gospel of Matthew doesn’t start by telling us who Jesus is; it starts by recalling the shared narrative and history of the Israelites for whom Jesus has come to save. We are handed 28 generations’ worth of stories that ultimately point to God as one who establishes and maintains covenants with people—covenants of redemption, salvation, preservation, reconciliation. No, this is not just a list of family members; nor is it even a diagram of Jesus’ family tree. It’s Jesus’ story. It’s Israel’s story. It’s our story. 

Prayer:
God,
You have united all of humanity under this shared narrative, a narrative that is full of heartbreak, strife, redemption, and salvation. Thank you for being a God who is timelessly invested in humanity’s own time. Amen.