Today, we hear the beginning of the Gospel of
Matthew, which recounts the genealogy of Jesus back many generations. It is quite a list, with some names that
are not so easy to pronounce. As I was looking over this reading a couple
of days ago, I thought about hearing Sister Paulinus read it – I thought she
would find a creative and entertaining way to read all of these names of the
men and women in Jesus’ family tree. Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestors all the way
back to the patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham, to the great Jewish
forefathers Jacob and King David. There are interesting and intriguing and sometimes very scandalous stories linked with the individuals listed in
Jesus’ genealogy.
I know that genealogy and learning about
one’s ancestry has become a popular activity among many Americans in recent
years. Since most of us originally came from
immigrant ancestors from distant lands, many of us want to learn more about our
roots, about where we came from. For the people of ancient Israel, knowing
one’s heritage and one’s blood line were important, since heritage and lineage determined whether one was considered clean or pure in a religious
sense. Matthew wanted to show that Jesus was
indeed in the line of God’s chosen people, the rightful heir to the throne of
David, the one to whom God fulfilled the promises he made to David and Abraham, that he would send a savior and a king to Israel to rule over them and to deliver them from their enemies.
I wonder if we see our own spiritual
history in the genealogy we hear today. We indeed come from this spiritual lineage,
we have had our faith passed down to us by our own ancestors, from those who
learned their faith in the apostolic tradition. As we continue in the season of Advent, in
this season of waiting and expecting and preparing, let us give thanks for
those who passed down the faith to us.
Let us give thanks for the spiritual genealogy of which we are a part.
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