There’s Room for Every Story

Any Southerner knows that when you are asked, “Who are your people?” The person asking thinks it is an important question, and your answer will determine whether or not the conversation will continue, or you will be quickly left as the inquirer goes in search of someone worthy of attention.

Not much has changed over the last 2,000 years. While Mark’s Gospel begins with a brief introduction of John the Baptist and moves rapidly to Jesus’s baptism, and Luke takes a step back and begins with the announcement to Zechariah that his wife, Elizabeth, would have a baby who would be a prophet of the Messiah preparing the way (John the Baptist) and then the angel’s visit to Mary and the birth of Jesus, and John’s Gospel takes a step forward and begins with theology and then the story of Jesus’s baptism in the wilderness by John the Baptist, the Gospel of Matthew begins with the answer to the question, “Who are your people?”

Jesus, heir of King David and Father Abraham. He could have stopped there, and surely inquiring minds would be impressed. But he goes on. Abraham, and then 14 generations, David, and then 14 generations, the Babylonian exile, and then 14 generations…3 groupings of 14, or 6 groupings of 7, both significant symbolically. Names and numerology went hand in hand in the ancient world, and in Hebrew there were no vowels. So, David was 3 letters – Dalet, Vav, Dalet. Dalet is the 4th letter of the alphabet, and vav is the 6th letter of the alphabet. So, David = 4 + 6 + 4 = which is 14. So, in the three groupings of genealogy, remember 3 is a number that is related to wholeness, harmony, and new life, we see confirmation that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the shoot from the stump of Jesse (David was Jesse’s son). Matthew is making a claim that Jesus belongs to the proper line of kings anointed by God, as a descendent of King David. The three lists of 14 generations are also 6 groupings of 7 generations, which gives us another symbolic message. 6 is related to human weakness and sin, human beings were created on the 6th day; there are 6 days before rest, 6 years before jubilee, 6 years of planting before giving the land a year of rest. But 7 is the number of completion, of fulfillment. We have 6 groupings of 7 generations, and Jesus is the 1st of the 7th grouping of 7.

Matthew has satisfactorily answered the question, “Who are your people?” We tend to read the list quickly. We don’t know all of these people’s stories, certainly not like Matthew’s first hearers did. We are familiar with some of the names, but their stories may be a bit fuzzy since we didn’t memorize them word for word in our elementary years like Matthew’s original audience did. For them, it was like a trip down family story lane. Of course, the first several generations are Jesus’s people – they are all of our people – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,…

But Matthew throws in 4 stories that surely he did not mean to bring up or highlight! He added 5 women to the genealogy. WOMEN. Women are not people. Women are property. They either belong to their father or their husband. Including a woman in the genealogy adds NOTHING to his status. Perhaps that is just the point. Perhaps they are there for us to lean in as Matthew answers the question, “Who are Jesus’s people?”

The other really unbelievable thing is the Matthew’s choice of women to name. He does not list Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, the wives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah, and then Mary.
Matthew makes room for their stories. Why? Let’s review their stories:

The first woman in the genealogy is Tamar. Tamar married Judah’s oldest son. He died. In accordance with custom, his next oldest brother inherited her as wife. He died. The youngest son was too young, according to Judah, so he sent her home to live at her father’s house until the youngest was old enough to marry. But he didn’t send for her because he didn’t want him to die too. Meanwhile, Judah’s wife died, and Tamar heard that he was going to be travelling up to visit his sheep-shearers, so she dressed up like a prostitute and covered her face. He was fooled. He would pay her by giving her a goat, but until he delivered the goat, she took his staff, seal, and cord as collateral. When he sent the goat, there was no prostitute in the region to be found. Three months later, when it was known that Tamar was expecting, Judah ordered her burned to death. He changed his mind when she sent his staff, seal, and cord along with a note that said that the owner was the father. She gave birth to twins, one of which is Perez, the son of Judah, and ancestor of Jesus.

There is room for this woman, this trickster, and this man who hired her in Jesus’s story.

What about Rahab, who is she? Rahab is a Canaanite. Canaanite is an ethnic term used as a sort of catch-all term for all peoples who were targets for conquering and annihilating. Canaan was a son of Ham, who was a son of Noah until he was cursed… which is a whole OTHER story, but the curse was seen as on all of the descendants of Ham. So, all Canaanites were treated as cursed. And Rahab, this Canaanite woman, lived in Jericho, actually inside the city walls near the gate, and was a prostitute. When Joshua was coming to claim the Promised Land as God’s people made their way out of their 40 years wandering in the wilderness, they came down from Mount Nebo, where they had to leave Moses because God told him he would not enter the Promised Land with them. When they got to the valley, Joshua sent 2 spies ahead to scout out Jericho. Rahab hid them in her rooms and kept them from the King’s messengers who were looking for them, and in return she and her family were sparred when the walls came tumbling down. Which also means that Rahab was the head of her household. And after the walls came tumbling down, she married Salmon, and with him had a son they named Boaz.

There is room for this woman, this Canaanite, who sold herself to survive, in Jesus’s story.

What about Ruth? Ruth was a Moabite, and Moabites were pagan, incestuous, idol-worshipers. Her husband and her father-in-law died, leaving just her and her mother-in-law, Naomi. She insisted on going home with Naomi to Israel. As they arrived, hungry, they were picking grain from the sides of the field. One day, Ruth met the owner, Boaz, the son of Rahab from Jericho, and her mother-in-law encouraged her to slip in while he was asleep and uncover him. It was a sort of invitation, which he accepted. Thus was born Obed, the grandfather of King David.

There is room for this woman, a no-count Moabite, a widow with nothing, no one, following her mother-in-law home, and then offering herself to the wealthy landowner she met as she tried to glean enough to satisfy her hunger, in Jesus’s story.

What about the wife of Uriah? Uriah was a Hittite. He was an elite soldier in King David’s army. He married the daughter of Eliam, Eliam means “people of God” and is a Hebrew name, so Uriah the Hittite married an Israelite. And Hittites, generally, were seen as adversaries of God, so it is interesting that her father, named “people of God” gave her in marriage to Uriah, of the people who are adversaries of God. Then, while Uriah was away fighting, David saw Uriah’s wife bathing as he looked out from his rooftop. He ordered her to him. When she was expecting, he called for Uriah to come home from battle, and when he refused, he ordered him to the frontlines where he was killed. The child dies. They married. She uses her influence as King David dies to make sure that their second child together will be next on the throne, King Solomon.

There is room for her, a woman who was given in marriage to a Hittite, who is vulnerable and is able to use those same traits that make her vulnerable as her influential power, in Jesus’s story.

Matthew’s genealogy comes to a close, “Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

Matthew so carefully crafts a genealogy for Jesus that is through Joseph. Joseph almost divorces Mary quietly because the child she is expecting is not his. Why? Why go through all these generations and then end with Joseph?

Dr. Tom Long reflects, “Matthew’s first readers would almost surely have come to the end of the genealogy with an abrupt and uneasy sensation, a gnawing anxiety that something was amiss….If Jesus is to be the Messiah, he must be the descendant of David, but it is Joseph who is David’s descendant, and Jesus, we are told, is the biological child of Mary, not Joseph. After struggling mightily to show that Jesus has all of Israel’s heritage in his blood, Matthew now seems to acknowledge that he doesn’t actually have it in his blood at all. Matthew has marched, step by step, through the generations of the house of David, only to step sideways at the last moment.”

My final exam in theology in seminary was to write a paper answering the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?” It is the question each of the Gospel writers was trying to answer. It is the question each of us tries to answer as we live together as a community, the Body of Christ in the world.

So, what’s the answer? The Gospel writers weren’t writing the complete history of Jesus. They were recording the story of Jesus the Christ. And Matthew begins by telling us that in the story of Jesus the Christ there is room for Jews and not just any Gentiles, all Gentiles – even Canaanites; there is room for men and not just any women, even risqué and manipulative women; there is room for people with a refined genealogy and those without, perhaps even Jesus.

How will we answer, “Who is Jesus Christ?” By answering “Who are his people?” Jesus Christ is the one who says there is room for you in my story, and you, and you, and you. The one who says, “Let me tell you about my people. Are you wearing a disguise so I won’t know who you are? Have you sold yourself out? Abused the body temple I created so that I had a place within your life? Have you struggled in poverty? Have you tried to escape by manipulation? Have you been taken advantage of? Have you used your influence to gain power? Have you found yourself in a dangerous situation relying on the mercy of another? My people have.”

“There is room for you in my story,” says Jesus the Christ. “There is room for every story.”