|
Review the big story: God created the cosmos and humans and called it all good. We were created to live in harmony, but sometimes we miss the mark. All of humanity missed the mark, and they had to live with the consequences, but God stuck with them and continued to love them. Then God called a family to be a blessing to the whole earth. Like the humans before them, the generations of this family often missed the mark, but God was faithful. When the people became slaves in Egypt, God raised up Moses to be their leader. God performed many signs and wonders, and delivered them from slavery. In the wilderness, they learned to be a people of God, trusting in God’s provision, living out God’s commandments, and wrestling with the law in shalom community. As they prepared to go into the promised land, they were given the shema, words of love to keep with their whole beings. Through miraculous works, God brought the people into the promised land. Once there, they had to learn again how to be God’s people. They missed the mark a lot, and God sent judges to guide them. Ordinary people showed creativity and steadfast love in the way they continued the story of the people of God. When the people demanded a king, God sent prophets like Samuel to try to keep the people faithful to God. Kings Saul, David and Solomon continued to miss the mark, and the kingdom divided into the north (Israel) and south (Judah). God stuck with the people through leaders and prophets, and continued to call the people back to God, even as first the northern, and then the southern kingdom fell to invading powers. Some of the people were sent into exile, and some were left in the ruins of the kingdom. Through prophets and everyday people, God continued to stick with the scattered people and to reveal that God is so much bigger than they imagined. The people were finally able to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Through all the turmoil, prophets like Isaiah brought comfort to the people.
Tell the story: About 500 years after the return from exile, the ways of Judaism were well-established. Now Rome is the ruling power in Israel. The people of God are still crying out, waiting for the Messiah, the great Liberator, to come. In the very first verse of what is now our New Testament, we learn that the promised Messiah has arrived. This week’s scripture is a genealogy. We often skip right over this, but since we know the big story, this genealogy is going to tell us all kinds of interesting things about Jesus - and about God.
Prime the pump:
This genealogy sets up who Jesus is by telling who has come before him. So this week, we are going to look closely at it, and place each person in the genealogy in their spot in the big story. There are lots of surprises here - and this genealogy is unusual in that it features women - non-Israelite women, at that! You may want to place these ancestors in a timeline. Or maybe you’ll write or print out the big song and insert each of them into it!
Things to Notice:
The First 14 Generations
The Second 14 Generations
The Third 14 Generations
Put it Together:
Microsong: "Abraham to Jesus"
Matthew lists these generations, Abraham to Jesus.
- Key verses: Matthew 1:1; 1:17
Tell the story: About 500 years after the return from exile, the ways of Judaism were well-established. Now Rome is the ruling power in Israel. The people of God are still crying out, waiting for the Messiah, the great Liberator, to come. In the very first verse of what is now our New Testament, we learn that the promised Messiah has arrived. This week’s scripture is a genealogy. We often skip right over this, but since we know the big story, this genealogy is going to tell us all kinds of interesting things about Jesus - and about God.
- Read Matthew 1:1-17
Prime the pump:
This genealogy sets up who Jesus is by telling who has come before him. So this week, we are going to look closely at it, and place each person in the genealogy in their spot in the big story. There are lots of surprises here - and this genealogy is unusual in that it features women - non-Israelite women, at that! You may want to place these ancestors in a timeline. Or maybe you’ll write or print out the big song and insert each of them into it!
Things to Notice:
- Jesus: the Hebrew name “Yeshua,” a form of “Joshua,” which means “YHWH is help/salvation.”
- Messiah: In Greek, this is “Christos,” which we also translate as “Christ” or “Anointed One.”
- Son of David, Son of Abraham: This is Jesus’ pedigree - he is a descendant of the great king of Israel. Traditional Jewish belief was that the Messiah would descend from David for a reign of kings that would never end. And he’s a true Israelite, because Abraham is seen as the father of Judaism.
- Notice that here we have three sets of fourteens. We are back to numerology! Three is a holy, complete number. Seven is perfection - and fourteen is double perfection.
The First 14 Generations
- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah: You know these guys! And you know the messiness of their stories.
- Judah, father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar: This is a very messy story, which you can find in Genesis 38. In a nutshell, Tamar was an outsider, and these twin boys were conceived with her father-in-law, Judah, in a great example of a woman getting creative and being declared in the right.
- Hezron: He is briefly mentioned as the son of Judah whose descendants would lead the tribe of Judah.
- Aram: Also called Ram, we don’t know much about this one.
- Aminadab: He was a Levite (the priestly tribe). He was also the father-in-law of Aaron, brother of Moses.
- Nahshon: In the wilderness, he was the leader of the tribe of Judah. Jewish midrash (which plays with the story), says that he initiated the Red Sea crossing, walking in until it was over his head before the sea parted. (Chabad.org https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2199147/jewish/Nachshon-ben-Aminadav-The-Man-Who-Jumped-Into-the-Sea.htm)
- Salmon: He must have been a young man at the “battle of Jericho,” because he married Rahab.
- Rahab: The second woman mentioned in this genealogy, Rahab is described in Joshua 6 as a Canaanite prostitute who offers hospitality and protection for Joshua’s spies.
- Boaz and Ruth: You know this story! We have another outsider here, another story with potential scandal, a story of creativity, a story of steadfast love.
- Obed: We don’t know much besides his place in genealogies.
- Jesse: He’s famous mostly for being the father of David and the metaphorical branch of the tree from which Jesus comes.
The Second 14 Generations
- King David: You know his story!
- Bathsheba: We didn’t tell her story, but she was a faithful woman who was treated unfairly by King David. She comes in a messy and uncomfortable part of David’s story. She may be an Israelite, but since she’s married to a Hittite, some think she was a foreigner.
- Solomon: You know him, too! The flawed, wise, prolific, temple-building, third (and final) king of the kingdom of Israel when it was united.
- Rehoboam: You know this story. A rather unsavory character in this genealogy.
- Abijah: He reigned for three years, and tried unsuccessfully to reunite the kingdom.
- Asa: Asa was considered to be a righteous king, who tried to return the people to the worship of YHWH. You can read his story in 2 Chronicles 14-16.
- Jehoshaphat: Another king considered righteous, who instituted reforms throughout the southern kingdom. He also formed an alliance with the northern kingdom of Israel.
- Joram: He only reigned for eight years, and was regarded as a weak king.
- Uzziah: You can find his interesting story in 2 Chronicles 26. He made Judah powerful, but got a little too proud, which led to his downfall. Interestingly, he was the grandson, not son, of Joram. It’s possible that his father, Amaziah, was left out to make the number of generations an even 14.
- Jotham: Continued the nation-strengthening work of his father.
- Ahaz: Accepted military help from the Assyrians, and brought their gods and rituals into the temple in Jerusalem.
- Hezekiah: He enacted reforms that undid some of the idol-worship of his father. He was king during the fall of the northern kingdom, and took that as a warning to fortify Judah.
- Manasseh: He reversed the reforms of his father, and brought back polytheism (worship of many gods).
- Amon (or Amos): He was such a bad king that the people revolted and killed him two years into his reign.
- Josiah: You know his story!
The Third 14 Generations
- Jechoniah: Actually Josiah’s grandson, he reigned just three months before being exiled to Babylon. So now we have gotten to Babylonian exile! This is when the wait for the Messiah begins.
- Salathiel: The second king-in-exile.
- Zerubbabel: He led the people back to Jerusalem, began construction of the temple, and was appointed governor by King Darius.
- Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan: We don’t know much about these people! They would have lived in what’s known as the “intertestamental” or “second temple” times.
- Jacob the father of Joseph: Wait a minute, here. We have seen this parent-child name pairing before...
- Joseph the husband of Mary: Joseph here is defined by his wife(!).
- Mary, of whom Jesus was born: So this is the genealogy of Joseph...but it’s to Mary that Jesus is born.
- ...who is called the Messiah: The writer of Matthew restates the Messiah claim.
Put it Together:
- This is fascinating. We begin and end with a claim of Jesus as Messiah, but our notion of what that means gets flipped upside down in what comes between those claims.
- It looks like Jesus is being proven Messiah through this royal, thoroughly Jewish lineage. It’s the ultimate insider lineage.
- We get clues along the way that there’s a twist here. The women are the clues. Look back - what do they have in common?
- If we’ve been tracking these women, verse 16 will come as less of a surprise. There is this great, royal heritage...and the twist at the end is that Jesus is adopted into it. We’re reading along, thinking, “This genealogy matters! It proves who he is!” and then we get to the end and realize it isn’t even Jesus’ genealogy by birth.
Microsong: "Abraham to Jesus"
Matthew lists these generations, Abraham to Jesus.
Sing the big song:
This is the story of how it all began. God made matter, and chaos shattered.
Eve and Adam, they tried to hide.
The world got violent and God replied with a mark and flood and a rainbow sign, God’s love written on skin and sky,
And then God called a family to be a blessing to the earth, ohhh ohhhh
A mother and her favorite son wrestle for the blessing, another son becomes a slave, the land is saved from famine.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses. Ten strange signs say “Please release them!” By the sea God saves them. Ohh ohhh.
The people complain and God rains bread. Daily food and ten new rules.
Five sisters come and ask for land. God says “Yes, amend the law!”
Moses says, “In your new life across the Jordan, love God with your whole heart and with all your being, and your strength, now listen: God is One, only God. God is One, only God!”
Cross over Jordan, stories and stones. Circuits and shouts and the walls come down.
God sends judges like Deborah and the land has rest.
Ruth’s worth more than seven sons; Redeem the lost with steadfast love.
Corruption in the temple, then God sends Samuel.
God gives them a prophet, They ask for a king
Does God need a temple? A wise king forgets
And when a bully rules the land, the nation tears apart and loses David’s heart…
A widow’s gift and a prophet’s cry. God brings life in desperate times.
Josiah reads this misplaced scroll. He turns to God wholeheartedly like David did. In his time.
God gives Jeremiah a picture of God’s ruined family…
Is there any hope left, is there any hope left, is there any hope left for you, Jerusalem?
Any hope? Any hope left? Is there any hope left for you?
By the streams of Babylon, how can we sing when you are gone, Jerusalem…
I’m in a valley of human bones. These bones are Israel; God’s breath is hope.
Haman plans death for Esther’s exiles. She risks her life so they might survive.
Finally God’s family rebuilds the temple in Jerusalem. God plunges them into a sea of joy and celebration of Only God. God is One, Only God.
Comfort to Jerusalem, your warfare finally ceases.
Matthew lists these generations, Abraham to Jesus.
God loves every one of us, it’s true, and God loves the universe
This is the story of how it all began. God made matter, and chaos shattered.
Eve and Adam, they tried to hide.
The world got violent and God replied with a mark and flood and a rainbow sign, God’s love written on skin and sky,
And then God called a family to be a blessing to the earth, ohhh ohhhh
A mother and her favorite son wrestle for the blessing, another son becomes a slave, the land is saved from famine.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses. Ten strange signs say “Please release them!” By the sea God saves them. Ohh ohhh.
The people complain and God rains bread. Daily food and ten new rules.
Five sisters come and ask for land. God says “Yes, amend the law!”
Moses says, “In your new life across the Jordan, love God with your whole heart and with all your being, and your strength, now listen: God is One, only God. God is One, only God!”
Cross over Jordan, stories and stones. Circuits and shouts and the walls come down.
God sends judges like Deborah and the land has rest.
Ruth’s worth more than seven sons; Redeem the lost with steadfast love.
Corruption in the temple, then God sends Samuel.
God gives them a prophet, They ask for a king
Does God need a temple? A wise king forgets
And when a bully rules the land, the nation tears apart and loses David’s heart…
A widow’s gift and a prophet’s cry. God brings life in desperate times.
Josiah reads this misplaced scroll. He turns to God wholeheartedly like David did. In his time.
God gives Jeremiah a picture of God’s ruined family…
Is there any hope left, is there any hope left, is there any hope left for you, Jerusalem?
Any hope? Any hope left? Is there any hope left for you?
By the streams of Babylon, how can we sing when you are gone, Jerusalem…
I’m in a valley of human bones. These bones are Israel; God’s breath is hope.
Haman plans death for Esther’s exiles. She risks her life so they might survive.
Finally God’s family rebuilds the temple in Jerusalem. God plunges them into a sea of joy and celebration of Only God. God is One, Only God.
Comfort to Jerusalem, your warfare finally ceases.
Matthew lists these generations, Abraham to Jesus.
God loves every one of us, it’s true, and God loves the universe