"The Old Testament Telephone Book"

(Matthew 1:1-25)(January 4, 2004)

I have to admit that, when I first started reading the Holy Scriptures aloud in the services, I always wanted not to be assigned to read passages such as the one from the Gospel according to St. Matthew appointed for today. Indeed, almost very reader I know hoped to avoid the passages with the long lists of names, what we sometimes jokingly referred to as the “Old Testament telephone book” listings. Some of the names, of course, are familiar to us - David, Abraham, and others - while some are people that are known only to those who are scholars of the Bible. Because we don’t know them, we can’t always pronounce their names; which, of course, is why readers hope to avoid having to do so in Church!

But a little bit of study of this list of names reveals some interesting information. First of all, we see (and if we don’t see it at first, St. Matthew later underlines it for us) that there are three sets of generations: from Abraham to David; from David to the time of the exile in Babylon; and from the exile in Babylon to the birth of Christ. Among other things, this is meant to make us aware of God’s promises; because both Abraham and David were given promises by God. God promised Abraham that his descendents would be without number, as many as the stars in heaven, and of the sands of the sea. God promised David that his sons, so long as they were faithful, would always sit upon his throne. Christ is the fulfilling of these promises.

We are also meant to understand that Christ is the fulfilling of the hopes of the people of God for a ruler. The period from Abraham to David was one in which the prophets and judges ruled God’s people; while kings ruled from David until the time of the exile into Babylon. From the time of the exile until Christ, the people were ruled by the priests of the Temple, together with the scribes and the Pharisees. Remember? The High priest, and the Sanhedrin? Now Christ has come - and He is Prophet, Priest, and King. Again, He fulfills our needs and desires.

Christ also fulfills our hopes. The fathers tell us that, because the Son of God became the Son of Abraham and the Son of David, we who are sons of Adam have the hope that we will be sons of God. He Who is uncreated lowered Himself to take on created being, our human nature, in order to exalt us. There is also another aspect to our hope that arises from His Incarnation. Not only did He become flesh for our sake; He did so without regard for the evils that had been done by those from whose line He comes. To see this, we need to know a bit more about some of the people whose names we find in this list.

The first one we meet in this pursuit is Tamar. She was mistreated by Judah, the son of Jacob, who was her father-in-law; and, to gain what was due unto her, she plays the harlot, and so bears two sons to Judah - one of whom is the ancestor of our Lord.

Next, we meet Rachab. She was a prostitute in Jericho at the time when Joshua had sent spies into the land to conquer it. Rachab shelters two of the spies, and assists them in their efforts, in exchange for a promise for safety for herself and her family when the city is conquered. We have to say, in all honesty, that, in addition to being a harlot, she is also a traitor. Not exactly qualities we would do well to emulate! And yet her son, Boaz, marries Ruth - herself an alien, not of the people of God, but who, by her love and devotion, is accepted as one of God’s people. Ruth’s son is Obed. He is the father of Jesse; and Jesse is the father of David the king.

David, of course, is described as being a man after God’s own heart. Among other things, he commits adultery; and arranges for the death of Uriah, the woman’s husband, in battle. He adds murder to adultery. Again, not qualities for anyone to brag about among their ancestry! David’s son by Bath-sheba, who had been Uriah’s wife, is Solomon - who has 300 wives and 700 concubines.

Murder; adultery; fornication; treason. Yet the Son of God did not hesitate to become Incarnate with these elements in His “family tree.” In part, this is because He came, not as a Judge, but as a Physician; to cure, if you will, our sinful condition. And we are meant by this knowledge to have hope: there is no sin in our past that He will not forgive. There is likewise no sin in our future that we cannot defeat, if we will live according to the life He has given us in our baptism; by the power of the Holy Spirit given to us when we were chrismated. If you were being consumed by worms, and there was a potion you could drink that would cure this problem, would you hesitate to take it? The fathers tell us that we are indeed being consumed by our sinful passions and habits. But we have the medicine right here: the Body and Blood of Christ, by which the power of sin in us is broken, and we who have been broken by sin are made whole. We have a way of life entrusted to us to guide us and strengthen us in the defeating of our sinful desires and habits: the life of the Orthodox Church and faith; of prayer, and fasting, or alms-giving, and spiritual struggle. By this way of life, we show that we have indeed put our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Giver of life, and the Author of our salvation.

Brothers and sisters: Christ has come to fulfill the promises of God to us, for our deliverance from death, and for our salvation. Let us pout our trust and hope in Him, and walk in His ways; to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.