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Genesis 49:2, 8-10
Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4AB, 7-8, 17
Matthew 1:1-17
Summary
The genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Salomon was the father of
Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth. David was the father of
Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And Joseph was the husband of Mary, of whom
Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
Reflection
The readings today shift into high gear, moving into the final days of preparation
for the great celebration of Christ, the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. The
focus moves from John the Baptizer to Mary. The elaborate genealogy found in
Matthew satisfies the need to establish the lineage of Jesus and the Jewish peo-
ple. (One could spend hours looking up the genealogy in the Hebrew Bible on
those nights when we have no electricity!) There are five women listed in today’s
gospel. Being a bit of a feminist I thought I would like at the five of them.
Tamar was a clever widow. In the book of Genesis she was widowed by Judah’s
son. She was left alone and unhappy so she tricked Judah (her father in law) and
she had children with him. It is through this line that Jesus comes.
Rahab (although scholars are still debating this) was the woman who save the
Hebrew people after crossing into the Promised Land. Rahab was an innkeeper
who saw something in these people that she would forsake her own people and
save the Hebrews from the Canaanites living in Jericho. Later she married Boaz,
the great grandfather of King David.
Speaking of King David and Boaz, Ruth is a
Moabite woman so taken by the Hebrew people
that she left her homeland and her gods, to be
one with the new kingdom of Israel. She em-
braced her new family, the Israelites and Yah-