Story Telling
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, road to the sea, over Jordan, Galilee, crossroads for the nations. People sitting out their lives in the dark saw a huge light; Sitting in that dark, dark country of death, they watched the sun come up.” Matthew 4:15-16 (MSG) (Pictures below from my morning walk.)
“When we talk today about receptiveness to stories, we tend to contrast that attitude to one governed by reason - we talk about freeing ourselves from the shackles of the rational mind and that sort of thing - but no belief was more central to Lewis's mind than the belief that it is eminently, fully rational to be responsive to the enchanting power of stories.” Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis
In a recent devotional session with our bible quiz team, I reviewed the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. I remember when I first memorized the list of names in Matthew 1 as a teenager. It was a bunch of hard-to-say names from parts of the Bible that I was unfamiliar with. I really didn’t think it was that important. To me, it made the point that Jesus had a lineage and that somehow proved his humanity and his right as an heir of King David. That was enough setup for the Christmas story!
What more can you ask of a teenager? Well, years have passed and I wanted our teenagers to know more than I knew then. I wanted them to know some details, like possibly that Matthew tells of Joseph’s lineage but that Luke’s gospel prioritizes Mary’s lineage. Or was it biological lineage (Matthew) versus “legal” lineage (Luke)? (See Footnote 1) Either way, you end up with a link to the royal line of David which is important to both gospels. Matthew starts with Abraham while Luke goes back to Adam. The authors were writing to different audiences, and each lineage has significance to each audience. I wanted them to know that Matthew’s account omits a couple of names and that the whole idea of the neat “14 generations” summary at the end of Matthew’s genealogy is likely done for effect and less for accuracy (with some plausible explanations). (See Footnote 2)
All of these things and a few more were teased out in our time together. What we spent the most of our time on, however, was the fact that each name represented a story. And each story represented far more than the name as a link to the royal line of David. Each story reveals some traits of the character of God. Each person was shaped by their own encounter with God. God’s covenant love shines through the genealogy and represents his desire to be connected to all humanity. And though the Jews needed to be assured that Jesus was connected to Abraham and David, the genealogy also prominently reveals that the royal line grafts in Gentile bloodlines.
The context for the whole story is, of course, the birth of Jesus. Matthew proceeds after the genealogy in chapter 1 to tell us that Jesus’ father was God (through the Holy Spirit). Jesus’ father was the father of creation, including all humanity. So, an impure Jewish line is both no problem and possibly should have been expected (if not welcome). This is a subtle part of the story to us if we’re not familiar with the people listed, but it would have been quite significant to the original readers of the letter.
However, the inclusion of non-Jewish ancestry really wasn’t a major issue for rights and privileges to the throne as the tracing of the royal line only had to include the father. It was a patriarchal culture. The lineage includes male descendants meaning that there was still an accepted cultural, if not pure Jewish bloodline, connection to the throne.
We then began to dig into some of the stories each name represents. We started with more familiar ones. The list prominently includes King David, of course, himself forcibly taking another man’s wife and the royal line continuing through his progeny made of their union. An adulterer, a likely rapist, a conspirator to murder, and yet God redeemed King David and chose to honor Solomon as the heir to the royal throne.
We talked about Rahab, the Gentile prostitute, who saved some of the spies as Joshua was scouting out the land. She is included in the genealogy of Jesus as the great-great-grandmother of King David.
We talked about faithful and obedient Ruth, who became David’s great-grandmother. She wasn’t Jewish either, but married in, and then stayed connected.
In fact, 5 women are named in the genealogy which was scandalous in its own right. Matthew mentioning women, some from other nations and tribes, all the product of abuse or misfortune, elevated the role that Jesus had given to women and served to make a point all by itself. Women factored into Jesus’ plan for redemption. Their stories matter.
I could go on and recount the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are tales to tell. The fact that the earliest gospel writers included a retrospective list served many purposes. For me, one of the greatest of those purposes was to summarize and emphasize that Jesus came through an incredibly messy human family line, with all kinds of sordid stories, and yet still chose to come anyway. His coming was an opportunity for redemption. He came to right what the original humans got wrong. And He did.
And what that means for you and me is that no matter what story we’re living, or what story our family has lived, God still considers you and me worth the investment. He sees hope where we see pain and turmoil. He sees redemption when we’d rather cut someone (or ourselves) off. He came into his own mess, and He is not afraid to come into ours.
The beauty of Advent is that it doesn’t just hide behind candy canes and Christmas bows. Advent reminds us that each of us has a story. Every generation has a story and God uniquely interacts with each of us in every generation. Most of those stories are complicated, and most are messy. Some are cringe-worthy. Some even have generational consequences. Some, however, offer hope. Enter Emmanuel into space and time.
God can interrupt the mess, help change course, and even redeem the past. Most often he will take what has happened and somehow use it for good. Some examples include those who were formerly addicted to sex or drugs now offering hope for those stuck in the mire of current addictions. Sometimes it's an unexpected loss in our lives that turns into encouragement and hope for someone else who is experiencing the same thing presently. Sometimes it’s a whole change in a family line who formerly did not know Jesus but are radically different after conversion to faith in Christ. Succeeding generations are never the same.
I don’t know what it is for you, but I know the story of Jesus needs to be told every year to remind us we’re included. It starts with Advent when we remember that there were “people living in darkness.” That could be you now. But those same people eventually “saw a great light.” And we can too. As we reflect on the redeeming power of the incarnation, the life lived by Jesus, his love for all humanity as demonstrated in his willingness to be wrongfully accused and executed, and his power to overcome death and rise again. We don’t have to live in fear of our past. We serve a God who knows our journey, lived his own version of it, and still died for us anyway. He has overcome and we can too.
I hope that Advent and Christmas this year remind you that your story does not disqualify you from God’s love, much less God’s plan. He came into this world to redeem all of our stories. We simply have to let him have access. Let’s open our hearts to Him and become vulnerable to the mess that we think defines us. Allowing Him in changes everything. It did once, it will again, and it can for you while we wait!
Pastor Scott
Footnotes:
To read a brief overview of the differences between Matthew and Luke’s genealogies click here.
Explanation 1 or Explanation 2 (just two of several)
Thumbnail photo attribution: Image by BiZkettE1 on Freepik
“They saw the sun come up!”
What hope and joy as God’s mercies are evident and new every morning.