Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, Octoechos Tone 3; The Holy Great-Martyr Anastasia (305)
Nativity Fast.
Read
Hebrews 11:9-10,17-23,32-40; Matthew 1:1-25
I must tell you a little secret! I love hearing the genealogy of our Lord on this Sunday. There are some would prefer to omit (and actually do omit) the first seventeen verses of this selection. They figure that we do not want to hear over and over of who begot whom or who was the father of so-and-so. But this genealogy is important for many reasons of which two I will explore with you.
Matthew is providing for the reader a lineage of Jesus, that He is from the line of David. For those who are observant, not every man listed here was the actual biological father of the next man listed. Rather, it reveals the family line in three sections. Why fourteen generations in each section? Perhaps it is because, in Hebraic numbering, David adds up to fourteen. Notice that there are a few women listed in this genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah. These women were Gentiles. Fr. Lawrence Farley speculates that Matthew writes this in order to reveal that while Israel was the chosen people of the Lord and that salvation would come through Israel, salvation will spread to the Gentiles.
Notice, too, the rhythm: X was the father of Y, Y was the father of Z, Z was the father of…. And when we come to Jesus, He was born of Mary, the husband of Joseph. The pattern changed. It was almost as if His birth was unexpected. God is present, now involved personally in history. God takes on everything of what it means to be human (except sin). He dwells among us. All of this is very Good News!