A Man of the People

                My first challenge on arriving for the 4 pm Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve was to figure out if we had an altar server who could handle the incense (we did).  My second challenge was learning that my pastor wanted me to proclaim the “long form” of the designated Gospel at Mass.  My third challenge was learning that our visiting priest wanted to use the same Gospel on Christmas morning.  This passage from Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ starting with Abraham and ending with Jesus’ birth.  It’s informally known as Matthews Begats because its more classic iteration goes like this:  “Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob.  Jacob begat Judah and his brothers.”  (Matthew 1: 2)  Thirty-nine generations later, we hear of Jesus’ birth.  This reading isn’t challenging solely for its length; the most difficult part is slogging through 48 Hebrew names without falling into a guttural, saliva-laden tongue twister.  You try reading names like Jeconiah, Shealtiel and Zerrubabbel in front of nearly 800 parishioners whose most likely thought is, “When is this going to end?”  I’ve been tempted to throw Huey, Dewey and Louie into the mix just to see if people are still listening.

                Bible scholars largely agree that Matthew’s Gospel was written to prove to a Jewish audience that Jesus is the Messiah promised for centuries by the prophets of old.  In that light, Matthew’s Begats establishes Jesus’ Jewish lineage from Abraham, their father in faith, to the tribe of Judah and down through the descendants of King David, just as the prophets foretold.  But we also believe that Scripture speaks to all people in all times.  In that light, Matthew’s Begats takes on a much more universal meaning.  It teaches us that Jesus had a rich, human history filled with peasants and kings, saints and sinners and a whole lot of folks in between.  In short, it tells us that Jesus truly is a man of the people.  And that says a lot about God.

                 We humans have been pondering God for as long as we’ve been pondering.  Is there one God, or many gods?  What is God like?  Is God a passive or active player in our lives?  Matthew’s Begats addresses this last question.  You see, Judeo-Christian tradition speaks of a God who not only created the universe but who has lovingly and persistently guided creation back to him, notwithstanding humanity’s sinful fall from grace.  A God who humbled himself to take human form, to join the human family tree, certainly is intimately active in our lives. 

By contrast, a deist believes that God created the universe but remains apart from it, allowing creation to plod through time without God’s intervention.  The typical analogy for the deist understanding of God is that of a clock-maker who makes the clock, sets it in motion and lets it run by itself.  One of the many flaws in the deist perspective is that it fails to account for love.  This point will take a little explaining, so bear with me.  If one understands God as the supreme creator above all else, then one must concede that God needs nothing (if God needed anything, he wouldn’t be above all else).  So if God needs nothing, then his only motivation for creating us and everything else must be love (the only other possible motivation would be a need in one form or another).  God creates not because he needs to, but because he loves.  And a God who is supreme also can’t change (the only possible change from being supreme would be to become something less than supreme).  Therefore, if God creates out of love, he can’t stop loving his creation (that would be a change).  Since love is active, not static, God’s love for his creation is itself an active intervention in our lives that can’t stop because stopping would be change, and God can’t change.  Thus, the deist approach fails because if God were not active in our lives (as the deist believes), then God would not love creation; if God did not love creation, then God would not be supreme; and if God were not supreme, then God would not be God.  I’ll pause a moment in case you need a breather after all of that.

 

                As challenging as the passage may be, Matthew’s Begat’s speaks so beautifully and profoundly of God’s active and loving intervention in our lives.  It teaches us that God loves us so much that he humbled himself to take human form, to share earthly life with us, to live with us, work with us, play with us, laugh with us, cry with us, suffer with us, rejoice with us and ultimately to die with and for us.  Matthew’s Begats teaches us that God’s divinity and our humanity are united in Jesus Christ, notwithstanding a family tree with a few nicks and scars on its trunk and branches.  Matthew’s Begats teaches us that God, through Jesus Christ, truly is a man the people.  That’s the message of Christmas, and that’s the message that brings joy to the world.

Reading:  Matthew 1: 1-25

Follow this link for a clever rendition of Matthew's Begats.