Q: I’m a longtime daily Massgoer, and every year in the days leading up to Christmas we have that one Gospel reading that lists all the names of Jesus’ ancestors. I can understand why things like this are included in the Bible for the sake of history, but why does it show up every year in the daily Mass readings? It doesn’t seem to provide much food for spiritual reflection. (Port Chester, N.Y.)
A: It sounds like the passage of Scripture you are thinking of is the genealogy found in Mt 1:1-17. This passage is proclaimed every year on Dec. 17, a date in which the church’s entire liturgy shifts tone into an especially immediate focus on the upcoming celebration of Christ’s nativity.
This reading begins by announcing itself as: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1) before diving into the names themselves: “Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers” (Mt 1:2). It continues to list a series of names — some familiar to us from the Old Testament, others we have never seen before — before concluding: “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah” (Mt 1:16).
While this particular passage might lack the narrative plot of some of the other late-Advent readings, it actually can provide some real food for meditation if you know the deeper context. That is, St. Matthew the Evangelist was not trying to list names in a simple utilitarian way. Rather, he was trying to communicate a deeper truth about Jesus’ mission and identity as the promised Messiah.
Most obviously, by identifying Jesus as the legal son of his foster father St. Joseph, and by tracing St. Joseph’s heritage through King David and ultimately Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, St. Matthew is telling his readers that Jesus has a kingly identity as a descendant of David’s royal lineage. Jesus did not succeed David as a literal earthly king running a human government. But as the chosen savior of his people (and the rest of the world), Jesus fulfills his role as the “anointed one” in a deeper way, one which David’s earthly kingship foreshadowed.
St. Matthew also tells us specifically that “the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations” (Mt 1:17). In Scripture, the number seven is used to indicate completeness or perfection. So the sets of fourteen generations, as a multiple of seven, is a subtle signal that Jesus came to earth at a time perfectly preordained by God’s providence, and that Jesus would be the perfect completion of the royal line that came before him.
What is most interesting to me personally, however, is some of the more surprising names mentioned. Normally a genealogy of this type would only list names in the paternal line, but St. Matthew mentions several women, all of whom might be seen as less-than-ideal ancestors to have. That is, Tamar was an abandoned widow; Rahab was a prostitute; and Ruth was a foreign outsider to the people of Israel. Yet they were all direct maternal ancestors to King David, and hence a part of Jesus’ known heritage.
By highlighting the names of these women in his genealogy, St. Matthew is telling us that they were a crucial part of God’s plan for all of history. This underscores an important theme that runs throughout the Old and New Testaments: that God uses the lowly, the humble and the unexpected to achieve his purposes. It perfectly sets the stage for the greatest “surprise” of all, that the King of Kings should come to us in humble circumstances, born of a virgin and laid in a manger.
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