Matthew begins with the genealogy
of Jesus going back 42 generations to Abraham.
Then we have the shocking announcement that Mary is pregnant by the Holy
Spirit rather than by Joseph and Joseph’s willingness to marry her anyway. The Magi show up in Herod’s court looking for
this special child and Herod fearing this future king of the Jews orders all
infants killed. Joseph and Mary flee to
Egypt after being warned in a dream.
They later return but rather than going to Bethlehem where Jesus was
born, they go to Nazareth.
Several years must pass because we
next meet John the Baptist who is preaching about the coming of a greater man
than he is, one who will “baptize with the Holy Spirit”. John then baptizes Jesus and Jesus goes out
into the desert where he is tempted by Satan.
Once he has passed that test Jesus begins his ministry by gathering
together his 12 disciples, by teaching about the Kingdom and by healing the
sick and suffering. All that in just four chapters.
And I have a bunch of questions. If we came into this story with a clean slate,
in other words if we knew absolutely nothing about this man Jesus before
reading this story, how would we react? Would we believe that someone
could go back 42 generations over 1000 years of family history to lay claim to
some authority? Would we believe his
divine birth? Matthew points out at least seven times in
these first four chapters that certain events fulfill some prophecy or other.
I have to assume that Matthew is
stretching the story somewhat. He has
obviously been affected by Jesus and his teachings and wants very much to
convince others how accepting Jesus will change their lives. Does it matter that Jesus comes from the line
of David? Does it matter that he was
divinely conceived? Does it matter that John
baptized him and God claimed that “this is my own son with whom I am pleased”? Does it matter that he was tempted by Satan?
I have a hard time accepting the Christmas
story. In fact, I am more interested in
what Jesus did between the ages of two and the age of 30 or so when he began
teaching. I am curious about what people
knew about the young Jesus. When did
Mary let people know that Jesus was divinely conceived? Was it after he had died or was it common
knowledge when he was much younger? I
would like to know why Jesus was baptized (he was without sin) and why God had
to say “he was well pleased”. If he was divinely born wouldn’t that go
without saying? How do we know about the
temptation in the desert? When did Jesus
tell Matthew and under what circumstances?
And why would Satan assume that Jesus might have been tempted? Wouldn’t he realize that Jesus couldn’t be
tempted unless of course Jesus was not divine?
Having said all that, I don’t
think any of that matters. Even if Jesus were just an ordinary guy who
led an ordinary childhood, who was conceived in an ordinary way into an
ordinary family, he can still be considered an extraordinary man. What matters is what Jesus did and said.
So ok, Matthew tells us "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
ReplyDeleteSo 14+14+14 = 42, right?
Then go and count the names. I get 41.
I am a big picture guy. I don't know what the number would have had to be for me to notice that a name was missing. But you made me do what I am trying to avoid and that is to look up stuff. (I want to read the Bible with as little bias as possible.)
DeleteBut I googled the genealogy of Jesus and went to two sites. One listed David twice which not only doesn't make sense, it shuffles a name from pre-exile to post exile. The missing name is in the last 14 generations. The other site pointed out that Matthew didn't just miscount, he left out three kings in the pre-exile grouping. This just shows that Matthew was trying really hard to make Jesus relevant to the Jews. The fulfillment of prophecy. The descendant of David. The multiples of seven.
Of course, Luke gives a completely different geneology. (Luke lists 56 generations from Abraham to Jesus, inclusive, and Heli as the grandfather, while Matthew lists 41 and Jacob as the grandfather.) New sitcom: My Two Dads, dealing with a young Joseph, meeting and courting Mary in the Holy Lands!
ReplyDeleteThe Bible has dozens of discrepancies. People who want to dismiss the Bible will look for them all. People who want to accept the Bible twist themselves in knots trying to explain them.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that there are discrepancies makes it impossible for me to accept it as the unerring Word of God, but I still think there are worthwhile lessons to be found.