Matthew 1:1-17. The genealogy of Jesus. Matthew traces Jesus' lineage from Abraham, the first man called by God after the Fall, through David, and all the way to Joseph, Mary's husband. He points out that there were fourteen generations between Abraham and David, fourteen generations between David and the Babylonian exile, and fourteen generations from the exile to Jesus.

I have often wondered about the tracing of Jesus' lineage to Joseph, since Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. It used to seem to me that it would have been important to show a bloodline from Jesus back through Abraham and David, since Jesus was the fulfillment of promises made to both of these men, and the king that was promised through David's line. I had heard that Mary was probably also of the house of David, and I wondered why Matthew didn't trace Jesus' genealogy back through her. But after talking to people about this over the years, and thinking about it, and, honestly, just today when reading it again, I can see now why it was so important and symbolic for Matthew to do it this way.

Jesus is different - wholly different. He is completely man, thus subject to the law, and completely divine, thus the creator of the law. It is impossible, really, to fully understand this, but this genealogy helps a bit. Matthew will go on in the very next passage to make it clear that Mary's child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not by Joseph. So he is not trying to pull the wool over our eyes, or give Jesus a "legit" genealogy by tracing him back through Joseph. What he is doing is showing us that, by Joseph taking Jesus as his own son, Jesus became Joseph's son under the law - completely - there was no distinction for "biological" and "adopted" fatherhood - Jesus was Joseph's son under the law, so the genealogy is 100% accurate and ties Jesus back to David and Abraham.

It is different, though, especially to us more secular people who think about bloodlines and biological fatherhood - but that is because God is different - he is nothing like what we can possibly expect or imagineI He keeps showing us this over and over again! The genealogy, followed immediately by the explanation (to Joseph) that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, is the perfect illustration of why God's law is so important. From the law of Moses, the Jews learned God's rules for the raising and treatment of a child taken in by a father, in law and in love (the basis of the law). Those rules helped society function, just like all of God's rules do, but they also, unbeknownst to the Jews, were paving the way for God's Son to have a fully legitimate, legal, accepted earthly father (and mother!) - they are the framework for the Holy Family!

God is always playing both the short game and the long game. It is so much fun to see it when reading the Bible!

(An aside: David's fatherhood of Solomon is mentioned in the geneology like this: "And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah..." David's greatest weakness is stressed, even here. Oh how our sins haunt us!)