What Do the Begats Beget Besides Boredom?

Today, is day one of reading through the New Testament. And what does our reading commence with? A genealogy. I barely find my own family tree interesting. Finding someone else's family tree exciting is a real challenge. Still, the genealogy of Jesus should beget a lot more than boredom.

In the ancient world, family was everything. One's place in the world was often determined by who one's ancestors were. Writing to a Jewish audience, Matthew is trying to show that Jesus by virtue of his human lineage was the King that God has promised to Israel. Jesus was qualified to be Israel's king in that He was a descendant of Abraham (making Him Jewish) and David (making Him of the royal tribe). The claim that Matthew establishes right at the beginning of his Gospel is that Jesus is Lord.

In Matthew's time, this was a radical, revolutionary claim. Accepting Matthew's conclusion that Jesus is Lord totally reoriented one's life. For a Jew, the claim that Jesus was Lord was a radical claim in terms of religion. Jews were of course strict monotheists. It flew against their most cherished beliefs to believe that a man could be both man and God. For the Romans, there was no other Lord but Caesar. Caesar was king, but he was also believed to be God. Claiming Jesus as Lord seem to be a treasonous claim. Thus, the claim that Jesus is Lord would have torn Matthew's readers out of the two cultures in which they lived- the Jewish and Roman cultures.

As I come to the claims of Matthew in Matthew 1, I have to ask myself how has my belief that Jesus is Lord reoriented my life? I think the claim is as revolutionary in this time as it was in Matthew's. I can claim Jesus is Lord with my mouth. But where is that claim seen in my life? How has knowing that Jesus is Lord ripped my life out of the evangelical, American cultures in which I am so comfortable?

Matthew 1 is simple: Jesus is Israel's promised King. As Israel's promised King, He is their Savior (and now the Savior of the whole world). For me, the problem is not believing the claim. For me, the problem is living it out. The statement "Jesus is Lord" is still revolutionary. It still calls us to live radically in our culture. In the rest of Matthew's Gospel, Matthew will explore how radical that call is.