Genealogy of Jesus - boring list of names?

I've always appreciated the fact that Jesus' family tree is a bit suspect and had it's fair share of nuts. I've also been pretty guilty of skipping past verses 1-16 because I'm just not that interested in a boring list of names. Truth bomb. However I set out recently to look at every single interaction Jesus had with women and study them. So I started to read Matthew and so here I am, stuck at the first verse because wow, there He goes again. Including women even before He was born. And not just any women. Specifically those who in the first century church, at the time it would have been written, would have been seen as even more 'less than' than your average first century woman. Two apparent prostitutes, a Moabite widow and 'Uriahs wife' (who?).

Tamar - This woman had a tumultuous and tragic life life. Married to a man who was 'wicked in the Lords sight', she was widowed young. She was subsequently handed off to her husbands brother, Onan, in order to continue the family line. However Onan refused to do his duty, 'spilling his semen to the ground', and for his shaming of Tamar was also put to death by God. All of this son slaying made Judah nervous so he sent her back to her own fathers home until Judah's infant son, Shelah, came of age. The shame at being sent home to face isolation within her own community, with no children and no husband must have been awful. Shelah grew up but Tamar was not 'given' to him. So, she took matters into her own hands and tricked Judah into sleeping with her by disguising herself as a prostitute. She conceived and even Judah acknowledged she had been more righteous than him. She was still not taken as a wife. Jesus was certainly not the first of his line to be conceived outside of wedlock.

For Tamar to be named in the genealogy of Christ speaks to making an invisible woman visible. She was passed around between brothers, as was the custom, deceived and shamed. But God makes seen the unseen.

Rahab - There has been much discussion about whether she is THE Rahab and many scholars believe this is the same Rahab in Jericho who hid Joshua's spies. What a bold history this woman has. It is possible that she was either an innkeeper who happened to be a prostitute too, or a madam in a brothel in Jericho and a woman therefore of, albeit potentially dubious, means. Less (nothing) is said about how the spies ended up in her house but nonetheless, she took them in and as the resident forces closed in, then helped them escape with a promise of preservation from the ensuing fall and massacre of the city. Hanging a red cord, reminding us of the blood on the door post as the angel of death passed by in Egypt, she and her family were spared. As a Canaanite she had no reason to ally herself with the Jews but she had heard of this mighty God of the Hebrews and was convinced where her loyalties should lay. 

Naming Rahab reminds us of promises and faith. Rahab is named repeatedly as an exemplar of the faith, with mentions alongside Abraham in James 2 and alongside Moses and Joseph in Hebrews 11. Having her there reminds readers that women are equally valued for their faith, alongside the 'standard' old testament 'heroes' (if we can call them that, more of that in another blogpost).

Ruth - Now this was an extraordinary woman. She was a woman who loved fiercely, she chose her family and went to extraordinary lengths to secure hers and her their future. She was a woman on the outside though. She was a foreigner in the land, a widow who had lost her husband, brother and father in law within a short period of time. She was a woman with no assets apart from her courage, loyalty and faith. Her marriage to Boaz is an early echo of the kinsman redeemer price later paid by Jesus who paid the price, restored us and married us into his family.

Ruth's inclusion in the lineage tells us all we need to know about Gods vision for humanity. For inclusion, for care of the poor and for the desire of God's heart to soothe the broken hearts of humankind, set apart from him since the fall.

'Uriah's wife' AKA Bathsheba - This title used to bother me a little. However the more I have read the story, the more it points to David's guilt and exonerates Bathsheba. This is important because there is a propensity to elevate David as a great man when he was actually deeply flawed. He may have been a worshiper after God's own heart, but he was no hero. He was a murderer (of Uriah) and rapist (of Bathsheba). He was forgiven but his lesson is not one that we should forget. Bathsheba was exactly where she was meant to be, ritually cleansing herself and he was exactly where he shouldn't have been. Idle, wandering around on his roof when he, as King should have been in battle. She is a woman who suffered much loss. Of her husband, her bodily autonomy, her safety and ultimately her child. A side-note, barely named in the old texts, she is given a place of honour in the greatest story ever told.

'Naming' Bathsheba, a woman seen as a commodity and something to be possessed, restores her. God sees, and cares about injustice. Bathsheba's story has much to teach us about consent and power, if we are only willing to listen.

These pillars in the genealogy are not tokenistic, they tell us so much about the fabric of Jesus. He cares about those who society made invisible. He is uninterested in a persons past, but fascinated with their faith. He has deep compassion for the poor and oppressed and runs full tilt towards them, making them part of the family. He weeps with those who have been hurt and used by those who were supposed to protect them and restores them beyond their wildest imaginations.

Women might have been 'less than' in the first century church but the gospels are bursting with clues about Gods heart towards them, starting right at the beginning with that 'boring' list of names.