This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar (Matthew 1:1-3)
Those of you who have read today’s readings before reading this reflection will have recognized that the above passage is not part of today’s Scriptures. But it is relevant to the readings for today. This will be one of those reflections that I write that tend to be a bit circuitous in getting to the point. So I am going to have to ask you to hang in there a bit. I promise you that I will arrive at some semblance of a conclusion.
The Gospels have two reconstructions of Jesus’ lineage. One appears in Luke and the other in Matthew. I will call Luke’s version as the “cleaned up” account of Jesus’ heritage. He removes many of the suspicious characters from Christ’s background. But Matthew? Nope. No holds barred. All the dirty laundry is aired. Why? Maybe because Matthew has a bit of a sordid past himself with him being a tax collector and spy for the Romans. Matthew lists some individuals with questionable morality as part of the list of those who came before our Lord, but I wanted to focus on one in particular. As seen in the reading above, Tamar is listed as part of Jesus’ ancestral family. But who exactly is Tamar?
We all know that Jacob had 12 sons and one of his sons was Judah, “The Lion”. He was a strong leader and is associated with the Southern Kingdom that bears his name. He had three sons. Er, Onan and Shelah. Er was married to Tamar but did not give her an heir before he died. By Jewish law, the next brother in line was to marry her in order to preserve the family lineage. But Onan also did not provide an heir. There is a bit more to the story here with Onan but we will leave that to another day. That left Shelah, who was too young to marry so Judah promised Tamar that when he was older she would be able to be wed to Shelah. But Judah went back on his word not allowing Tamar to marry Shelah thus potentially leaving Tamar a widow and childless. A death sentence in these times.
So what does Tamar do? She solves the dilemma by dressing as a prostitute and seducing Judah to sleep with her. The result was that Tamar bore twin sons, one of whom was Perez. What is significant about Perez? Well he is ancestor to Boaz. Boaz we see in the reading from the last few days marries Ruth. Ruth is the Mother to Obed and is the Father of Jesse, who is the Father of David (remember David is from the stump of Jesse). Jesus is from this Davidic line.
Jesus, the SON of GOD, has prostitutes in his past. And Ruth? Well, she is a Moabite. In other words, she was not one of the Chosen People. But she is an integral link in the line that led to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. There is another aspect of Ruth here that ties in to the Gospel for today. When Ruth asks Boaz why he, a prominent and respected member of the community would choose her, a Gentile with nothing, to rest his favor upon, Boaz responds with this:
“I have had a complete account of what you have done
for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death;
you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth,
and have come to a people whom you did not know previously.”
It is not what Ruth tries to make herself out to be that attracts Boaz. Ruth, after all, is gleaning from the edges of fields in order to gain food for the survival of her and her Mother-in-Law, Naomi. What attracts Boaz is the commitment Ruth had for Naomi. She sacrificed everything secure that she had back in Moab and elected to follow Naomi, not a blood relative, to a land she did not know. Her love for Naomi, a sacrificial love, brought her to Bethlehem and a lowly place in the community. But her humility led to Boaz’s attention. To their marriage. To her bearing a child that would eventually lead to the salvation of the world. This story of Ruth’s allegiance to Naomi is memorialized in this song
Which brings us to the Gospel. Jesus is teaching his disciples about how the Pharisees and the scribes focus on the show. On being sure that the public sees them as great religious leaders. They occupy prominent places in the Temple area. They lengthen their tassels (knots on their shawls which represent the 613 laws of Moses) and widen their phylacteries (little boxes containing the ten commandments that they wear of their foreheads and arms). But Jesus makes them aware that this is not what His Father is asking of them. They are to humble themselves before each other:
“The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
We all have skeletons ( the ones in our closets, not the ones that tend to fracture when abruptly dismounting a motorcycle). There are things in our personal and familial pasts that we feel are best left forgotten. But all these supposed “weaknesses” makes us what we are. Broken people from broken pasts. But Jesus took on Matthew as His apostle. He also took Peter, James, John, Nathaniel, Thomas, etc. All sinners. All broken. As was Tamar. Let’s not forget that David was an adulterer and a murderer. It is not our pasts that define us. It is our present and future lives with Christ at the center. Christ does not choose the perfect. He perfects the Chosen.
