Readings:
- Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 Response: “Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.” - Romans 1:1-7
- Matthew 1:18-24
Reflections on the Gospel Reading
The gospel readings for the Sundays of Advent follow a pattern. The readings for the first Sunday look forward to the final coming of the Son of Man at the end of the ages. The readings for the second and third Sundays concentrate on John the Baptist, the precursor of Jesus’ public ministry. The readings for the fourth Sunday contain stories about Mary and/or Joseph before the birth of Jesus.
Today’s gospel reading comes from the overture to Matthew’s Gospel found in the first two chapters. By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel (about the year 85) the titles “Son of David” and “Son of God” had been applied to Jesus for a generation or more, and the title “Messiah” or “Christ” had become a common name, Jesus Christ.
In line with ancient biographical customs, in the first chapter of his Gospel Matthew illustrated the titles “Son of David” (Mt 1.1-17) and “Son of God” (Mt 1.18-25). He used a genealogy to establish Jesus’ honor status as a descendent in the royal line, and he crafted a tale based on First Testament motifs to show that right from his conception Jesus was “Son of God.”
In today’s second reading Paul, writing some thirty years earlier, also refers to Jesus’ Davidic descent and his establishment as Son of God by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 1.3-4) However, he points instead to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as the work of God which revealed Jesus’ true identity as Son of God. Matthew and Luke see Jesus established as Son of God from his birth, and John the Evangelist goes back to before Jesus’ birth, in fact to the beginning of creation.
In order to understand Matthew’s intent in today’s gospel passage we need to pay close attention to the genealogy that precedes it. W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison contend that today’s reading “serves as a commentary on the last link in the genealogy:” “and Jacob [was] the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.” (Matthew 1.16 [NRSV]; Davies & Allison 1988, 197.)
We need to recall the stories of the four women who are mentioned in the genealogy. Instead of the four great matriarchs of Israel (Sarah, Rebekkah, Leah, and Rachel), Matthew mentions four other women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “the wife of Uriah” (Bathsheba). Their stories help us understand Mary’s predicament and God’s saving action.
- Tamar
In Chapter 38 of the Book of Genesis (Ge 38) Tamar was married to Judah’s wicked son Er. When Er died Tamar was given to Judah’s second son, Onan, in accordance with the levirate law in Deuteronomy 25.5-10. (“Levir” is the Latin word for brother-in-law.) According to Israelite custom, when a married man died without a son, it was the duty of his brother to marry the dead brother’s wife and beget a son to carry on the man’s name. Onan refused to do this and also died.
Judah had one other son, Shelah, but Judah refused to give him to Tamar for fear that Shelah would also die. Judah sent Tamar back to her father’s house to live as a childless widow for the rest of her life. Not willing to live in this shameful state, Tamar disguised herself as a temple prostitute and lured Judah into having sexual relations with her. She kept his signet, cord, and staff as a pledge of future payment.
Three months later when Judah was informed that his daughter-in-law was pregnant, he threatened to have her burned. However, when she produced the signet, cord, and staff, Judah acknowledged her offspring as his own and admitted that he had failed to do his duty by her. One of her twins, Perez, became an ancestor of David.
- Rahab
Most probably this is the Rahab mentioned in Joshua 2 and Joshua 6. When the Israelites conquered Jericho they slaughtered all the inhabitants. The harlot Rahab and her family were in danger of death. However, Rahab had sheltered two Israeli spies when they were reconnoitering Jericho and helped them escape because she believed in the God of Israel. In return, they pledged to spare her and her family when they took the city. Joshua honored that pledge with the result that her whole family was incorporated into the People of Israel. Matthew inserts her into the genealogy of Jesus as the wife of Salmon and the mother of Boaz.
- Ruth
In the Book of Ruth we learn that the Bethlehemite Elimelech traveled to the land of Moab to escape famine. There he married a Moabite woman named Naomi, and together they had two sons who also married Moabite women, Orpha and Ruth. When Elimelech and his two sons died, Naomi decided to return to the Land of Israel. Orpha returned to her family, but Ruth, after a beautiful pledge of faith and loyalty, went with Naomi.
Naomi was faced with the problem of how to find a husband for Ruth from among her Israelite kinsmen. When Ruth encountered Naomi’s rich kinsman Boaz while gleaning in his fields, and when he showed her kindness, Naomi hatched a plan. Knowing that Boaz would be sleeping outside at his threshing floor, she had Ruth dress up and, after Boaz went to sleep, sneak into his bed and lie at his feet. This risky, not to say scandalous, maneuver succeeded. Boaz married Ruth who became the great grandmother of King David.
- The Wife of Uriah (Bathsheeba)
The story is told in chapters 11 and 12 of the Second Book of Samuel (2 Sa 11, 12). Bathsheba was trapped in the sordid web of David’s lust, treachery, and murder. We don’t know whether she deliberately enticed David by bathing in his sight. However, with her husband at war there was no one to protect her from the advances of the king. When she informed David that she was pregnant she was in a double bind. If she said nothing, her husband and others would conclude that she was guilty of adultery. If she spoke out it would be her word against the word of the king. David solved the problem by murdering Uriah. Although the son begotten from this adulterous union died, David married Bathsheba, and their next child was Solomon, David’s eventual successor.
Interpretation
What do these stories have in common? Each of the women was an outsider. “Tamar and Rahab were both Canaanites, Ruth was a Moabite, and Bathsheba, whose name was Canaanite, (Miles 1995, 175) was the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” (Senior 1998, 38) Each of the women faced a predicament where her honor was in danger, and possibly her life. Each was involved in socially deviant sexual activity. Each was saved from disgrace by the action of a powerful man. Each carried on the line that, in Matthew’s genealogy, led to Jesus through Joseph.
What light do they throw on Matthew’s story of Joseph and Mary? “Irregular and potentially scandalous unions, even unions with Gentiles, were blessed by God in establishing and continuing the Davidic line. Thus if the birth of Jesus also involved extraordinary circumstances and brought reproach, that was nothing new.” (Davies & Allison 1988, 187) For Matthew all this was part of God’s surprising plan for the People of Israel.
In this passage Matthew focuses on Joseph – even to the point of having Joseph name the child. (Note that in the first reading in today’s Mass [translated from the Hebrew text] the virgin herself names the child.) Unlike in Luke’s narrative, Mary stays in the background and never speaks.
Matthew tells us that Joseph, a righteous man, was unwilling to expose Mary to shame. By divorcing her quietly, he would provide the opportunity for the true father to come forth and claim Mary for his wife. This would expose her to far less shame than denouncing her before the whole community. (See Malina & Rohrbaugh 2003, 25-26.)
However, when God reveals to Joseph that Mary’s child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit, Joseph realizes that this pregnancy is part of God’s plan. Like Judah, Salmon, Boaz, and David he takes Mary and her child under his protection and accepts him as his own.
Is Matthew merely relaying a tradition, or has he crafted a story for a wider audience including us? Just as the story of the Magi prefigures the streaming of Gentiles into the People of God, might not Mary stand for the Church that gives new life through the Spirit? Might not Joseph stand for faithful Israel that did not bring forth the Messiah in the expected way but recognizes Jesus as Messiah nonetheless? Might not Joseph’s efforts to deal justly with Mary in the unusual circumstances surrounding Mary’s pregnancy be a model for us as we try to discern God’s will in the difficult situations that arise in our own lives?
Explanatory Note:
The First Testament is an alternative expression for “The Old Testament” or “The Hebrew Bible.” Unfortunately today, for many “The Old Testament” has a negative connotation of being secondary or outmoded. On the other hand, “The Hebrew Bible” does not include a number of books that the early Church considered to be inspired, for example the Book of Wisdom. “The First Testament” refers both to the sacred books written in Hebrew or Aramaic (“The Hebrew Bible”) and to the slightly larger collection translated into or originally written in Greek (“The Septuagint”). Israelites in the Diaspora (that is, in the Greek speaking world outside of the Land of Israel) used this latter collection of sacred books as their Bible at the time the Gospels were being written.
In preparing these reflections, in addition to the biblical texts, I consulted the following works:
Brown 1988 – Raymond E. Brown, S.S., A Coming Christ in Advent (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1988), Ch. 2, “The Genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1-17), pp. 16-26.
Corley 2002 – Kathleen E. Corley, Women & the Historical Jesus: Feminist Myths of Christian Origins (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2002), p. 43.
Davies & Allison 1988 – W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Jr. A Critical and Exigetical Commentary on the Gospel According To Saint Matthew, Vol.I [Chapters 1 – 7], The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, J. A. Emerton, C. E. B. Granfield, and G. N. Stanton, General Editors (London: T&T Clark, 1988), pp. 186-221.
Fuller 1984 – Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary. The Word of God for the Church Today (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1984), pp. 11-13.
Funk et al. 1993 – Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 128-130.
Harrington 1991 – Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Matthew, Sacra Pagina Series Volume 1, A Michael Glazier Book (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1991), pp. 27-40.
Malina & Rohrbaugh 2003 – Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Second Edition (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), pp. 23 – 26.
Miles 1995 – Jack Miles, God: A Biography (New York: Vintage Books, 1995), pp. 173-177.
John P. Meier, Matthew, A Michael Glazier Book [1980] (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1990), pp. 1-9.
Pilch 1995 – John J. Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, Cycle A. A Liturgical Press Book (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1995), pp. 10-12.
Reilly c.2005 – Frank Reilly, “‘She Is Not Alone.’ Raymond E. Brown, Jane Schaberg, and the Author on the Illegitimacy of Jesus” unpublished manuscript.
Schaberg 2006 – Jane Schaberg, The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives, Expanded Twentieth Anniversary Edition with contributions by David T. Landry and Frank Reilly (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006), pp. 32-77.
Senior 1998 – Donald Senior, Matthew , Abingdon New Testament Commentaries, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), pp. 33 – 43.