St. Matthew begins his gospel with “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” Genealogy can be very moving. When I saw the ship manifest with my grandparents name on it from 1912 I was inspired by their courage and perseverance in coming to a new world. Genealogy can also be very sobering. Finding the news report of my great uncle killing his wife and then committing suicide was the proverbial skeleton in the closet. Matthew seems to have both of those points in mind when sketching out the lineage of Jesus. He ancestors were saints and sinners, (in)famous and ordinary. The lesson is that the coming of Jesus was the insertion of God into the human drama with all its complexity. The mixed bag that makes up our families and our lives are exactly who Jesus came to save.
