Breaking the Word

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you." …for nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.  (Lk1:26-38)

 

 

The picture presents divine action in human situation. Divine does not act independent of creation. History and nature are the arena where God works. Creation itself is the work of God and He continues His work among his own creation. He does not work from outside but rather from within: right from inside the history and creation.

 

The author who believed in the above understanding presents the angel Gabriel from God but comes down to a human situation: he comes to a land (Galilee); he comes to a place (Nazareth); he comes to a person (Mary) and she belongs to a man (Joseph) and a tribe (David). All these information go to show that the divine action takes place in a purely historical, social, and earthy context.

 

But she was a virgin. Divine action has a specificity; an exception. This is where the divine action has a meaning and relevance and a purpose. Divine actions have many exceptions which go unnoticed but understood and accepted (Elizabeth).  This only goes to show that there could be other exceptions which should be accepted and which are possible only to God (nothing will be impossible to God).

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…

Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.(Mt 1: 1-17)

 

 

The genealogy is quite impressive and compelling. Matthew has arranged the names in such a way to make certain points clear to the readers. Matthew wanted to prove to the readers that Jesus had royal blood in him. He arranged it in such a way as to go back to David. We do not see the name of Herod or other kings of the recent times because Herod had not Jewish royal blood in him.

 

The central figure in the list is David. David was considered to be the ideal, true and the only king of Israel. The author traces back the list to David to show that Jesus belongs to that royal list. The author also traces the genealogy to Abraham to show that Jesus belongs to the first historical person in the bible. Abraham was the first person whom God called to be his own.

 

The author arranges the genealogy into three groups of fourteen names –or, perhaps we should say, into six groups of seven names. Seven was and is the most powerful symbolic numbers which denotes the totality, the completeness. Jesus is presented as to have been born as the first of the seventh seven list. Jesus is the climax of the list. He is the first of the completeness or the totality of generations of generations. He was the awaited one.