Reading today’s Gospel might appear at first sight as exciting as reading the phone book. Today’s Gospel is the “book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” What follows is primarily a list of names. Some of these names are probably familiar: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ruth, David, Solomon, Joseph, and Mary. Most of the other names are probably unfamiliar to the average Christian.
While hearing this list of names may be somewhat tedious Matthew uses this genealogy to place Jesus firmly in Jewish and human history. Jesus is the son of the Jewish King David and the son of Abraham, the father of all nations. Matthew is making the same point that John makes in his Gospel when he proclaims: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus became part of our human and religious history. He experienced both the joys and sorrows of being human. He experienced success and betrayal, trust and misunderstanding, suffering, death, and resurrection. He shows us the way to be truly human by loving God and our neighbor and even our enemies. He showed us that His death and our death is not the end but the entrance to a new and eternal life with God.
As we read or hear today’s Gospel and Jesus’ genealogy, we can add ourselves to this genealogy. Through our baptism we are daughters and sons of God. Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jesus, the Son of God, came into our world and into our life to teach us that we are all children of God. This is our genealogy.