The genealogy of lust

To the best of my knowledge, holy men have got nothing to do with incestuous folk. They’re sure to keep a safe distance from prostitutes. And you can bet your bottom dollar they steer from pagans like the plague.

So how is it conceivably possible that the Messiah’s bloodline can be traced directly back to an incestuous trickster like Tamar, a dirty whore like Rahab and a pagan Moabitess like Ruth?

What on earth was Matthew doing the day he mentioned such names in Jesus’ genealogy in the first chapter of his Gospel account (Matthew 1:1-17)? I mean, try putting yourself in the Messiah’s shoes for a moment. Would you like to have such a family tree? It sure isn’t anything worth writing home about. Three infamously vile and notorious women!

And to put the icing on the cake, there’s a fourth (and final) lady that we haven’t talked about yet. Given Bro Matt’s track record, I’m going take a wild stab in the dark and guess that whoever she was, her name isn’t going to send us into holy ecstasy. Let’s find out who she was.

This final dame goes by the name of ‘Uriah’s wife’ (Matthew 1:6). Shall I groan with unease or shall you? “Matt, what are you playing at? Are you trying to discredit Christ! Get Uriah’s wife off that list now! As if putting Tamar, Rahab and Ruth in the holy club wasn’t daft enough!”

If you’re new to the world of Bible reading, maybe ‘Uriah’s wife’ doesn’t mean much to you. But how about if I told you that this mysterious woman also goes by the name of Bathsheba? Now do you see the need to groan? And just in case you don’t, let me explain a little bit about her.

Bathsheba is perhaps best known for being wise King Solomon’s mum. But she is also notorious for getting involved in what has become the most infamous lust-driven one night stand in the whole of Scripture.

Taking a relaxing shower one evening whilst her husband was out at war, beautiful Bathsheba was spied upon, sent for and seduced by her very own king.

Whether or not she was forced into having sexual relations with him is still unclear, but what we can clarify is that there seems to be no register of her trying to run away (much unlike Joseph in Egypt). Nine months later- surprise, surprise- she gave birth only for the child to die.

But I haven’t told you the most important detail of the story just yet. Do you know what the name of the smutty king in question was? His name was David. My, oh my… Did you read that right? Yes, you did. His name was David, spelt D, A, V, I, D. Now you can groan if you didn’t do so before.

Maybe you don’t believe me (don’t worry, I would understand if you didn’t); so I invite you to look up 2 Samuel 11 and there you’ll get the story in all of its gory ugliness. Bathsheba’s account shows us the human all too human side to David. In spite of being hailed as Israel’s greatest king both past and present, the Scripture shows us this dark aspect of David that so frustrates us all.

We don’t like people taking a dig at our heroes, so we undoubtedly get annoyed when someone points out David’s shortcomings. How many of us passionate Protestants love Martin Luther and John Calvin and all that their legacy entails? I sure do. But isn’t awfully sad when people slam Luther for his anti-Semitism and Calvin for Servet’s murder? We wince within.

In those moments we are obliged to lower our heads and agree with such accusations (even though the whole question regarding Calvin’s guilt isn’t unanimously accepted by all historians). The history of the church is the history of God; but it is simultaneously the history of man.

David, then, was a rogue of the highest order. Not only did he jump into bed with one of soldier’s wives for a night of pleasure instead of being out there on the front line of combat fighting alongside him, but he also tricked poor Uriah, betrayed him, manipulated him, played mind games with him, got him drunk and ultimately, murdered. Unbelievable! So much for holy King David!

The moral of 2 Samuel 11 is that the poor Hittite Uriah had more ethical marrow in his bones than the Lord’s anointed. What a tragedy! Israel’s greatest king was a bloody manipulating adulterer. And in spite of being designated a man ‘according to God’s heart’, David’s name will be associated with such astonishing atrocities until kingdom come.

That is the reason why Bathsheba’s name would have sent shockwaves across the primitive Christian church. The early believers (and especially the Jewish ones) would have realized that the Messiah’s bloodline descended from a dirty pair of fornicators. How would you feel telling everybody your parents were a pair of porn stars? Matthew must have been an awfully stupid or an awfully brave man to write what he did.

In all honesty, however, I don’t think he was either stupid or brave. I just think he was a Holy Ghost filled man, and that’s what made all the difference.

The Holy Spirit guided Matthew to mention the name of Bathsheba so that God’s church could understand the power of Jesus’ saving grace. Christmas is not a message of holy men and holy women; it is a message of vile men and vile women in desperate need of redeeming love and pardon from a holy Father who sends His holy Son to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew’s genealogy tells us that no one is beyond the grace of God Almighty. If God can forgive Bathsheba, He could sure forgive a lot of people. But if He could forgive scheming and manipulative King David, then He can forgive absolutely anyone.

Christmas tells us that as long as there’s Jesus, there’s hope. Jesus the only holy man: the holy man who draws near to the incestuous, weeps with the prostitutes and shows grace to the pagans.

If you’ve understood the depths of all that, what else could you possibly want for Christmas?

Merry Jesusmas and a Happy New Year!