Day 1: A Lot of Dudes, An Unexpected Dude, & The New Exodus

As Gary and I document our thoughts on the gospel texts over the next 40 days, the style of my writing will undoubtedly vary from day to day. Sometimes I will write a quick synopsis of the day's readings. Sometimes I will choose one particular verse, passage, or section to focus on. And sometimes, like today, I will record a number of short, quick bullet-point-like thoughts on different parts of the text. Ok...enough intro...let's get to it!

A Lot of Dudes

I've read and befriended too many feminist and liberation theologians throughout my life to be able to read through the genealogy of Jesus and not note the small number of women included in this list. Now I realize that this was a patriarchal society that did not make much space for a woman's voice, but still, that's a lot of dudes in that list. Our current church culture is getting better at listening to women and respecting them as leaders, but I would still encourage us to honor the wisdom, strength, and capabilities of the women around us and to fight for them to have increasing opportunities to lead and be vocal in the church.

An Unexpected Dude

Speaking of dudes, however, there is one guy who shows up in the genealogy of Jesus who you would typically not expect to be named. That man is Uriah (he shows up in Matthew 1:6). Uriah was Bathsheba's husband when King David lusted over her, committed adultery with her, and then had Uriah killed to cover up their adulterous love child. Scandalous!

But oddly, the writer of Matthew, a Jew, does not leave Uriah out of the story of Israel, even though he is not in the lineage of Jesus. We are often quick to gloss over or omit our shortcomings, but the writer, here, does not allow us to do that. He forces us to own this dark moment of our past. He makes us face it head on. We must learn how to move on from our mistakes and give ourselves grace, without forgetting or trivializing our past. We must learn how to learn from our shortcomings.

The New Exodus

For years I've heard scholars talk about Jesus as the "New Moses" and his movement as the "New Exodus," but, despite reading this text in Matthew hundreds of times, I've never noticed how Matthew has already begun to frame the story of Jesus as the "New Exodus" (Matthew 2:14-15). The Exodus in the Old Testament is the chief framing story for the people of Israel, and here, Jesus is already being revealed as the "New Moses." Joseph and Mary are forced into Egypt and metaphorically enslaved and imprisoned there until Herod dies. So when they come 'out of Egypt' and return to their land, it is easy to see how Jesus is poised to deliver his people into the "New Promised Land," the Kingdom of God.