The 'Not So' Holy Family

The Not So Holy Family

Jesus Had Scandalous Family Members 

Matthew begins his Gospel with a lengthy geneaology for Jesus. He chose to include, in the family tree of Jesus, names of women and men whose past was a bit sordid and a little sketchy. He didn't hide them because he was trying to show us that Jesus identifies with sinners so much that he is willing to be their descendant. ”God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

Out of the five women Matthew included in Jesus’s genealogy, four aren’t even Jewish. The only Jewish woman is his mother Mary who was from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David. The family of God has always been universal in that it included both Gentiles and Jews, royalty and no-name foreigners, people of great virtue and terrible sinners.

Tamar

Jesus’s ancestor, Tamar, mentioned in Matthew 1:3, was in abusive relationships. She married a bunch of losers.Tamar’s first husband was so wicked that the Lord put him to death. Her second husband committed sexual sins with her and he too was punished. She also appeared to be a prostitute and was paid to have relations with her father-in-law which led to a hidden pregnancy.

Rahab

Rahab, mentioned in Matthew 1:5 as an ancestor of Jesus, was a prostitute who ran a brothel in the city of Jericho. “And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there” (Joshua 2:1). She became a traitor to her people by aiding the Israelites in their defeat of the city. She then married into a Jewish tribe. “But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.” (Joshua 6:25).

Ruth

Ruth, mentioned in Matthew 1:5, came from an incestuous family. As a Moabite, she traced her ancestry, not to Abraham but to his nephew Lot the guy who impregnated his own daughters. Even though she was a foreigner, she eventually married a good Jewish man named Boaz. They went on to become and she became the great grandparents of king David.  

David

In Matthew 1:1, Jesus is referred to as the Son of David. Yet David had an illicit affair with a married woman and then conspired to have him killed in battle. “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites” ( 2 Sam 12:9). 

Me and You

At mass when the priest leads us into saying the Lord’s prayer he says, ‘Jesus taught us to call God our Father, and so we have the courage to say’,  'Our Father'…”. This is really a courageous statement to make. Where do we (weak, error prone, morally deviant creatures) get off calling the Almighty Creator our Father? 

It’s because of Baptism. “Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte "a new creature," an adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature," member of Christ and co-heir with him and a temple of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1265). 

We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish because we were destined to be adopted as God’s own children. As Peter wrote,  "Once you were 'no people' but now you are God's people” (1 Pet 2:10). As Catholics, we weren’t born into the family of God, we were re-born into it through baptism. 

It’s appropriate to consider how amazing this gift is. To be included in the family of God ought to provoke in us a sense of unworthiness. Even when we sin and reject that gift of adoption, the spiritual character of Baptism (which says we belong to Christ) remains. Once a child of God, always a child of God. There’s no reverse adoption. We have free will and God respects that but God will never disown us. Instead, he offers a way back into his divine life and grace through Reconciliation. 

Of course we are unworthy to be in the family. That’s the whole point of appreciating Jesus being our Savior and our Redeemer. As Christ said, “I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners” (Lk 5:32). I think the evangelist Matthew made this point in a very subtle way. Hidden in the first seventeen verses of his gospel are a bunch of sketchy family members of Jesus' genealogy. 

Matthew chapter 1:1-17 can almost be considered a guide for our own examination of conscience...

Like Jesus' ancestors, have I been deceitful or unfaithful? Have I conspired against others? Have I destroyed the reputation of others? Have I doubted the goodness of God? Have I engaged in sexual immorality? Have I used others? Have I disregarded the dignity of others in my thoughts, words or actions? 

When you consider the many sins of Jesus’ ancestors, and compare them to your own, can you see the family resemblance? That’s right, because of your Baptism, this is your dysfunctional family too.