Family relationships are very complicated. Is that not stating the obvious?! Well, Jesus’s genealogy shows some of that as well. We already looked at the inclusion of a few women, which was mildly unexpected. That isn’t the truly odd thing. There are two more curious names included in His genealogy that is very curious. A proper understanding of these names gives Jesus’s genealogy a continual momentum. We saw that He is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, and the Messiah for All Nations. Now we see that He is also the Messiah, the Christ for All Sinners.
What is Manasseh doing there?
The first of the two curious inclusions is Manasseh. Those familiar with Manasseh might ask “what is he doing there in Jesus’s genealogy?” Manasseh was the father of Josiah. Whenever Josiah received his convictions for Deuteronomic orthodoxy, we know for certain he did not get that from his father. Manasseh reigned in Judah for a long 55 years. During that time, he was despicable, idolatrous, and immoral. According to 2 Kings 21, he rebuilt pagan worship centers that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, which re-established Baalism (v.3). He even built false alters in the temple of the Lord (v.4)! He offered his son as a sacrifice and sought out false diviners instead of seeking out the word of the Lord from prophets (v.6). He did more wickedness than the Canaanites who lived in the land previously (v.11). Remember that he reigned for 55 year! 55 years of this kind of ungodliness had a devastating impact. As great as the reforms of Josiah were, they could not undo the spiritual damage that Manasseh brought. This is why 2 Kings 24:3, ultimately, blames the exile of the southern kingdom on Manasseh. Yet, there he is, in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
According to Matthew 1:17, the genealogy of Christ is divided into 3 groups of 14 generations: 14 from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Exile, 14 from the Exile to Christ. To create this schematic, Matthew had to skip generations. Therefore, the “father”/“son” language can stretch to skip a generation or two, yet still be considered a “father”/”son” relationship. In other words, he could have left Manasseh out! In fact, Matthew 1:11 mentions the “three brothers” of Jechoniah. Why not include one of those three instead? Why not Jehoiachin? Though he was considered a wicked king (2 Kgs 24:9), he is an important reminder of the continued blessing of the Davidic covenant at the end of 2 Kings 25:27-30?
Bathsheba or the “wife of Uriah”?
The second odd reference is to Bathsheba, i.e., the mother of Solomon. We know who she is and the Book of Samuel gives a very memorial narrative involving her. Yet, when we get to her in the genealogy, she is not referred by her name “Bathsheba.” Instead, Matthew 1:6 calls her “the wife of Uriah.” Why? Again, we know her name. Even if her name is not authentically Israelite (which is possible), other non-Israelite women appear (e.g. Rahab, Ruth). By using this term, Matthew has poured into Jesus’ genealogy the bulk of 2 Sam, which is a historical record of the sin of David against Bathsheba. Although many take his sin to be adultery, it was probably much worse than that. If we take Nathan’s third-person rebuke to heart in 2 Samuel 12, then it is debatable whether Bathsheba consented to David. Secular kings did not ask for permission, nor did they set aside their fleshy lusts. What they want, they got. Deuteronomic kings, however, were to be unlike those “like all the nations.” At that instance, David was not following the instructions of Deuteronomy. Instead, he embraced the sinful desires of secular kings. Thus, his sin was much more violent than adultery.
This Bathsheba event resulted in her pregnancy, which led to the premeditative murder of Uriah. This, in turn, led to the rebellion of Absalom. The portrait of David in the Book of Samuel is rather tragic. He was taken out of obscurity and divinely blessed by the Lord and enthroned as king over all Israel (1 Sam 16-31). The one thing that Samuel spends the most time describing in detail is not his successes, but rather his covenantal collapse (2 Sam 11-21). If the Book of Samuel was the only ancient source we had on David, I hardly think we would have seen him as the gold standard for all kings. In fact, 1 Kings 15:5 tells us that David was truly a faithful king, “except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
What does this tell us?
By including Manasseh and Bathsheba as “the wife of Uriah,” it reminds the church that Jesus’ own family was filled with sinners. Even those whom you may hold in the highest regard (David) are no different than the worst of sinners (Manasseh). This is why we need Christ and the redemption that comes in Him.
Returning to Manasseh, 2 Chronicles gives a different picture of Manasseh. Yes, he did all the evils mentioned in Kings. But Chronicles also tells us that he repented “and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (2 Kgs 24:12-13). In fact, “he prayed” to the Lord. And the Lord “was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God” (2 Chr. 33:12-13).
What is the lesson in all this? Sin is damaging, but Jesus is greater! As His people, like Manasseh, we are called to confess and repent of our sins. This is one reason why a time of confession should be part of our Lord’s Day worship, even part of our daily lives. It reminds us that every sin we commit is egregious, but the Gospel is greater than the worst of sinners and the worst of sins. Times of repentance reminds us that all our sins have been already paid for by Christ on the cross. So, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
The Christ of All the Nations is also the Christ for All Sinners. This is why we love Him. This is why it is Him we Proclaim (cf. Col 1:28, great book on preaching by Dennis Johnson). When our people come into worship on any given Sunday riddled with guilt from sins of the previous week, what else are we supposed to preach other than Christ? We certainly cannot tell them to have their Best Life Now! It is incumbent upon pastors to preach Christ because our people need to hear the redemption that can only be found in Him and how “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). If the church will not preach Christ, no one will because we are the only institution on earth that is called to do so. That makes the church the most important institution on the earth!
More than that, this is what we love. Pastors are called to preach Christ not merely because this is what we are supposed to do, not merely because this is what we need to do. We preach Christ because this is what we want to do. Praise God for Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Praise God for Jesus, the Christ for All Nations, the Christ for all Sinners.
Not bad for a genealogy!
Redeeming Chillingworth 