Imagine, you are in the Superbowl. You are down by four points, but your offensive is on the field with only a few minutes left in the game. The opportunity of a lifetime – you can win this game and the championship, but you are ninety yards away from the game-winning—no, Championship-winning—touchdown. After executing a punishing running game, you are driving down the field and find yourself at the 1-yard line! One yard away from victory! Then, for whatever reason, your coach calls for a pass instead of the run! Being the team player that you are, you call a pass play and, to your horror, it is intercepted! The game is over, and you lost! I know such a scenario is difficult to imagine but try as hard as you can—sorry Seahawk fans!
As tragic as that ending is in a professional football game, can you imagine if it happened in the fulfillment of OT promises? Believe it or not, the ending of Jesus’s genealogy sort of has that kind of feeling! We will see that Genesis 3:15 is the focus of Matthew’s attention. As we approach the very end of Old Testament promises, we are called to reconsider once again the beginning. And when it looked as those the Lord may have forgotten this all-important passage, so we will see that He did not. Therefore, the end of this genealogy is the greatest moment in the history of salvation. Why? Because Matthew tells us Jesus is THE True Seed of the woman of Genesis 3:15.
Five Unusual Elements (A Review)
Just to put this in context, we discussed how Jesus’s genealogy has features that make it fairly normal. There are, however, several unexpected elements. We have identified four thus far. First, the inclusion of women was unexpected. Again, not odd, just unexpected, only because it broke up with literary pattern of the genealogy. Second, these women may all have been Gentiles and believers. Given the ethnic setting of the Matthew’s gospel, this diverse background would definitely have been unexpected. Their faith in the Lord demonstrates that the gospel of Christ is for all. Third, the inclusion of Manasseh was surprising, given his deplorable depiction and fault for the exile in 2 Kings. Fourth, Bathsheba is called the “wife of Uriah,” which churns up the most depraved time in the life of David.
There is a fifth surprising element in Jesus’s genealogy—the inclusion of Mary his mother.
Mary, “of whom Jesus was born”
Why is the inclusion of Mary so odd? Well, the genealogy has been following a patronymic line (through the line of men). If you look at the names that progresses from one generation to the next, all these names are men. The women mentioned earlier are additions; the genealogy does not continue through them. All that changes with Mary. Notice that the patronymic ends with Mary. If Jesus is to come into the world, it will be through Mary. The text itself seems to support this. In verse 16, when Mary is introduced, it specifically states that Mary is “of whom Jesus was born.” Another way to make my point here is to state what the text does NOT say. It does NOT say that Joseph was “the father of Jesus,” which would have followed the literary pattern of the genealogy. In fact, according to Matthew 1:20, we know that Joseph could not be the father of Jesus because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, he was not conceived of Joseph. The best that Joseph can be for Jesus is “the husband of Mary.” Of course, this raises a most critical question: if Jesus is not the son of Joseph, then how can He be the “son of David,” “the son of Abraham”? Returning to our original Superbowl illustration, did the Lord just drive for millennia, through the entire history of the covenants only to throw an interception at the 1 yard line? Well….OF COURSE NOT!!! Why? Because of Mary.
As I suggested, Mary is a vital member of the genealogy. Recall that verse 17 segments the history from Abraham to Christ into three groups of fourteen generations: 14 from Abraham to David; 14 from David to the Exile; 14 from the Exile to Christ. In that third group, remember Joseph cannot be counted as part of that group’s number of fourteen since he is not in the genealogical line. The only way to preserve the fourteen generations is to count Mary. This must mean that Mary was a Judean woman thus preserving the Davidic and Abrahamic lines. This is the conclusion that John Calvin makes when he states: “Christ was begotten of Mary. From this, it follows that he took it as generally acknowledged that Mary was related to Joseph” (see his Institutes 2.12, 480).
Pause and Think
Now, let me encourage you to stop and ponder this point for a moment. If you think about it, this is what we should have been expecting all along. Remember that the Lord promised in Genesis 3:15 that the Messianic Champion of God’s people would be born of a woman, not begotten of a man. It is easy to lose sight of this since every genealogy in Holy Scripture, from Genesis through Exodus, Ruth, Kings and Chronicles, is a patronymic line. Remarkably, this means that the redemptive helix of generations comes to its highest crescendo with a woman, Mary. Thus, by bringing Jesus’s genealogy to a conclusion with Mary, Matthew is finally proclaiming that the foretold and triumphant Seed of the woman is here!
But we know more about Mary than this! We do know that she was a “relative of Elizabeth” (Luke 1:36). We also know that Elizabeth came from the priestly family of Aaron (Luke 1:16). So, there would be more connections for Jesus with Aaron than with David. Therefore, He has a close family connection with Aaron than with David. By having a mother who is both Judean and Levite (line of Aaron), we see in her son, Jesus Christ, a king (who is greater than David) and a priest (who is greater than Aaron—from the order of Melchizedek, cf. Heb 7:10-11).
Of course, in order to bring this narrative to a completion, we cannot leave out the divine personality of this Son—something which Matthew brings out in 1:18-23 when he mentions Jesus’s conception by the Holy Spirit, the allusion to the child “Immanuel” in Isa 7:14, even the name “Jesus,” which means “Yahweh [referring to the child] will save his people” from their sins (v.21). See my blog on this, “The Gospel in the name ‘Jesus.'” https://redeemingchillingworth.com/2020/12/02/the-gospel-in-the-name-of-jesus/:
Therefore, as a king, He will be the Ruler of all creation. As a priest, not only will He offer sacrifices but He will Himself be a sacrifice for the sins of His people. As the God-Man, He will receive worship and bring the final death-blow to the dragon-serpent, sin, and death.
And in union with Christ, we will also be priest-kings (1 Pet 2:9), who are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17), who await the glory of the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:1-4).
Not bad for a genealogy. Not bad at all!
Redeeming Chillingworth 