On this day
before Christmas Eve, we read all the begots at the beginning of Matthew’s
Gospel: “Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and
his brethren…” and so on until we get to Joseph, “the husband of Mary—of whom
Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.” The point of the genealogy, for
Matthew, was to show that by Joseph’s adoption, Jesus was a descendant of
Abraham, and of King David. His legacy is infinitely rich in the promise God
made to Abraham, “All the families of the earth will be blessed because of you”
(Genesis 12:3): and in the promise made to David, “Your dynasty and your kingdom will be secured forever before me. Your throne will be established
forever” (2nd Samuel 7:16).
But there is
another legacy that Jesus inherited: “David was the father, whose mother had
been the wife of Uriah.” Her name was Bath-Sheba, whom David saw bathing, and being
the King, took what he wanted. Then when she became pregnant, David arranged to
have her husband Uriah killed in battle. Jesus inherited that legacy, of lust
and betrayal. He also inherited the legacy of David’s successors, whose misrule
and injustice eventually led to the destruction of their dynasty, the city of
Jerusalem.
We all have
a legacy. When we joke that we’re a “recovering” this or that, we testify to
the legacy that continues to have a hold of us, even when we ignore it or try
to escape it. But we also have the legacy of having been created by God, and of
being uniquely gifted by God in many ways. Jesus the anointed Christ of God, and
adopted son of Joseph, knows what it is to have a conflicted legacy. Rather than
run from his legacy, he embraced it, understood it, and then transcended it.
May Jesus
Christ help you to understand your legacy, the good and the bad, and in
understanding it, transcending it.
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