Skeltons in the Closet
Our Community of Faith, Love, & Hope is geared up for the month of Advent. It seems that every year we are drawn back to Matthew’s account.
In the first six verses of the New Testament [Matthew 1:1-6] we find the names of four women. Their names are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. A number of years ago I heard a friend refer to them as “skeletons in the closet.� For many centuries people in Christendom would have preferred to keep them in the closet, so to speak, and not have to deal with their appearance here in the lineage of Jesus the Christ. I have often asked the question, “What is going on here?� Upon reviewing their unusual and scandalous stories in the Old Testament [Tamar – Genesis 38; Rahab – Joshua 2; Ruth – Book of Ruth; and Bathsheba – 1st Samuel 11] . . . I am led to ask, “Why did Matthew included these names?�
Throughout the years a number of notable theologians have tried to make sense of their inclusion in the opening paragraph of the ‘Gospel According to Matthew.’ In the Fourth Century St. Jerome concluded that Matthew included them because they were all sinners. Therefore, the Good News is that Christ died for sinners just like these women. That might be true, but what about the men in the passage? Weren’t they sinners as well?
Martin Luther looked at these names and stated, “Tamar and Rahab are Canaanites, Ruth is a Moabite, and Bathsheba is a Hittite. Yes, Christ died for sinners, but he also died for foreign sinners.� For Luther the passage was about missions. He felt that Matthew 28 and Matthew 1 are ‘brackets’ around the gospel. The Great Commission states to go into all the world . . . and the first paragraph of Matthew tells us who all the world was at the time – Canaanites, Moabites, Hittites, and Jews.
We can take this one step further, for Jesus Christ’s earthly side can teach us so much! If the mothers and grandmothers in Jesus’ family tree were Canaanite, Moabite, Hittite, and Jew, then Jesus was indeed the mixed racial Savior of the world and this is indeed Good News! I believe that Jesus not only shed His blood for the world on the cross; He got his blood from the world. This is Good News for a world torn by race, a world torn by class, a world torn by all kinds of schism, paternalism, and feelings of superiority. Jesus Christ came and died for ALL of us. I thank God that Jesus Christ is color blind, class blind, gender blind, etc.  God’s Word tells us that “He came unto his own.� Jesus Christ knows who we are! For in a manger, two thousand years ago He became “one of us!� We must never forget this. It is my prayer that this Advent season you might thank God for sending His Son and embrace the love, forgiveness, and new life that He offers even to “skeletons in the closet.�