The Gospel According to Matthew Week 1
Happy Thanksgiving! What a beautiful way to start a new Sabbath School Study the week of Thanksgiving. We each have so much to be thankful for. I hope you have had a wonderful time with family and friends and that you have a wonderful holiday season.
This study is on the book of Matthew. During this study we will be trying to answer the question, "who am I?' This is a question that most of us spend much of our life trying to answer. We use titles and our chosen profession to determine who we are. We use our successes and our failures to define who we are. We use our family, our friends and even our church. After all if I were to describe myself it would be...
Well let me wait on that for now and ask the question, "How do you define yourself?'
In the last several years I have been asked to write a bio for one reason or another. Length and content was often dictated by the person(s) asking for it. Today I am going to ask that you not write a bio but a list. I love lists. Lists often help define things. I once wrote a list of who our family was for my grandparents 50th wedding annniversary. It went something like this..
We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends and lovers. We are doctors, nurses, teachers, preachers, builders, artists, students, designers, and musicians. We love food, hiking, dancing, napping, laughing, playing golf, sitting in the sun, and running in competition and just for fun. We are athletes, couch potatoes, movie buffs and concert givers.
And so on and so forth. It was pages long. Just lists. Lists say a lot.
So today I would like to you make a list of who our class is.
We are....
each person write down 5 things that help define who you are. Pick something that we may not know about you. It can be things you love or hate, your status or just your joys. Then turn it in and let's read it as one long continuous list of who our class is.
Who are we?
As a class who are we?
Now read:
Matthew 1: 1-17
What does this list tell you about Jesus?
Genealogy is fascinating. Chris and I are in NYC and today took the Ferry to Ellis Island. The Island is so important because it helps to answer for so many people who they are. It helps them know if family members came over on ships and if so at what age etc.
This list tells us that Jesus had some famous people in his lineage. He also had some no name people. Perhaps most notable is the fact that there are 4 woman named.
In the book, "Matthew: the Gospel of Identity" Micheal Card writes, "Four of those named in the genealogy would have caused a momentary distraction, not simply because there are references to women, who were normally not listed in genealogical records, but primarily because of who these women were. Tamar (Mt 1?3) deceived her father-in-law, Judah, who, thinking she was a prostitute, slept with her (Gen. 38: 11-18). Rahab (Mt 1:5), though she helped Joshua's spies in Jericho, actually was a prostitute. Ruth (Mt 1:6) was the Moabite who married the kind and elderly Boaz. And though she is only referred to in the genealogy as "Uriah's wife" (Mt 1:6), Bathsheba was the beautiful Hittite whom David seduced."
Why is this interesting?
Did these women all have impeccable reputations/ characters?
Is that important?
Perhaps even more notable is the fact that these women were not from the right side of the tracts. They were not Jews. Lineage was very important to the people in Jesus time, perhaps it still is for us today. After all I will never be the queen of England no matter how hard I work, and to be president in this country you have to have a certain place of birth. Lineage still matters and it mattered even more then. So....what does it say that the KING of the JEWS had these woman as part of His lineage?
Matthew throughout this book will share the importance of Jesus being for the Jews and the Gentiles. He starts that theme right here in the beginning. Yes these woman were not perfect women but neither were the men, however most notable is that they are not Jewish.
Jesus is here for all and he came from both Jew and Gentile.
I see three things that are interesting and say something for us today about this genealogy.
1. Even woman were mentioned. Matthew was writing about who this amazing Jesus was and he could have easily hid the fact that these particular individuals were part of Jesus' genealogy because woman weren't included normally, but he included them. The women, the lowest of the low. They were still mentioned.
* You matter! No matter how small society tries to make you feel, YOU MATTER! Not only do you matter but there is a place for you in HIS family! After all He is ONE OF YOU!
2. Sinners, and not just any sinners, prostitutes were included.
* No matter how you slice it we classify sins. We make some sins worse then others and frankly there are many around this table who I'm sure have committed some of those unspeakable sins, or you know someone who has. Even those of us who are ugly sinners (as if any sin is pretty, all though we do make some of it pretty don't we?) there is a place for us in HIS family! After all HE is ONE of YOU!
3. Gentiles, those who are not "God's people" were intentionally included.
* If your heritage is Jew, Gentile, Catholic, Baptist, Adventist or Buddhist, there is a place for you in the family of God, after all HE is ONE OF YOU!
We are apart of the family! We can be apart of his Genealogy of HIS family if we just ask.
So who are you?
You can be part of HIS FAMILY!!!! There is room for you!
CHALLENGE: This week I have been spending time with my brother. It is sooooo good to see family! There is something so special about seeing someone from your family! I have to admit I have a deeper love for him. He is my brother! Someone special to me. This week lets look at those we come in contact with as our brothers and sisters! They are HIS children and we are HIS child so that makes them our FAMILY! Let's treat each other and all we come in contact with an open heart, understanding they are part of HIS family!!!!!
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