Ever wondered why those genealogies are in the Bible? Yeah, me too. I’ll admit; it’s kinda hard to understand how these big long lists of random names and who begat who could really be “God-breathed and…useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

But today I was reading the genealogy of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s gospel. And a few things struck me. First, Matthew lists five women in the genealogy of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (“the wife of Uriah”), and Mary. Very unusual move for a patriarchal society. We all know Jesus had a revolutionary attitude toward women. I think it’s just cool that Matthew makes a point to acknowledge the role these women played in His lineage.

But another thing struck me about these women: with the exception of Mary, they’re all Gentiles. Tamar, the Canaanite wife of Judah’s eldest son, Er; Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute from Jericho; Ruth, a Moabite; and Bathsheba, an Israelite who married a Hittite, which would’ve made her a Gentile according to later rabbinic law. All of these women are Gentiles, all outsiders when it comes to God’s special covenant relationship with Israel. Yet, as Matthew affirms, Jesus’ very birth is an act of identifying with these outsiders. In fact, Matthew is the Gospel writer that explicitly interprets Isaiah 7 in light of the Christ event: Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us”. He’s born to outsiders in order to reconcile us back to the Father. After his birth, his family flees to Egypt to avoid Herod’s threat. Upon their return, they choose to settle in “Galilee of the Gentiles (Matt. 4:15)” in a little backwater village called Nazareth. Once again, Matthew makes the point clear: this is no ivory tower, silver spoon Messiah. He willfully inserts Himself into the messy reality of human existence.

He is God with us.

God of the outsiders.

He became one of us.

That’s my Jesus.