When we hear such a group of names ending with the birth of “Jesus who is the Messiah”. We might normally think, “what a fantastic family tree of truly great and wonderful people”, // we would be way wrong. An understanding of this error, I feel, might provide us valuable insight into how the Lord can work in our lives and the life of the Church.
One of the prime examples of both greatness and human weakness in the ancestry of Jesus; is King David himself. We have heard of Israel’s “golden age” under the rule of King David. And how King David was a major contributor in preparing the land and people for the coming of the Messiah. But his life, along with many others, in the history of Israel had some dark parts.
The story goes that King David had an affair with a general’s wife named Bathsheba. The general’s name, as we heard in the gospel, was Uriah. Bathsheba became pregnant and King David tried to cover it up by calling Uriah home to “spend some time with his wife”. // Uriah, being the good leader of men, decided if his men couldn’t spend time with their wives he wouldn’t either and he spent the nights sleeping outside his house on the ground. // That failing, King David arranged that Uriah take up a position in battle that he would surely get him killed. Uriah did get killed and King David took Bathsheba as his wife.
Stories do not excuse bad actions, but can provide us with insight that our lives and the lives of those around us can be a combination of superior and dreadful actions that the Lord uses both for the greater good of all.
So, when we hear of these extremes it should not hinder us or cause us to lose heart in our faith, the words we have all heard before might serve us well, “when the going gets tough the tough get going”. Simple for us, as people of faith, we continue to practice our faith with even firmer resolve and trust that the Lord will continue to bring us good/// even out of the errors of man.