Sunday before the Nativity

Matthew 1:1-25
Hebrew 11:9-10; 32-40

On the Sunday before the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Church presents us with the opening chapter of the Holy Gospel According to Matthew: ‘The Book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham’.

The long list of names that follows, so often overlooked by readers, is much more than St Matthew’s attempt to prove our Lord’s Messianic pedigree. Rather, it presents us with men and women of faith, and specifically men and women who lived in expectation of the coming of God’s salvation.

Our Lord tells us that, ‘Many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them’ (Luke 10:24). David, the Prophet-King, expresses this intense longing for the coming of Christ in his Psalms, saying, ‘My soul fainteth for Thy salvation; on Thy words have I set my hope. Mine eyes are grown dim with waiting for Thine oracle; they say: When wilt Thou comfort me?’ (Psalm 118:81-82).

This list of names, then, invites us to consider what it means for us to live in a world where the Lord’s salvation is no longer a future hope, but an act already accomplished. Our God is not a distant abstraction, but Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. The separation between God and man is ended, the power of evil is vanquished, the Gates of Paradise are reopened, while those of death and Hades lie broken. Today, as at every Divine Liturgy, the Almighty Creator of the Universe lovingly grants us participation of His very Body and Blood under the humble forms of bread and wine, distributed to the faithful by the frail hands of his unworthy servants. 

We, as Christians, as members of the Church of the New Testament, are granted an intimacy with God that not only far exceeds what the men and women of today’s Gospel reading longed for, but to which even the Angels of heaven “stoop down with longing” to see and hear (Cf. 5th Prayer of the Service of Holy Unction).

Today’s Gospel reading thus confronts us with a question: do we live as if we are indeed the beloved children of God, the friends of Christ, members of His Body, and living temples of the Holy Spirit? Or have we allowed familiarity to breed contempt, and live as if we are still subject to bondage, fearing death and doubting God’s promises? If the latter is true, as it perhaps is for many of us, how do we attain to the former?

The genealogy does not leave us without an answer. Behind every name listed is a story, and each of these stories teach us how to make the truth of God’s promise perceptible to us. From Abraham, for example, we learn trust. We see the need for renunciation as the first step of every spiritual journey — ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee’ (Gen. 12:1) — and how we should be ready to give up and sacrifice even our deepest attachments and that which we hold most dear (Gen. 22) so that love for God can reign in our hearts (cf. Vil. 3:15). From his grandson Jacob, who wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, we learn the need for perseverance in prayer, to not abandon our struggle until we have received the consolation of grace; saying to the Lord, ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me’ (32:26). From Rahab, we learn the value of kindness. Though a sinful woman and a harlot, her act of compassion towards those in danger earned her not only the forgiveness of sins, but the honour of being an ancestor of Christ. From David we learn the power of repentance. Though guilty of the double sin of murder and adultery, his repentance was such that God called him ‘a man after His own heart’ (1 Kingdoms 13:14). While the fruit of his sin had been death (2 Kingdoms 2:18), the fruit of his repentance was glory (12:24). Others, like Zerubbabel, give us the hope of return, the renewal of our spiritual faculties and rebuilding of our relationship with God (Ezra 3). 

Every name has a story, guiding us to that ‘name which is above every name’ (Phil. 2:9). Let us contemplate and draw inspiration from each one, so that we can truly celebrate the Nativity of the Lord as the fulfilment of their hope and the source of ours.

Fr Kristian Akselberg