four women

Scripture;  Gospel of Matthew 1.

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

Observation:
Matthew starts his gospel with this geneology. It connects Jesus, son of Mary, to some important characters in the Old testament:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah.  Four women whose stories of sexual exploitation, rape, or foreign marriage for security were well known "sins of the fathers".  From Judah to David, the Messiah's line was riddled with questionable sexual ethics.  There were good men and wicked men, good kings and bad kings listed as his ancestors.  You can read their stories in Genesis, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and Ruth.  This ancestral history  connects Jesus to royalty, to priesthood, and to Abraham the founder of Israelite faith.   It also connects him to exploitation, abuse, and shame.  The women in Jesus' story matter.

Application:
Jesus' story is a family story.   But among all the men in the biblical history, it is the women who stand out here. Why?  Jesus' own parentage was questioned.  Who was his "real" father?  Was his mother a rape victim or a whore?  When we look back at Abraham and David, we see that the great ancestors of the faith came from a messy family; one that included sexual violence, marital infidelity, and mixed racial/ethnic marriage.  (Ruth was not Jewish).   Jesus' kingship comes through the human family---full of sin, corruption and brokenness.  Our royal status as children of God  is not granted to us because of our purity or our goodness.  It is bestowed on us as a blessing or gift.  But, as we will see with Jesus, the royal identity comes with responsibilities.  We are called as God's children to act out of our identity, to use our God-given authority to recognize and serve the vulnerable and the exploited. Jesus' own family history taught him that all God's children are beloved, even the rotten ones.  And that God can transform a family from one generation to the next.  And mothers are sacred. Patriarchy is disrupted by the presence of these women, including Mary the mother of the Lord.   

Prayer     
God, the human family is imperfect.  We see that Jesus' family story included sexual exploitation, rape, and coercion.  We pray for victims of sexual violence and abuse;we pray for women and children who are forced into marriages or sold as slaves. And we ask that you bring healing and an end to family cycles of abuse.  Amen.