Today we are celebrating the Sunday before the Nativity, the Sunday of the Holy Fathers, and, as it is also called sometimes, the Sunday of the Holy Genealogy [ʤiːnɪˈæləʤɪ].

And today’s Gospel according to St. Mathew chapter 1 verse 1-25 (especially the first part) is read only ones a year.

This Gospel passage consists of two parts. The first one is the genealogy or the family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second part is the description of the actual birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary.

We are right before the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, therefore it tells us a lot about what we are going to celebrate pretty soon.

However, why is the first part included into the reading? the Christ’s family tree? Do we really need to hear all of those names today, that are so hard to even pronounce?

Was it so important for us and all the other Orthodox faithful of the Church to hear all those names in the Churches on the Sunday before the Nativity?

It wasn’t easy for Evangelist Mathew to put together this genealogy. He had to have research done, and he did it well.

We may think he did that for historical purposes. It is a good thing to leave behind for the next generations. Nice thoughtful idea, but that was not the main purpose for writing this down.

There are several reasons why it was so important for St. Mathew to put together Christ’s family tree.

He did that in order to prove to certain unbelievers that Jesus Christ is indeed long promised and long-awaited Messiah. As we know, in the Old Testament God communicated with His chosen people through prophets, and through them God promised to send a Savior, who would be born from the knee of King David.

In the book of the prophet Jeremiah 23:5 we read “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.”

And Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.”

And this genealogy [ʤiːnɪˈæləʤɪ] proves that Jesus Christ (his human person) indeed came out from the knee of King David. Born in Bethlehem, from the Virgin and the star appeared above the place where He was born. All of this is from the Old Testament promise about the coming of Messiah. And Jesus Christ truly has fulfilled the prophesy.

Also, reading of Jesus Christ’s lineage [ˈlɪnɪɪʤ] from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Church shows us that Christ truly became man, taking on human nature.  He was not a ghost, an apparition, a myth, or the abstract god of philosophers, and He did not just seem to be man.

This idea will soon be reinforced by the Great Feast of Circumcision…

Finally, St. Mathew put together Christ’s lineage [ˈlɪnɪɪʤ] in order to show us faithful, the reality of the family tree from which Jesus Christ was born. All of those names were real people. What is taken into consideration here is that they were all different people. Some were rich and royal as King David some were poor as Joseph and Mary. Some were holy and some were sinful, very sinful people: adulterers and murderers.

Different people. A whole bouquet [buːˈkeɪ] of personalities.

Couldn’t God pick a better family tree for His Son to be born? Or did the Evangelist omit some details? A family tree that would fit His image as Messiah, as Savior of the world. No! This family tree with all the holy people and the worst sinners, rich and poor fits perfectly.

Christ comes among sinful people, for sinful people. He comes among the sick with sin and heals them all. “Healthy do not need the doctor, but who are sick.” The great words of Mathew 9:12. (Matthew’s Gospel)

Jesus Christ comes to the world as the savior and healer, not as a conqueror of humanity. He puts upon Himself human flesh in order to cleanse it from the corruption of the sin of Adam and Eve. This is why He becomes man, really human — to purify the human body. He comes to the earth bringing peace and love, bringing freedom from sin, bringing hope., giving them, and giving us, forgiveness and a second chance. Amen!