A Royal Mess

So why does Matthew include these women? In a genealogy, which typically only has men, and which sometimes excluded men of questionable character? And in a genealogy of the Son of God ... seems like it would be easy to get left out of that one. And yet, there they are, scandalous women... but wait, we only mentioned four. Who is the fifth woman mentioned in the genealogy? Matthew 1:16 "...and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah." Woman number 5: Mary, the mother of Jesus, and no less scandalous if you think about it. Her story must have sounded crazy. I'm pregnant, but don't worry ... Yahweh is the father. What? Perhaps Matthew was showing that for those who were put off or taken back by her story, Jesus has descended from a long line of crazy stories. The royal line that brought Messiah into the world was a royal mess. Don't let Mary's scandal scare you ... it's nothing new, except this time, it was only apparent scandal. Perhaps Matthew was also reminding us that Jesus has descended from humans, very human humans, scandalous humans ... the very humans He came to save.