Matthew 1:1 Sermon Bible Commentary

From Textus Receptus

Verse 1 Matthew 1:1

Note some points in the genealogy of our Lord.

I. Amongst those whom St. Matthew records as the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, there are only four female names introduced, and they are precisely those four which a merely human historian, anxious to throw in everything which might seem to be to the honour of Christ, and to omit everything which might seem to detract from that honour, would have been desirous to have passed over in silence. The persons whose names are given are Thamar, Rahab, Ruth (a Moabitess), and Bathsheba. One thing is clear, that there was no thought in St. Matthew's mind of throwing any false lights upon his Lord's history and character; and another thought might have been in his mind, which led him to set down these names,—the wonderful manner in which God brings His own purposes about by means which seem at first sight to be as little conducive to them as possible, how through the apparent confusion of history, blotted by human sin, the thread of His providence remained unbroken, and connected him to whom the promises were made with Him who was the promised seed.

II. Jesus is declared by St. Matthew to be the Son of David, and therefore a member of the royal tribe of Judah, not of the priestly tribe of Levi. Christ came as a priest, but more particularly He came as a king; that which He preached from the first was a kingdom.

III. The genealogies both of St. Matthew and St. Luke trace the descent of our Lord, not through Mary His mother, but through Joseph, His reputed father. The lineage of Joseph would be legally the lineage of Jesus, his reputed Son, and on that account the Evangelists could not well have done otherwise than give his pedigree and not that of Mary; and yet it cannot but appear remarkable, that the lineage of our Lord should be in fact no lineage at all, that, like His type Melchisedec, He should be without descent. The great fact in the lineage of Christ is not that He was the Son of David, but that He was the Son of man.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 183.

References: Matthew 1:1.—C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, 2nd series, p. 1; Bishop Alexander, Leading Ideas of the Gospel, p. 1; Preacher's Monthly, vol. viii., p. 329; A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 60; O. Davies, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 182; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 368. Matthew 1:1-17.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 1.