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When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Matthew 1:24-25)

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The Gospel of Matthew starts off with the genealogy of Jesus.\xa0 Seventeen verses of it.\xa0 Now we all know that genealogies are dull, boring, and long but also probably important somehow.\xa0 Often times when the church focuses in on the genealogy of Jesus the sermons will zero in on how Jesus is the Son of David, or will talk about the time periods that bookend at Abraham, David, the Babylonian Exile, and the Messiah, or perhaps touch on the strange inclusions of five women in the genealogy as we did at Immanuel last Advent.\xa0

But rarely do we focus in on the most glaring issue that this big long genealogy presents, which is the fact that it\u2019s not Jesus\u2019 genealogy!\xa0 It\u2019s Joseph\u2019s.\xa0 And Jesus is not Joseph\u2019s son.\xa0 Which means that Jesus is also not one of King David\u2019s sons.

Matthew is very clear to point this out throughout this first chapter.\xa0 The genealogy itself draws you into the rhythm of ______ the father of _____, ______ the father of ______.\xa0 Over and over again.\xa0 But then the cadence breaks when we get to the last entry which does not say Joseph the father of Jesus, but instead says that Joseph was \u201cthe husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.\u201d\xa0 As Matthew continues in the next verses of his gospel, he is very clear to point out that what was conceived in Mary was from the Holy Spirit, not from Joseph\u2014indeed, they did not consummate their marriage until after she gave birth to a son.\xa0

So how exactly is it that Jesus becomes the descendent of David?\xa0 It\u2019s not by blood.\xa0 It\u2019s by adoption.

Joseph adopts Jesus as his own son, even though Jesus was not his own son.\xa0 Ever notice that?\xa0 Jesus, the one through whom we become adopted into the family of God, was himself adopted.

Now Matthew\u2019s gospel never says this directly.\xa0 None of the gospel writers do.\xa0 But there is a Jewish tradition that to name something is to take responsibility for it.\xa0 Adam names the animals at the beginning of Creation.\xa0 In doing so, Adam takes responsibility for them as he was charged to do.\xa0

I wonder then if the unspoken act of adoption occurs right here in the final verse of chapter 1.\xa0 The climax of the genealogy and the story is not only Joseph\u2019s act of taking Mary home to be his wife even though he knows she\u2019s pregnant and not by him, but it is also Joseph\u2019s act of naming Mary\u2019s child, and in so doing, taking responsibility for this child as he was charged by the angel to do.\xa0 Joseph does not abandon Jesus to illegitimacy and therefore exclusion from the people of God.\xa0 Joseph adopt this child as his very own.\xa0

The one called \u201cJesus\u201d who would \u201csave his people from their sins,\u201d first needed to be saved himself from exclusion when he was most vulnerable; first needed himself to be adopted into a people, so that he might save his people.\xa0 I marvel at the incredible acts of humility our saviour pursed to become our saviour.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

Today on my ornament, I\u2019m going to draw that thing you\u2019ve been itching to draw all along: the baby in the manger, and over it I\u2019m going to write the word: \u201cAdopted.\u201d

For our act of being with someone today, I\u2019d invite you to perform one \u201cact of humility\u201d today in relationship with someone else.\xa0 That could be something as simple as not insisting that you were right in a conversation where you normally would, letting someone else go first ahead of you, or offering forgiveness.\xa0 You decide.

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