On Sunday of this week we read in MATTHEW 1:1-25: 

“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 Asa...” 

On the Sunday preceding the Nativity, the Gospel reading is the opening of the Gospel of Matthew, the genealogy of Christ. We hear many familiar names in this genealogy, many of the righteous of the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc... Some of the names, however, remind us that Christ takes on our full humanity in His Incarnation. He takes on a human family, with all of the embarrassing history that sometimes entails. 

Christ, the Messiah, is descended from David and born in the city of David, Bethlehem. Of all of King David’s wives, however, it is Bathsheba from whom Christ is descended. Bathsheba was married when King David grew to desire her after seeing her bathe on her rooftop. Since Bathsheba was already married, to a Hittite named Uriah, one of King David’s soldiers, David had him placed on the front lines of battle, where he perished. King David was then free to marry her himself. The Prophet Nathan, however, comes to inform King David that this marriage is a sinful one, and King David bitterly repents of his wickedness. 

That this evil deed can result in the family tree of Christ is a comforting thing. God forgives our weakness, our frailty, our sin, and still wills to draw closer to us, despite all our unworthiness. King David sins grievously, but rather than abandoning him, God still makes him the ancestor of Christ. 

We are God’s creation, and He loves us. His will was always to draw us closer to Himself. We see this in the Theophany, when God the Father speaks and says: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). That God is well pleased shows that the Incarnation is His will, and was always the way that humanity was going to be brought closer to Him. Even that moment in which humanity turns away from God, the fall of Adam cannot stop this from happening. God could have destroyed His creation, for its disobedience, but instead He heals it. In Christ’s Incarnation, God has taken on the nature of humans, and He offers us His very Body and Blood to nourish us.