What the genealogy of Christ teaches about hope.

📌 Homily by Fr. Matthew Brown 🗓️ December 21, 2025 📍 St. Mary Magdalen Orthodox Church (OCA), New York City

Joseph and the Courage to Protect Another’s Dignity

One of the things that I find most impressive about Joseph, and it is mentioned in the story, is that phrase describing how he did not want to put her to shame.

So he tries to put her away quietly.

It is very interesting that in this case he is worried about her shame when, for all he can tell from the evidence, she was unfaithful to him. They were betrothed, which means they were promised. They were like engaged. It would be like your fiancé not only sleeping with someone else but also getting pregnant.

Yes, that would bring shame for her, but that is also a lot of shame for him.

A lot of times, the way we respond when other people embarrass us, shame us, or lower our status in front of others is that we want to get even or get revenge.

Given his cultural and religious context at the time, he had every right to put her out in a way that would have been more public. We would have understood the emotions behind an action like that. Very few of us would have followed his example.

Being cheated on strikes right to the heart. It is deeply threatening. For him to have the self control and clarity of mind to make a good judgment, and then, even when wronged, to care more about her welfare and well being, shows tremendous compassion, strength, courage, and forgiveness.

It also demonstrates loyalty and faithfulness, even when she appeared to be unfaithful.

Of course, this was not the case. He finds out the truth and changes his mind about putting her away quietly, and instead marries her.

This theme of faithfulness and loyalty is characteristic of Joseph, but it is also characteristic of several figures we read about in the genealogy.

Scandal and Faithfulness in the Genealogy

The genealogy traces all these men. The father of so and so begat so and so. But there are a few anomalies. A few women are mentioned, and all of them are like Mary.

They are righteous, holy, and just, but externally do not look like that. They upset expectations of what goodness looks like.

What we see in all of these women is virtue, especially loyalty and faithfulness. They take risks to be faithful to others.

The women are Mary, Bathsheba, Tamar, Ruth, and Rahab.

Bathsheba was the wife of King David, but before that she was Uriah’s wife. David saw her bathing, desired her, and took her. He then arranged for Uriah, his top general and best friend, to be placed on the front lines of battle, knowing he would die.

David took advantage of his friend’s virtue.

After Uriah died, David married Bathsheba. She became pregnant, but the child died. Before the child’s death, the prophet Nathan confronted David by telling a story that mirrored David’s own sin. David pronounced judgment on the man in the story, only to realize it was about himself.

David broke in that moment and repented.

That repentance inspired Psalm 50 or Psalm 51, depending on the numbering.

This shows us that sainthood is not the absence of failure. Perfection in Christ is not flawlessness. It is something more nuanced and harder to see.

This captures the theme of Christmas. Jesus is the unexpected and unlikely Messiah. God often appears hidden, obscured, and in places we would not expect.

Tamar, Rahab, and Doing Good in Impossible Situations

Tamar was the wife of Judah’s eldest son. When he died without children, she married the next son, who also died. Judah refused to give her his third son, believing she was cursed.

There was a custom that if a man died childless, his brother would bear children with the widow in his name. Judah failed in this duty, denying both his son’s lineage and Tamar’s rights.

Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and slept with Judah, her father in law, becoming pregnant.

This story is scandalous. It challenges us. But there was another custom. If the brothers failed, the father had an obligation to continue the lineage.

Tamar forced the men to take responsibility. She used trickery to fulfill the moral law when others refused.

Rahab was a prostitute living in Jericho. When Israel sent spies into the city, she hid them. She believed in the true God and showed loyalty to her family, knowing judgment was coming.

She marked her house with a scarlet cord so her household would be spared. A prostitute was saved by faith and loyalty.

What we see across these women is that they found ways to do good in morally compromised and dangerous situations.

We rarely make moral decisions from a place of purity. Often we act while compromised, afraid, or sinful.

You cannot wait until you are a saint to do good.

They show us what redemption looks like. Redemption is taking something broken and turning it toward good.

That is what the nativity is. What appears as infidelity becomes salvation.

Redemption, Hope, and the Beauty Hidden in the Desert

God’s redemption often appears in unlikely people. This reminds us not to judge. Those we expect the least from often display the greatest virtue.

That is hopeful. It means that even as sinners, we can make the right decision when it matters.

This is why Christmas is a time of hope.

I want to close with a story from the Desert Fathers.

The monks of Scetis befriended a woman in a nearby village who supplied them with goods. She later fell into poverty and became a prostitute.

When the monks learned this, they decided to rescue her. John the Dwarf volunteered. He paid the pimp to gain access to her, revealed who he was, and refused to leave without her.

His love moved her to repentance. They fled into the desert that night. While sleeping, John heard angels singing and saw a beam of light rising from where she slept.

She had died.

An angel later told him that her repentance was so perfect that she had completed the course of her life.

The monks were greatly edified.

Among the greatest ascetics of the Church, a repentant prostitute was holier than them all.

That redemption was made possible because Christ was born of a virgin in a manger.

Glory to Jesus Christ.

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