The Mothers of JESUS

THE Mothers of JESUS

There are about 40 men listed in the genealogy of Jesus and for the most part, the women in His lineage are excluded from mention; however, there are exceptions.

Here are brief biographies of each which give a glimpse into some circumstances of their lives that God apparently feels are significant for us to know.

The first ‘mother’ of Jesus was a young woman named TAMAR. She had been the wife of two of the sons of Judah, one of the 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob.

Unfortunately, Tamar was widowed twice without ever having borne a child. To be childless was a great stigma in that day but Tamar was not unduly concerned because her father-in-law had assured her that when his next son became old enough, she would be married to him.

Judah did not keep his word. Tamar in desperation resorted to questionable devices to enable her to conceive the child she felt she must have.

She disguised herself as a prostitute and positioned herself along a highway she knew her father-in-law traveled. She approached him there, offering her services in exchange for a unique possession of his that it was agreed would be returned. It was not.

Later, when she was discovered to be pregnant, her father-in-law was among those who cried out that she be stoned for the shame she had brought upon his family. At that point, Tamar produced Judah’s staff.

He recognized himself immediately as the cause for Tamar’s shame and relented in his demand that she be executed.

Tamar delivered twins, one of whom went on to be included in the genealogy of Jesus.

Years later, when the Israelites conquered the city of Jericho with the help of the prostitute RAHAB, one of the Israelite leaders fell in love with and married the courageous woman of Jericho whose aid had been invaluable in the sacking of the city. His name was Salmon and together they had a son named Boaz.

Boaz became a very wealthy man who played a significant role in the life of his impoverished relative, a widow named Naomi and in the life of her loyal daughter-in-law RUTH, who was also a widow.

The story is told how Naomi and her husband and two sons had gone to a foreign land to seek an opportunity to overcome the poverty they were enduring in their homeland. The two boys met and married women of the land, Orpah and Ruth.

When Naomi’s husband and sons died, she admonished her daughters-in-law to return to their parents and find other young men to marry. Orpah returned to her childhood home but Ruth refused to leave Naomi.

She said, “Entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you, for wherever you go, I will go and wherever you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God,” Ruth 1:16, 17.

Naomi felt she had no alternative but to return to her homeland and to throw herself upon the mercy of her wealthy relative Boaz. She and Ruth were allowed to glean in his fields to ward off starvation.

Naomi devised a plan whereby Ruth would go to Boaz at night after he had worked hard in his fields and place herself at his feet. This meant that she was asking him to put his protection over her and Naomi.

Boaz was touched by the integrity of this young woman who did not make herself available to the young men of the community. He did more than offer his protection to the women. He, after assuring that he was legally entitled to do so, proposed marriage to Ruth.

The son that they had was named Jesse and he became the father of David, Israel’s great king of whom it was promised that the Messiah would descend.

David was a great warrior king whose reign brought victory and prosperity to his people; however, in spite of his having many wives and many concubines, he was attracted to the wife of one of his most valiant generals, Uriah.

David assigned Uriah to the front line of battle to assure that he would be among those slain in a conflagration with Israel’s foes. When Uriah was killed in battle as planned, David was free to marry his wife Bathsheba who was already pregnant with David’s child.

When the baby died, David anguished over his sin but God promised him that he and Bathsheba would have another son who would be a great king, and soon Solomon was born.

Through the lineage of David, Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus was born. Since genealogies are counted through the male side of the family, it was significant that this was established, but since Joseph was not biologically related to Jesus, it was also important that His mother MARY also be of the lineage of David, and she is.

MARY is the chaste virgin who was spoken to by the Angel Gabriel. He revealed to her that she would become the mother of the Messiah. She was told by the angel that she was to call His name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”

It becomes clear as we review the ‘mothers’ of JESUS that each of them is flawed in some way.

TAMAR prostituted herself to attain a desired end rather than allow the Lord to work out her problem in an honorable way in His perfect time.

RAHAB had been a prostitute who aided the Israelites in overthrowing her own people.

RUTH was an honorable woman but an unsuitable one for remarriage because of the fact of her prior marriage and the complication her situation brought to the inheritance laws of the day.

BATHSHEBA was an adulteress who was complicit with her lover in the murder of her husband.

 MARY, the mother of Jesus, was the only pure, honorable woman among them.

There must have been many such honorable women in the lineage of Jesus, women whose sequestered lives assured that they were pure and chaste as Mary was. Why were they not named?

Perhaps it is because through HIS mothers, JESUS is fully identifying with the sin of mankind. Not only does He take all of our sins upon His sinless person, He evidences through these flawed women that the Divine, Sinless Savior, too, had baggage.

Perhaps He revealed the sordid lives of His mothers so we would understand how fully HE has taken our own sin and shame upon Himself; that we are not captive to our own sin or the legacy of sin left to us by our forefathers.

JESUS, through His mothers, is granting us one more clear evidence of the totality of HIS power to overcome and eradicate the impact of sin.