The scarlet thread: introduction

Only five female names appear in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus. Perhaps the surprising thing is that any female names appear at all. The genealogy makes the case that through his adoption by Joseph, Jesus could claim descent from the royal family of David. Adoption was highly respected, and gave a status absolutely equal to that of birth into a family.

I wrote a series of bible studies looking at the five women who Matthew considered significant enough to include, and they have been used by housegroups in a number of places. Through the log, I offer them for wider use. The copyright remains my own, and if you wish to reproduce them, please contact me.

Matthew’s genealogy mentions a lot of men and five women.  With every man mentioned a woman is implicit, of course. Many of the mothers who bore the men in Matthew’s list are unnamed by scripture, but some we know – Sarah was the mother of Isaac, Rebecca the mother of Jacob and Leah was the mother of Judah, yet they are not mentioned in Matthew’s list. So what is it that makes these five women notable enough to include in the list of Jesus’ forebears? It isn’t their pure Jewish heritage, because some of them were Gentiles. It isn’t their pure living, because some of them lived lives that were, at best, racy, at worst, scandalous. Between them we see a group of women who lived in difficult times, were exploited by men, risked danger to themselves to  do God’s will and demonstrated what it means to be truly faithful.

In these six Bible studies you are invited to encounter five good women, and to trace the scarlet thread that connects them to each other and to the most important man who ever lived… who couldn’t have lived without them.

1                                      Tamar                                  

2                                      Rahab                                   

3                                      Ruth                              

4                                      Bathsheba                            

5                                      Mary                              

6                                      The Scarlet Thread      

In each study you will find questions that help you to explore what we know about these women, who are both ordinary and extraordinary, just like every woman and man who was ever born. Each study includes a ‘scarlet thread’ question, which has two parts. Rahab’s scarlet thread was used because it would be easy to see, distinguishing her window from the others in the wall of Jericho, while Tamar’s scarlet thread distinguished one of her sons from the other. So the first part is about considering what makes this woman unique, what her particular qualities are, and what can be learned from her. The second part reflects the use of thread to tie things together: from study two you will be asked to consider what qualities the women have in common. You may wish to bring reminders of each session’s threads to the next session.

By the final study the scarlet thread will lead to discovering what you feel Matthew was thinking about when he included these five women in his genealogy. What does their inclusion tell us about the message and ministry of Jesus?

This poem emphasises in strong terms how seemingly inappropriate these women are to be linked with the Son of God. And yet, they were all called and chosen by God for a vital role in His purposes. If he can use women like these, he can use anyone, perhaps.

The Women in the Matthean Genealogy

Exceedingly odd is the means by which God

Has provided the path to our heavenly shore -

Of the girls from whose line the true light was to shine

There was one an adulteress, one was a whore:

There was Tamar who bore – what we all should deplore-

A fine pair of twins to her father-in-law,

And Rahab the harlot, whose sins were as scarlet

As red as the thread that she hung from the door;

Yet alone of her nation she came to salvation

And lived to be mother of Boaz of yore –

And he married Ruth, a Gentile uncouth,

In a manner quite counter to biblical lore:

And of her did spring blessed David the King,

Who walked in his palace one evening and saw

The wife of Uriah, from whom he did sire

A baby that died – oh, and princes a score;

And a mother unmarried it was too who carried

God’s Son, and him laid in a manger of straw,

That the moral might wait at the heavenly gate

While sinners and publicans go in before,

Who have earned there no place, but received it by grace,

And have found them a righteousness not of the law.

M. L. Goulder, Mithrash and Lection in Matthew.SPCK 1974.

In these studies I encourage you to see beyond the ‘wicked woman/good woman’ stereotypes that have been attached to these five women. Consider the circumstances in which they found themselves and ask what other options they might have had. Are the one who are considered sinful really as bad as they are painted? Could they have done things differently? And even if they have done ‘what they ought not to have done’, has God redeemed them through the good they ultimately came from them? Perhaps there is a message in these women about forgiveness, perhaps about redemption, perhaps about God’s willingness to see and use the best in every one of us, even when the rest of humanity sees only the worst of us. And what can we learn from the ones who were considered good? Some of their actions would not have been seen as quite so good and pure at the time! They took necessary risks in order to obey God, and those risks included being branded as women in the same categories of sinfulness as their sisters on the list. Is this risky living something we need to learn from today in our risk-averse society?

Just what can 21^st century men and women learn about our calling to serve God from these five women from so long ago?