Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. While she was in labor, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, ‘This one came out first.’ But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said, ‘What a breach you have made for yourself!’ Therefore he was named Perez.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, January 7, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Tamar was brilliant. When Judah (one of Jacob’s sons) violated his promise to let her marry his son, she tricked him into getting her pregnant in order to guarantee her own future. Perez—a direct descendant of King David and Jesus—was technically born out of wedlock by a woman who pretended to be a prostitute to entrap a disingenuous man. And she gets namechecked in Matthew’s genealogy, a testament to her importance.
What does this tell us? I don’t know about you, but I am deeply impressed by someone who in her societal oppression (as a woman) used what power she had (her sex) to subvert the status quo (the patriarchy) and elevate herself at least to a place where her future survival was guaranteed. Jesus would have been well aware of her place in his ancestry, and maybe that’s part of why he was so eager to reach out to women and invite them into his inner circle. Bound as his humanness was to the societal norms of his day, he still found ample opportunities to cross boundaries and elevate women. The gospels don’t do a very good job focusing on this, as Jesus’ women followers seldom featured in stories other than his crucifixion and resurrection, but non-canon gospels of the era are clear that women like Mary Magdalene had a significant leadership role. And we do hear in great detail from the gospel of John about the Samaritan woman at the well who became an apostle in a vital way.
I like to think that when Jesus bucked the norms of his time to welcome women into his inner circle he always had Tamar top of mind, and pushed to make it so that women didn’t have to resort to what she did in order to live full lives.
Are there any women in your family history who really stand out? Who and why?
