Curtis Johnson Poet Prose

The Rest of the Story

This morning as I was reading the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew's Gospel,                                                         a fresh thought occurred to me that I had not entertained prior.  It concerns                                                        Judah and his sons in general and one in particular.  It concerns Mary's husband Joseph and how his response to God contrasts with that of Judah's son, Onan.

Judah had three sons before he experienced the bizarre encounter with Tamar and impregnated her with twins.  There was Er who died prematurely due to his wickedness. There was Shelah the youngest of the three who later became a deep subject of concern. The rest of this story concerns Judah's second son who chose selfishness above responsibility.

Joseph's first response to a very questionable happenstance was one of confusion. Essentially Joseph was saying, "I don't like what I'm seeing; this is not what I signed up for; this is not my fault; I will be nice and honorable, but I'm out of here". However, while he was thinking about his next move, God spoke to him.  Unlike Judah's son Onan, Joseph listened and cooperated with the Lord.  Joseph endured the hardship of fleeing his homeland to Egypt in fear for the life of The Son of God.  We have no clue of what would have happened had he not yielded to God's directions.  After all, we are not robots; we have  a free choice.  We do know that when we listen to God, we are able to see the bigger picture and not 'a selfy'.

Onan*,  on the other hand, knew and was told of his responsibility to perform the traditional family duty regarding his deceased brother.  He could not see how he could 'personally benefit' by helping his brother.  He could not see the forest for the single tree looking back at him.  In the language of today, Onan made a choice and took 'the selfy road'.  Joseph portrays the Christmas spirit of giving of one's self while Onan gave absolutely nothing.  Unlike Joseph who saw beyond himself, Onan only could see himself.  In so doing, he had no genealogy, dying alone, leaving no descendants.
Thur12072017 PS                                                                                                                                                            *Genesis 38

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