Spiritual Virgins

Sermon Notes for Sunday 21st December on Matthew 1:18-25 by Desiree Snyman

Genealogies

Luckily for us, the lectionary reading begins at verse 18 of Matthew 1. Verses 1–17 detail the genealogy of Jesus with unpronounceable names. Raise your hands when you recognise a name from Matthew 1.1-17: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers; and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and Perez the father of Hezron; and Hezron the father of Aram; and Aram the father of Aminadab; and Aminadab the father of Nahshon; and Nahshon the father of Salmon; and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab; and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth; and Obed the father of Jesse; and Jesse the father of King David. 

In Matthew 1.1-17 three sets of fourteen generations are listed. The number fourteen is not accidental. In Hebrew, David is indicated by three letters, DWD: Daleth (4), Waw (6), Daleth (4). Thus 4 + 6 + 4 = 14. Matthew is signalling, symbolically, that this story culminates in the promise associated with David, though not in the way anyone expects. 

Controversially, five women are named, four of them outsiders or boundary-crossers. All five live in tension with Jewish law, and their relationships intensify that tension. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah’s wife, and finally Mary. Within the strict logic of the law, each story carries the possibility of condemnation. Yet it is through these women that the Messiah comes.

Already, Matthew is unsettling any neat account of righteousness. 

Joseph and righteousness

Joseph is described as a righteous man, yet the irony is that his righteousness looks like mercy. Mary is with child. Joseph is afraid. There are laws, reputations, and honour to consider. Rather than exposing Mary to public disgrace, he plans to divorce her quietly. Then a dream interrupts him, and he chooses differently. He takes Mary as his wife.

This is not a story about moral certainty. It is a story about surrender. 

What Matthew is doing

The genealogy is not historically precise. This is not a DNA report from Ancestry.com. It is a theological text, carefully composed to tell us how God works.

Some examples help us see this:

1.   Seventeen verses list Joseph’s lineage in the active voice: Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, and so on. Then suddenly, the pattern breaks. The active voice is replaced with a passive voice: Jesus was begotten Jesus is not begotten by the Holy Spirit. Matthew is not explaining biology. He is announcing meaning. This child belongs wholly to God’s purpose, not to human power, bloodlines, or imperial authority. In a world ordered by Roman domination and violent hierarchy, Matthew dares to claim a different source of life altogether.

Some will read the virgin birth literally. Others will read it as poetry and symbol. Matthew allows space for both. But neither should miss 1.   the central proclamation: something new is happening. There is a rupture with the old order. That is where the good news lies. 

It is to this virgin birth that we now turn, because it is not only about Mary. It is an invitation to us. 

Virgin births

Meister Eckhart says it best (in Sermon One, in Walshe, Complete Mystical Works):

“Here, in time, we are celebrating the eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity, because this same birth is now born in time, in human nature. What does it avail me that this birth is happening, if it does not happen in me? That it should happen in me is what matters.”

Where does this birth take place? Not in Bethlehem. Not in a stable. Not around 4 BCE. Not even only in Mary. But “in the very purest, loftiest, subtlest part that the soul is capable of”, the part of us that is virgin. Virgin, here, does not mean untouched or innocent. It means open. Unclaimed. Not possessed by fear or control. 

The ground of the soul

I imagine our lives and identities are like a river. When the river is clogged with debris, the bottom is hidden. But when the water clears, the ground becomes visible. That ground is always there. So, it is with us. Beneath the false selves, the wounds, the anxiety, and the stories we tell ourselves, there is a deeper ground. Eckhart calls it the ground of the soul. It is where God and the soul are one. It is where the Christ is eternally being born. Emmanuel. God with us. 

Our lives may feel muddied by fear, grief, or self-protection. Yet our true identity is not the turbulence at the surface. It is the divine life rising quietly within us. To live as a spiritual virgin is to live open to God, not striving for purity, but practising availability. Spiritual virginity is about letting go of the illusion that we are self-made, self-secured, and self-contained. 

The rim of eternity

Eckhart says that when we live from fear and separation, we cling to a false self, a self that believes it must manage everything. That fear, he says, is our deep confusion. Mary and Joseph step out of that confusion. They do not grasp. They do not defend. They consent. They live, as Eckhart says, on the rim of eternity. Still ordinary, still in the mess of daily life. yet open to the divine life already holding them. Joseph’s righteousness is not rule-keeping, it is release. He lets go of his need to control the future. He allows God to act in a way he does not fully understand. That is the real miracle of this story.  

Christmas now

Christmas is not about God arriving from somewhere else. It is about the ground of love becoming visible in human life, God with us, Emmanuel. Eckhart would say God is not only with us, but shining through us, when we dare to trust, to release control, to love without guarantees. We do not celebrate a miracle that happened once. We celebrate a mystery that can happen now. In us. In this world. Whenever fear loosens its grip and love is allowed to be born. 

Matthew’s story unfolds against a background of terror, violence, and threat. That world is not so different from our own. Fear and hatred may fill the air around us, but they do not have the power to name who we are. Only God’s infinite love, given in the depths of our soul, has the power to name who we are. Whenever we dare to trust, to release control, to live open to love without guarantees, Christ is born again. 

  • What are the things in your life that make you feel pressured, anxious, or like you have to be in control, and what might it mean to let God meet you right there?

  • What gets in the way of you being your real self, with God and with others, and what helps you feel more open, honest, and alive?

  • If something new and good could be growing in you right now, what do you hope it might be, and what small step could you take to make space for it?

Desiree Snyman