In the introductory blog post I mentioned how, as children, we would often sit at my grandfather’s knee and ask him to tell us about our ancestors. One of his common phrases was, “Now be careful, you don’t want to look too close!”
I jokingly start my reflection with this story because in fact, if you look closely at the genealogy Matthew offers, you begin to scratch you head.
First, you note that this short genealogy does not include every generation.
Second, you would note that while it does not include every generation, it is carefully constructed.
As Matthew frees himself from listing every generation, he not surprisingly lists the big family fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.) and the great kings of Israel (David, Solomon, Hezekiah).
Yet look at who else he includes. He includes the really evil kings—don’t miss the underline. These are bad guys.
And he goes even further. He includes people who are not Jewish. He includes women. He includes people who are prostitutes and adulterers.
The Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write God’s infallible Word with this genealogy of Jesus’.
Let’s understand the place of a genealogy in Jesus’ day.
Today, we are enamored with our ancestry to find out where we have come from. In Jesus’ day, they were enamored with their ancestry to find out to find out where they came from AND if where they were headed was about to happen.
God promised them a future Messiah. Is Jesus the fulfillment of this promise? Step one in answering that question is to look at his genealogy.
And the genealogy shouts: YES, HE IS!
Matthew has shaped this list with three groups of fourteen generations from Abraham to David to Jesus.
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan—which began in Abraham, ran to its peak in King David, and now reaches its climax in Jesus.
Yet if that is the point (demonstrating Jesus is God’s Chosen Messiah to deliver the world) then this genealogy is all the more curious because it shatters barriers.
It blows away the barrier between men and women. In both Jewish and Greek culture of the time, women were considered property. Women had no legal rights, could not give testimony, and could not inherit property—yet this bit of the Word of God, the bit used to establish Jesus’ credibility as Messiah uses the lives of five women as testimony that He is the Son of God.
But the genealogy does not stop there. It includes Gentiles. If Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, he is more. He is the Savior of the World.
And Jesus has not come to save the “really good people”. He has come to save the lost.
God is in the business of rescuing sinners for his service—there are no barriers to God in this, His work.
Barriers between men and women, Gentile and Jew, good and bad—all are broken down—in one regard there is no difference in any of us—for all of us have fallen short of the glory of God—all of us need Jesus to make us right with God—and this can happen only by his grace.
This genealogy screams from the mountain top that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah who comes to offer the all-embracing love of God—and there is no one who is beyond it.
Do you ever feel like you are beyond God’s love?