Have you ever tried to read through the genealogy of Jesus? Usually, I skip right over those impossible names right on to something less boring. It seemed to me that Jesus’ ancestor timeline might hold some importance, but that insight didn’t seem worth stumbling through an ongoing list of names that actually made me develop a stutter.
In light of Christmas coming up, the genealogy of Christ seems to hold some weight on my heart. We studied through the 2 genealogies mentioned in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 in my bible study group and I found it very enlightening. I would like to share some of the things I found interesting and life-giving about those two genealogies of Christ.
First off, Matthew and Luke’s letters had two different audiences. Matthew was writing to the Jews and Luke was writing to the Gentiles. This explains why their lists of ancestors look different. Matthew started with Abraham and worked his way to Jesus whereas Luke started with Jesus and worked his way to Adam and even back to God. Since Matthew was writing to the Jews, he was aware that they were looking for a Messiah to come from the relatives of Abraham. He didn’t need to go back any further because all he needed to do was prove that Christ was the son of Abraham. The Gentiles were not as informed about the Messiah’s lineage. Luke, knowing this, pointed them from Jesus all the way back to God. This could paint the picture to these people that Jesus was related to all human beings.
In Matthew’s lineage of Christ, he includes women (in parentheses). That wouldn’t be that interesting except that the women that are included are very prominent women because of the controversy they represent. Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary are all mentioned in the Bible having gasp-worthy stories told about them. Tamar tricked the father of her child into having sex with by pretending to be a prostitute on the side of the road. She preceded by snatching his seal so that later on she could prove that he was the father. Ruth was a Gentile but married a Jew. Rahab was a prostitute who helped lead some of God’s men to safety during a war. Bathsheba was a married woman when King David decided he wanted to have her for his own. She conceived a child out of an affair with a King, the same King that had her husband murdered. Mary was an engaged virgin when she mysteriously became pregnant with God’s son. Becoming pregnant out of wedlock was considered worthy of a stoning back then. Needless to say, these women were not mentioned just because. Matthew seemed like he was trying to make a point about the lineage of Christ. God used messy situations to lead to the coming of the fallen world’s savior!
I was reading a devotional not too long ago that said that both Mary and Joseph are descendants of David. I remember being confused about that because in both Matthew and Luke’s record of Jesus’ lineage, neither of them seemed to be traced back to Mary. Not that I was doubting that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, but I was confused because Joseph was not a blood relative of Christ, yet it was his family tree presented in the Bible, not Mary’s. Well, come to find out one of them DOES trace back to Mary. Luke’s audience was the Gentiles and it was tradition not to include any female names in their genealogies. This means that when Luke started the genealogy off by saying “Jesus was known as the son of Joseph” he is recognizing that Joseph is not his biological father. Right after that he says, “Joseph was the son of Heli” which is a different father than is recorded in Matthew where it says, “Jacob was the father of Joseph”. How did I miss that? Probably because I always skipped over this section of the Bible. So, clearly Luke was talking about Joseph’s father-in-law, which means it’s true! God’s promise was fulfilled two-fold. That’s just like God, isn’t it? His promises have been and will all be fulfilled in time. Praise God for sending us a Savior and for promising us salvation and a resurrection of the dead through Jesus Christ! Amen!
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