Christmas Stories: Family Trees

We each have a family history. Scripture shows us that from His human standpoint so did Jesus, yet He was without beginning (John 1:1).

I'm reminded of a quote I've seen making the rounds lately, though I can't for the life of me remember who said it or the exact words. But it basically says that God uses sinners, but the reality is there are only sinners for Him to use. The idea being that we are all sinners, and yet God still graciously has chosen to redeem sinners and use sinners for His glory and the good of His people.

I often see in my own life the mixture of my own sin and weakness and it frustrates me to no end. Yet God still works in and through me.

And so as we draw closer to Christmas, and I share more of the stories surrounding the birth of Christ, I want to take a look at what is ordinarily one of the more, let's be honest, "boring" sections of Scripture: genealogies.

Matthew 1:1-17 shows us the line of Jesus, from Abraham to Joseph who, as it says was "the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah."

In other words, Joseph is not Jesus' father biologically, but would be His earthly father.

It helps to begin with understanding Matthew's purposes in writing. You see, each of the gospels has a target audience, and Matthew's was the Jews. He aimed to present Jesus as both King and Messiah. We see this through his frequent usage of Old Testament prophecy and how Jesus fulfills it, as well as his usage of the term 'Kingdom of Heaven', as opposed to 'Kingdom of God', so as to avoid offending the Jews by the usage of God's name.

He also does this by showing us Jesus' lineage which directly ties Him to David, proving Jesus as heir to the throne. Jesus is King and the Messiah.

Yet, this lineage is special in many ways. One way is that it shows that, as we opened this post, God uses sinners and weak people in His plans, because frankly there is no one else He can use.

Abraham was a liar, as was Jacob. Judah, well, he had some history. David was a murderer and adulterer. So many in this list had lives documented in Scripture that were less than spectacular examples of godliness.

We also see women in this genealogy, which is a bit unusual. Tamar's sad story is shown in Genesis 38. Rahab was known a Gentile, and a prostitute. Ruth was a Moabitess. Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the man whom David had murdered so he could try to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba. And lastly we see Mary, a lowly Jewish girl.

Jesus' earthly heritage is one filled with weak and sinful people. The broken and outcast, the morally bankrupt, the unrighteous.

The perfect spotless lamb, come to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29) was born into a family of sinners, because frankly there was no other family which He could be born into.

Despite that, God worked His will and accomplished His purposes of bringing about the salvation of many. Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).

And so I guess I just have to trust, and encourage you to do the same, that God can work in us despite our weakness. It seems so wrong at times that He would. But I'm glad that He does, because if He didn't work through sinners, then none of us would be a part of His plan.

May this draw us even closer to God, and grace, as we look to Christ this Christmas.

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