Worship in the Genealogies (A Christmas Meditation)
In the spirit of the Christmas season and the celebration of the Incarnation, I would love to offer just a few observations on those most beloved and highly regarded parts of the Bible…
…the GENEALOIGES. (Insert preferred indication of sarcasm here.)
But, in all seriousness, they’re in there for a reason and once we see even a few of the reasons why, we might come to understand and appreciate and celebrate them just as meaningfully as we do the other parts of the Scriptures.
So, without any further ado, open your Bible to Matthew 1 and Luke 3 and join with me as I notice a few things.
1. Jesus’ human lineage was composed of both Jewish and Gentile blood.
In Matthew 1:5 both the names Rahab and Ruth appear:
“…and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth,”
Now, first of all, take note of the fact that in a genealogy primarily concerned with the progression of fathers to sons, the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to highlight these two women in particular in the ancestry of Christ. Why might that be?
Rahab was a Canaanite, a woman living in Jericho when the Israelites showed up to take possession of the Promised Land. You can read her story in Joshua 2 and 6:17-25. Ruth has an entire book of Scripture with her name on it about how she, a Moabite widow, came to wed the Israelite Boaz and give birth to the grandfather of David.
The point is simply this: Christ drew human ancestry from both Jewish and Gentile bloodlines. It is an interesting and profound observation when you consider that the promised Jewish Messiah had decidedly non-Jews within His family tree.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
- Luke 2:25-32
And now the Lord says,
He who formed me from the womb to be His servant,
to bring Jacob back to Him;
and that Israel might be gathered to Him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
He says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
- Isaiah 49:5-6
2. Jesus’ human lineage was composed of wicked sinners.
If you read Rahab’s story in the chapters of the Book of Joshua listed above, you probably noticed Joshua 2:1:
“And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.”
One of Jesus’ Gentile grandmothers was a whore. Maybe take a second to let that sink in.
Once you’re back, consider some of the following, as well: Judah (Matthew 1:2-3),”the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,” became the father of Perez and Zerah by sleeping with his daughter-in-law Tamar, thinking the entire time that he was bedding a cult prostitute (read that story in Genesis 38). Solomon’s parents were David and Bathsheba (the “wife of Uriah” mentioned in Matthew 1:6), a union brought about via their adultery and David’s conspiracy to murder her husband (II Samuel 11-12; Uriah was one of David’s most loyal and trusted military commanders: see Chronicles 11:10, 41). In explicit rebellion to his God (Deuteronomy 17:17), Solomon himself married 700 women and had an additional 300 concubines in his harem that “turned away his heart” from the Lord (I Kings 11). Jeconiah “did what was evil in the sight of Lord,” and handed Judah over to its Babylonian conquerors (II Kings 24:8-17).
And on and on it goes.
Jesus’ human lineage is broken, flawed, and sinful because people are broken, flawed, and sinful. And yet God still used the all-too human family of Christ to fulfill prophecy (specifically of Christ’s legal claim to the Davidic throne, which is the point of the genealogy in Matthew 1), and thus, to consequently vindicate His own glory.
Perfection is not the standard for participation in the work of God on the earth. Now, some of the people listed in Christ’s genealogy probably did not wind up finding repentance or faith. It is no sure bet that every single person residing in His family tree will one day reside with Him in Heaven. But the point is that it is God who works the miraculous things (like the promised Incarnation of His Son) through the lives of ordinary, imperfect, unholy people (like every single person listed in Matthew 1 and Luke 3). A magnificent aspect of the beauty of Christmas is the reality that a holy, perfect God was and is willing to reach down and work in the disgusting mire of human frailty in order to achieve His purposes. He is certainly not obligated to do so. But He has demonstrated that He is both more than willing and loving enough to weave a tapestry of grace and glory out of the broken, frayed strands of sinful people.
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Mark 2:17
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28
…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. - Philippians 2:13
3. There Are Actually Three Genealogies
Conventional wisdom holds that the Bible contains two genealogies of Christ, the first tracing His lineage back to Abraham through His legal father, Joseph (Matthew 1), and the second tracing His physical ancestry through His biological mother, Mary (Luke 3). Working in tandem, the dual genealogies establish both His physical descent from David and His legal claim to the throne of Jewish kingship.
But the list of ancestors in Luke 3 contains our first clues that there is more to the story.
Note with me the very beginning of Luke’s genealogy, where it is pointed out that Christ “was supposed” to be the son of Joseph (in vs. 23), and then again at its end where verse 38 concludes the genealogy with the fact that His ultimate forefather was God. Here we have a couple of not-so-subtle hints that there is more to be understood in the birth of Jesus than just physical ancestry.
John 1 contains the final piece of Christ’s genealogical puzzle:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
While Matthew and Luke describe Jesus Christ’s physical ancestry, John points to the reality of His divine nature. The baby born in the manger was God Incarnate, self-existent before the creation of the physical universe, author of all life, Son of the eternal Father.
The glory of Christmas is the glory of the reality of the God-man Jesus Christ: fully God and fully human; eternity entering into time; almighty omniscience clothing Himself with mortal frailty. This celebration of Christmas is the celebration of something far beyond humankind’s collective ability to ever understand. It is unexpected, unfathomable, incomprehensible. It is the embrace of what cannot be fully grasped. Christmas is the joyous acknowledgement that at the root of all things is a God good enough to place Himself in the crosshairs in order to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Christmas, like the Son it celebrates, would be too good to be true but for the fact that Truth Himself is what Christmas is all about.
So, when you find yourself pondering the season this year, take some time to center your thoughts on the One the holiday exists to proclaim: on His humility, on His willingness to serve, on His grace and love exemplified in the low state He adopted in order to accomplish His Father’s will. Think of the King who knelt to wash the feet of His subjects, the man of perfect holiness who associated with prostitutes and thieves, the Creator who substituted Himself for His creation. Think on His purposes in using sinful human beings to accomplish His will, on the miracle of bringing centuries-old prophecies to fruition, and on the astoundingly magnificent reality of His love.
~
Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come, offspring of the Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see! Hail the incarnate deity! Pleased as man with man to dwell -
Jesus, our Emmanuel! Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King!”
Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth. Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King!”