Since we have observed the day Christ was born into this world, we should pay attention to what the Bible says who are his relatives before his birth. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 carry little attraction to the modern reader. But the ancient Jew was more than interested and these verses provide a natural introduction to establish the identity of Christ. Romans, 2 Timothy, and Revelation make reference to the genealogy of Christ affirming the humanity and deity of our Lord.
Matthew demonstrates Jesus as the Messiah and King of Israel by tracing his lineage back to Solomon and David showing his kingly right to the throne. As the record demonstrates, Christ’s genealogy takes us back to Abraham with whom God made a covenant that all the world would be blessed. Luke, being a doctor, takes a different approach to trace the lineage of Jesus by going all the way back to Adam. His concern was to show how pure the line was at the time that God made promises to Adam and throughout the Bible to the birth of Jesus.
The lineage demonstrated in Luke takes the approach of Jesus being the stepson of Joseph. Thereby this genealogy validated the positions of Christ as the Messiah even though Joseph was not the literal father of Jesus. Included in the lineage is a confirmation for the Aaronic priesthood and David’s ultimate lead to Christ. This demonstrates the legitimacy of Jesus in his office as Messiah. The genealogy list of Jesus is not meant to include every single person throughout history. It was a summary and in some cases one person included represented many people.
The details of Christ’s genealogy is important for us today because it stands in opposition to those who insist Jesus was only the offspring of a human parent. There are many heresies that have existed over thousands of years that have tried to distract from the reality that Jesus was fully man and fully God at the same time. All the attributes as body and spirit of Christ show his humanity in that he had feelings, and had a will. Jesus was the only a human being who ever walked this earth as a perfect person without sin. Hebrews 7 reminds us that Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. He was tempted in all the ways we have been tempted yet he was without sin.
The family tree of Jesus is unusual for its honesty by those that were named. A common Jewish prayer was for a man to express thanks was not born a Gentile, slave, or woman. Yet even women are included in the list of Jesus’ ancestors. His family tree represents a missionary response to every person. The genealogy to David encourages us to realize the kingdom position of him who is without sin as the rightful Messiah.
The genealogy of Jesus does not hide any skeletons in the closet. He came to save those who needed to be freed from the bondage of sin, not to find people who made themselves appear to be sinless. The women mentioned in the genealogy show us the faith response of those in need of a Savior. Tamar was involved in adultery. Rahab was a harlot taken from her old life. Ruth was a foreigner received into the family of God. Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah and became the mother of Solomon prior to her adultery with King David.
It is important for us to remind ourselves that Joseph provided a legal but not a carnal claim to the throne of David. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob transcended the temporary life of common man to those of true faith. The ebb and flow of those names mentioned in the genealogy of Christ are not offered as people that lived outside of sin. Instead, they were well acquainted with the life of sin who needed the Savior. What a beautiful, wonderful thing it is to know that as Jesus had his own genealogy, so do we who know him as Savior because our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, our own personal spiritual genealogy.
Christian Writer 