From real people for real people!

Matthew 1:1-17

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.


Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.


And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.


So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.


Food for thought!


An account of the genealogy of Jesus is intended to show us that Jesus came FROM real people, and came FOR real people. All the names in Jesus' pedigree are of real people, known by history as having lived many years ago. Jesus is not a myth; he is a descendent of Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

There is another angle to saying that Jesus came from real people, who struggled with life like the rest of us. Jesus did not come from super human people; he came from stuggling people like the rest of us. This is why we find among Jesus' descendants both saint and sinner, both men and women. Indeed, God can use for his purposes even those who have sinned greatly. "I came" said Jesus, "not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:13).

As Jesus told us yesterday, tax-collectors and harlots are going into the Kingdom of Heaven. Did you notice that all the women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy are somehow strange? (1) Rachab, or as the Old Testament calls her, Rahab, was a prostitute of Jericho (Josh.2:1-7). (2) Ruth was not even a Jewess; she was a Moabitess (Ru.1:4), belonging to an alien and a hated people. (3) Tamar was a deliberate seducer and an adulteress; she seduced her father-in-law and got herself impregnated by him (Gen.38). (4) Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, was the woman whom David seduced from Uriah, her husband, with an unforgivable cruelty (2Sam.11-12).

The presence of these women among the descendants of Jesus means that Jesus came not just FROM good men and women but came also FOR sinning men and women. Jesus came FOR all, men and women, jews and non-jews; Jesus came for people like you and me. No wonder that he was crucified among two sinners.


“Sick people need the doctor, not healthy ones! I haven’t come to tell good people to repent, but the bad ones.” (Mark 2:17)