JESUS HAS 'PEOPLE'

WITH APOLOGIES TO THOSE RECEIVING MY DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR THE REPEAT

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY: Matthew 1: 1-17

An account of the genealogy1 of Jesus the Messiah,2 the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,1 8 and Asaph1 the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,1 and Amos2 the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.1 17 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,1 fourteen generations.


If you are reading this – CONGRATULATIONS! You have made it through Matthew’s account of the genealogy of Jesus, considered by some people to be rather tedious reading. You are probably also thinking something along the lines of “So what? What difference does it make?”

To Matthew’s original audience it mattered greatly. Jesus had people. He could trace his lineage back 42 generations to Abraham. That fact mattered significantly in the eyes of many people of Jesus’ time. It gave him “street cred” and a level of authority with the higher classes.
 We like to tell ourselves that doesn’t matter to us – and when it comes to Jesus’ heritage, we may be correct. But there are ways in which we still cling to our ancestry. We proudly claim our ethnic heritage. “German stubbornness,” “Irish temperament” and “Scandinavian stoicism” are character traits proudly claimed. We proudly cling to an ethnic heritage even though many of us living in the United States are generations away from the ‘old country.’ And we do so with a certain sense of superiority, as if those not like us – without our heritage – are second class citizens. Not that long ago, I was surprised to hear someone in a conversation ask who a young woman’s “people” were? They were trying to get a sense of what kind of person she was and whether or not we knew her family made a difference in that assessment. We may not always be that obvious about it, but we regularly make judgments about others based on their heritage, or maybe their family situation, the type of job they have, the clothes they wear, or even just in which part of town they live.

 Our journey through Matthew’s Gospel may begin with a tedious genealogy, but our journey concludes with Jesus’ radical sending to “all nations.”

 As humans we are the pinnacle of God’s creation. We can also be tempted to think that we are the center of God’s universe. Yet just yesterday we were reminded that “the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (Gen 2:7) We are a small part of God’s universe, created from the dust of only a single planet in that great universe. We may be the pinnacle of God’s creation, but we are also not ‘all that.’


How can we truthfully acknowledge our place in God’s creation? How can that help us move to being better able to acknowledge the place and value of others? Who have you dismissed as less than because of an exterior judgment based on their family, residence, attire, etc? How can God broaden your understanding of what it means to share God’s love with all nations?


Dear Father, keep us mindful that the only branch of our family tree that matters is the tree on which your Son, Jesus was crucified. Help us to remember that through his cross we all share the same heritage and without your life-giving breath we are all simply a handful of dust in the universe. Amen