An uncommon promise and common people

Last Sunday in our Student Spiritual Formation class we discussed Jesus’ genealogy. Our primary text was Luke’s genealogy, but we also used Matthew’s. It was interesting to hear some of the things our students observed during this study. Here are a few that I remember:

Luke starts with Jesus and works back to Adam, and eventually God. Matthew, on the other hand, starts with Abraham and works forward to Jesus. We talked about the significance of how Luke traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to the original man while Matthew starts with the man to whom God made promise that found fulfillment in Jesus. Luke seems to pointing towards the importance of Jesus as the Savior of all mankind, while Matthew wants to remind his readers about Jesus fulfilling the promise made to Abraham.

There are 77 people in Luke’s geneaology while Matthew has three groups of fourteen. We noted that the number seven was significant to the Jewish people as a symbol of perfection. If it’s more than coincidence, Luke seems to be saying that Jesus is perfect perfection by the use of 77 people. Matthew has three groups of double perfection. One of the students even commented about the seven days of creation.

We also noticed that Luke’s genealogy simply gave people’s names, while Matthew often provides a description of who he is talking about. Several of those descriptions point out the women in Matthew’s genealogy (none of whom appear in Luke). We find mention of Tamar (a woman who became pregnant after she posed as a prostitute to have sex with her father-in-law), Rahab (a prostitute), Ruth (a Moabite), and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba, who committed adultery with King David).

Even in something that may seem boring to many, there are a lot of things we can learn about God. In the few verses of Jesus’ genealogy we learn some important lessons. We learn that God is faithful and keeps His promises. In Genesis 3:15, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head,?and you shall bruise his heel.” In Genesis 15:5, God told Abraham, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your offspring be.”
In addition to His faithfulness, we learn that God can work through common people to accomplish His purposes. Even people who feel like they have messed up are important in God’s Kingdom. From prostitutes to adulteresses to unknown ancestors, God used a variety of people to fulfill his promises. Imagine what God can do through us if we look to Him and allow ourselves to be a part of His unfolding story.

shine!
Jason