Family Matters

Family Matters

This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham. . . . Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

Matthew 1:1, 16

Jesus was known as the son of Joseph. . . . Adam was the son of God.

Luke 3:23, 38

Do you know people who can trace their ancestries to someone famous—a war hero, an inventor, a sports legend, or a Hollywood actor? People who are related to someone famous usually like to talk about it. But it is different when people can trace their ancestry to someone infamous—a mass murderer, an unethical businessperson, a cruel dictator. These descendants are not usually so quick to want to talk about their ancestors.

Matthew and Luke both include a genealogy in their Gospels—a record of the human ancestry of Jesus. Jewish people were looking for a Messiah who would fulfill the prophecies by being a legal heir to the throne of David. So Matthew’s genealogy traces the ancestors of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, all the way back not only to David but to Abraham. Luke’s Greek readers were less concerned about the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy but needed to see the humanity of Jesus, so Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry all the way back to Adam.

But perhaps the most important thing we learn in the genealogies of these Gospels is that Jesus redeems all kinds of people. If you look through the list of people in Jesus’ ancestral line, you’ll see people famous for their faith and people infamous for their failures. There were Jews and Gentiles, men and women, and all of them needed a Savior. This gives us hope that no matter what we’ve done or where we come from, Jesus is not ashamed to have us in his family.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What does your family’s ancestry say about you?

What does Luke 3:23 tell us about the birth of Jesus?

Look through the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Who are you surprised to see there because of what you know about them?