Matthew 1 (NLT); Luke 2:1-38 (NLT)
Scott Slocum, Lead PastorSpecifically — Matthew 1
It was April of 1974, I was a sophomore in high school and our church youth group was doing a Bible-reading marathon as a fundraiser for summer camp. Here’s how it worked, everyone who signed up to participate would read the Bible in 15 minute shifts. A table would be set up on the platform of the church sanctuary with a microphone present so that all throughout the church building you could always hear the Bible being read.
One person would read aloud, the next person sitting beside them “warming up” and ready to take over the next 15 minutes, while the “on deck” person sat close by. We began reading at 6pm sharp on Sunday night and kept going non-stop expecting to be done sometime Wednesday afternoon. The Sunday night start-up was a big deal! The church was going to be full, a supper and worship time proceeded that 6pm start. The local newspaper reporter and photographer were going to be present for the “Big Moment.” It was decided that we would actually start with the New Testament and then a vote was taken of the student participants to determine who would be the one to start the reading off in front of the press and full church. Moments before we began, I won the vote.
I was ecstatic until… Until I realized that before God and the entire world, I would be reading Matthew chapter 1, the Genealogy of Jesus.
Sure I was ok with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the likes of Judah, David and Solomon. But, there I was in the front of the world trying to say Amminadab, Nahshon, Jehoshaphat, Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. Not Good! Truth is many of us skip over or scan Matthew 1 and the list of names–most of which we may not know much about and many we can’t pronounce without embarrassing ourselves. But please don’t skip over this unread part of your family tree! That’s right; this is part of your family tree. Maybe not directly blood related, but actually in a real way your spiritual family tree….and what a family you can learn from! In your family tree are murderers, prostitutes, thieves, liars, products of incest, pagan worshipers and baby killers. Quite a family tree! But, this family tree, leading up to the Birth of Jesus, has some truth for you today.
A few simple truths:
- God’s plan is bigger than any one lifetime and is not fatal because of our failures
- God’s plan is not at stake or in jeopardy when evil seems to be winning
- Our family tree is really the ongoing story of God’s grace in our lives!
Truth is folks, for every one of our lives we have a history and family tree and it’s full of sordid stories, events and failures. But each of those truths applies to your life and mine. Grace is a wonderful thing!
So as you read Matthew 1 today, don’t skip over it! In fact read it out loud. Have fun with the names. Who cares how you pronounce them. As you read them, remember that their story is your story! It’s the story of grace!
Love it when you wrote….Gods plan is not at stake or in jeopardy when evil seems to be winning! Wow! What a great reminder!!!!1
Oh Pastor Scott, why do you have to be so right! This morning I eagerly woke to read the planned out scriptures you have chosen only to begin reading Matthew 1 and finding my self quickly going oh these darn names,what do I have to learn from these darn names. My Family Tree, Spiritual Family WOW! Again, God teaches me through others. I don’t know how many times I have read that chapter and just got frustrated not knowing what all the names referred to. How in the world did I miss the fact that it was my family tree. Now I better understand why the Lord wants us to love all his people because truth is, we are all one BIG FAMILY TREE in Gods eyes. Going back now to re read that chapter and try and better pronounce those crazy names.
With a crazy name myself, and often pronounced wrong by those new to me, it is a blessing to have a laugh or two and break the ice with those folks and its the same with the names in Matthew 1. We laugh, we feel embarrassed, but we know they are family, we acknowledge who they are because God loves them and spoke their names to life, just as he has ours. We are all apart of HIS wonderful plan.
My personal favorite – Zorobabel.
Whose father was Shealtiel (SEAL-TILE?). My favorite is Eleazar… And we think celebrities give there kids weird names.
Actually, it’s “sheh-AL-tee-el”, but yes, it’s kinda weird.
Just into day 2 and we are so excited to be doing this! Both days we further searched verses that particularly intrigued us, i.e. today; Luke 2:23 “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy”. We researched O.T. to find Ex. 13:2, also wondered if all 1st born animals were sacrificed, found that yes, except for donkey’s ~ SO interesting. Also, was Simeon “transported” into the Temple (Acts 8:39) or just guided by Spirit to the Temple. We came to conclusion, guided. Thanks EAC for putting this together.
Indeed Pastor, it is just like God to create a language that we cannot pronounce just to show us who God is, but as you and the bible say, it is still part of God’s overall plan that we are spiritually connected to all children of God. I will never forget the place in time that I realized that the people in the Bible were just ordinary people like me, with the exception of Jesus of course, He totally rocks! Understanding that they were no different made a huge impact on my life and at that point in time I remember knowing that the relationship I have with God is so incredibly personal and we are all connected by the Holy Spirit…..what a wonderful revelation that is! Despite all the names given to those in the Bible, and understanding the importance of our names, I declare that my favorite is Jesus…..it’s so incredibly perfect….and easy to say….
As the parent of adopted children, many questions have been asked by my children about their biological parents. Although we know some information there are many unknowns. Q
Sorry..computer operator error. It is reassuring that when the time comes
and information is revealed I can share with them that like Jesus they may have unsavory ancestors but they can follow Jesus’ example and rise above it.
Grace! What a great word! The state of being protected or sanctified by the favor of God. Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people.(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/grace) We are so lucky to be protected no matter what. I have made my share of great mistakes and I am truly glad that I have a God that will continue to bestow grace on me no matter how much I mess up!
Now I know that no Christian can say they don’t have any skeletons in their closet!
I am totally guilty of rushing through all those names! Until recently I didn’t understand how important they were. In conjunction with this idea of the “family tree”, a verse that I had previously underlined long ago from today’s reading in Luke (2:30-31)was from Simeon…”I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.” ALL people! I love being reminded of that truth throughout scripture.
I am guilty of rushing over the names now I will go back through and reread all the names and get the understanding of the family tree. Thank you for reminding me what the names are truely about.
I too skipped unpronounceable names. Though realizing they are Jesus’ family tree; I wasn’t realizing the importance that some of them were not people we would want to associate with and are part of Jesus’ descendants and ours. Wow
One of the things that stuck out to me specifically about Grace was what the “Multitude of the heavenly host” said in Luke (2: 13-14): “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” or the NIV version which I like, “and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
In looking for the meaning of this I found that this is the Grace of God (His favor) that we all enjoy…the forgiveness of our past and the promise of the future. Isn’t there amazing comfort knowing that we are not perfect, we are human and that He shines upon us with His grace…when we make those mistakes. What an amazing concept for a father/parent (from the Father) for their own children….we know you will make mistakes, we expect that you will make mistakes and we will forgive. There is light at the end and if we work towards living in His image and for what He wants, forgiveness and his Grace is upon us.
Amen!! I am sure you did a great reading!
Very sure!!
I’ve always been so impressed that God often uses the most flawed people to accomplish His greatest works. That’s what gives me hope and joy. I have often said if He can do these things using these people there is a place for Him to use me.
One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is that God chose the shephards to be the first to hear about and see the messiah – not kings or emperors- but common shephards. Wow!
What has really stuck out to me in both yesterday & today’s readings was the fact that Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon & Anna were all older citizens and had been waiting MANY, many years for God’s promises to be fulfilled. Yet, in both readings, there isn’t any mention or signs of them being impatient or having doubts while waiting. Instead they are called upright, serving God in the temples, fasting, praying & I’m assuming that they were also praising God while worshiping & serving. I’m in a season of life right now (while pregnant, waiting for my child to arrive this spring, I’ve been on bed rest since October & will be until the baby arrives and in addition we’ve had our town house for sale since July – without even an offer yet) and it’s HARD to remember God’s promises and to praise Him while trying to patiently wait for His promises to be fulfilled in my life! Both these readings have giving me such joy & such hope!
Testing….
I’ve always wondered why more attention isn’t given to Mary’s genealogy since Joseph it seems was just part of the “support team”. Maybe I’ll learn more as we go along.
We have had the same question as to why the genealogy points to Joseph and not Mary – after all….Joseph was not the biological father…..so how can Jesus be a descendant of Joseph’s family line? Are we not understanding because we are living in the wrong culture?
I recall from the OT .that Mary and Joseph were cousins
Good question! From digging around in the ESV Study Bible’s commentary I think I found what seems like a good answer. Matthew is trying to demonstrate/prove Jesus’ claim to the throne of David. Joseph’s ancestry (unlike Mary’s) went back to Solomon through whom the promise of kingship passed.
Interesting side note: I remember seeing a chart somewhere that had both the ancestors of Mary and Joseph running side by side. Somewhere among Solomon’s decedents, a king of Judah was so wicked that God “cut him off”. Those who made the chart suggested that although the line of kingship still passed on to Jesus through this branch of David’s family try, God favored a different son of David’s to be the blood ancestor (in other words, while God still kept his promise to David about there always being a decedent of his on the throne, He also brought justice to Solomon’s descendants for all their disobedience.)
One way to look at it is to say the Matthew verifies that Jesus COULD NOT have been Joseph’s son because if He were, then He’d be disqualified from the kingship. Compare Matthew 1:12 with Jeremiah 22:30. In the Jeremiah verse, God says specifically that no son of Jeconiah (Coniah) will ever sit on the throne of David. The geneology in Luke (Mary’s line) shows Jesus’ qualifications to the kingship of Israel.
I find that interesting also because my understanding of Jewish law is that to be considered Jewish, the mother must be Jewish. So I would also think the lineage should apply to Mary.
Thank you, Jerry, for finding that Jeremiah passage! I wasn’t sure where to even begin looking…thought the answer was buried somewhere in 2 Chronicles or Kings.
I love that the scripture points out the sinners in Jesus’ family tree, ie. Rahab,the prostitute, and the fact that Solomon’s mother was the wife of another man! It just reminds me that we are all saved by grace and that our sins do not keep us from the family of God.
Gods plan IS bigger than we know! Though we fail and find ourselves struggling through hardships, he always has a plan for the outcome of these circumstances. Through this Journey we call life, we all fall and he is always there to pick us up. We need to give him thanks and praise for always being there to brush away the dirt, to heal our open wounds and wash away those stains that have left us dirty and broken. Not only does he pick us up and cleanse us of our sins, he is there to hold our hand so we don’t get lost in the darkness, so we don’t trip over the bumps when the road gets rough, and he is there to hold our hands so that we don’t feel alone in the storms that seem like they’ll never end… I have Accepted Christ as my Savior and through my struggles i have come to find that he is the ONE thing that is SOLID in my life that I can lean on and will NEVER let me fall… I praise you Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for opportunities like these to be able to come together in your word! <3
I will be the first to admit I always skim the lists of names. I think God can’t speak to me with names so I will just skim and get to the meat. Little did I know this is His way of showing us how He is a loving and forgiving God even with all of our short comings.
And I love the graphic. God’s plans spread so much further than we can see. The “support base” He gives each of us is extensive and wide-spread.
I’m puzzled: Joseph was not Jesus’s “biological” father, so how can his lineage be Jesus’s actual geneology?
Today is March 6th…why has no one answered this question? Just sayin’
I’m thinking from my Bible study of Genesis; that we are all descendants of Abraham, including Mary. However, being that I am fairly new at actually reading/studying the Bible; probably asking or sending an email to Pastor Scott would be the way to go. I would be interested in his expertise.
I just found this in gotquestions.org: The genealogy in Luke chapter 3 gives Jesus’ lineage through His mother, Mary. Jesus is a descendant of David, by adoption through Joseph, and by blood through Mary.
I have always found it intruiging that after Simeon blesses the family, he speaks to Mary (not Joseph) to tell her about a sword piercing her own soul (kinda back-handing that blessing, eh?) Imagine if someone were to do that to a new parent today? Just more for Mary (and us) to ponder.
Lineage, genealogy, anscestry. We are unique, specifically wired for a purpose.
My grandfather used to be an active youth member of this church,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_Evangelica_Metodista_en_las_Islas_Filipinas.
It was during the founder’s era, maybe during the founder’s sunset years.
I love to hear the church members’ accolades for my grandfather. However, my dad
was not that involve in the church but I remember him sending us to Sunday school
every week. He would ask his eldest sister (he has 11 siblings) to bring me and my brother
to my grandfather’s church.
Who would have thought that I will be one day attending EAC with my own family.
Our Heavenly Father is the one Who can orchestrate that. AWESOME !
(always with the a purpose)
I literally said to myself (before reading your post) “who actually reads all these names?”
Well, now I do