Find Hope: Matthew 1-4Sample

Where Did I Come From?

I don't mean it in the year 9 PE class kind of way. I mean, what is your history or ancestry? We are not necessarily defined by our roots or the generations that went before us, but more often than not, they do have an influence on who we are and can actually help us understand why we are who we are.

The first thing Matthew wants to tell us in his gospel about Jesus is his family line. This is the bit that we read quickly or skip altogether as we struggle with names and can't figure out why it's there. But Matthew wants us to see that the Jesus story actually goes back further than the baby in the manger. Jesus is part of a bigger unfolding story that traces its way through the pages of the Bible.

This particular passage takes us all the way back to Genesis and the man Abraham (although the Jesus story actually stretches back to before the beginning!). God made promises to Abraham thousands of years before Jesus' birth that one of Abraham's descendants would be the one to bring God's blessings on earth—and now finally he is here!

The best part of this family is that it's full of imperfect misfits, and it's in the middle of the mess that Jesus does his best work. Rahab was a prostitute, Abraham lied about his wife being his sister, David was an adulterer and a murderer, and yet God used them as part of his unfolding work of salvation.

Jesus was human; he had an earthly family with all the challenges and blessings that go with that.

It's important that he was human, so important that Matthew mentions it first. Only as a human is he able to help us as we navigate life as humans.

Today, ponder this: Have you ever thought of what it was like for Jesus to have a human family? How does that give you encouragement to know his circumstances were not totally unlike yours?