A Genealogy That Packs a Punch

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham.”-Matthew 1:1

This is the time of year when most of us read or hear the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is full of words that are hard to pronounce, and at its surface seems like a tedious task with little meaning.  Today’s verse shows us that is far from the truth.

Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, and he puts two huge names before all the others, that of David and Abraham.  Maybe it was to get the attention of his readers, but the next sixteen verses are very important and often overlooked.  The genealogy contains a murderer (David), a prostitute (Rahab), and shows the fulfillment of a  promise that God made to Abraham and David.  From this line that contains various sins and people that were looked down upon came the savior of the world.  We often miss that when the passage is read.  Take some time to read not only today’s verse, but the whole genealogy of Christ.  In it you will find rich treasures that will give a whole new meaning to the Christmas story.

My apologies that this post is so short, but I want to encourage you to not simply skip over the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel.  Look into it, study it, ponder it, and you will see how amazing it is that Christ the King came from a line that included grave sinners.  It add a whole new dimension to salvation history.