The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
From Abraham to David
Abraham fathered Isaac,
Isaac fathered Jacob,
Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,
Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar,
Perez fathered Hezron,
Hezron fathered Aram,
Aram fathered Aminadab,
Aminadab fathered Nahshon,
Nahshon fathered Salmon,
Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab,
Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth,
Obed fathered Jesse,
and Jesse fathered King David.
From David to the Babylonian Exile
Then David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife [Bathsheba],
Solomon fathered Rehoboam,
Rehoboam fathered Abijah,
Abijah fathered Asa,…
…and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary,
who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.       Matthew 1:1-7, 16 (HCSB, my emphasis)
Did you ever wonder why Matthew and Luke included these long genealogies in their gospels?
Do you ever get frustrated trying to untangle a snarly, tight knot in your shoelace or a necklace?
Jesus, God Himself, came into all of my world. He did not live here like a king.
- His parents gave two turtledoves at the Temple when they presented Him, which is what a poor family would give (Luke 2).
- Jesus worked with his father and then, as the oldest, would have taken over the carpentry business. He was just a carpenter(Mark 6:3).
- He wasn’t foretold (Isaiah 53) to be handsome and certainly did not walk around with a “holy glow†around his head.
- Jesus knew what it was like to try to get 100 disciples to walk in the same direction. If we count up the people who generally hung around, it would be reasonable to conclude that number except when He pulled the twelve apart.
- I think Jesus knew what it felt like to need a vacation. He often went off to pray and be alone. He felt the fatigue of constant demands and conflict.
- We even know that Jesus understood family tensions. They thought He was crazy (Mark 3:21)!
- He knew what it was like to need your close friends and have them let you down (Luke 22).
- Friends are people that you choose to be associated with. Jesus calls us friends (John 15). In that same chapter He said there was no greater love than a friend who lays down his life for another friend.
- Jesus knew the uncertainty of the future (Matthew 24:36). He said not even the Son knows the day when all of this world will pass away. Could He know? I think so but He wants me to know that He does not ask anything of me that He has not walked first (Hebrews 2:18).
It is too common for for us to try to dismiss our likeness to Jesus because, after all, He is God. But remember that Jesus came biologically through a human mother. And His genealogy proclaims among the list – David, Rahab, and Jacob – sinners everyone!
Do you have a tangled knot in your life right now? Have you picked and picked at it and cannot get it to loosen and unsnarl? Ready to give up and cut it off or throw it away?
Let us make like a child and hand that knot over to Jesus who can see the twists and turns of that knot and knows how to patiently brush out the tangle without tearing out the roots. Give it all to Jesus.
