Who is in the Family?

- Pastor Jason Briesacher

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” – Luke 19:10 (NLT)

Reading through the Bible makes it easy to get lost in the genealogies. “This person begat this person who begat this person who…” It makes your eyes glaze over when you read them in a row. But when we stop and consider these people's lives and think about the message that the genealogy conveys, it changes the reading experience.

In Matthew 1, we see the line of Jesus leading back to Abraham. Matthew purposefully linked Jesus to the promises made to King David and Abraham. To David, God promised that a ruler from his family would sit on the throne for eternity, and to Abraham, his family would bless the whole world.

The promise was made to Abraham, and Isaac, his son, was the promise kept. Isaac had Jacob, who wrestled with God and had his name changed to Israel. God promised, through Jacob, that a righteous branch would come out of the fourth-born son, Judah. This is typically a promise that would be made to the firstborn, but God is trying to communicate something.

Judah sleeps with his Canaanite daughter-in-law Tamar, who bears twins. A few generations later, we are introduced to Rahab, a prostitute from Jericho who hid the Israelite spies and saved her family. This isn’t exactly the story you would expect to hear from the family of Jesus! These people are broken, which shows us that God is trying to communicate something.

Rahab and Salmon had Boaz, who married Ruth, a Moabite woman whose husband had died. Moabites were shunned because of their family lineage. Not only does God rescue her through Boaz, but He also put her into the family line of Jesus! There are so many more stories that I would encourage you to read from this genealogy; it’s fascinating! Jesus’ line was filled with imperfect people who did not have the pedigree we would think they needed to deserve having the King of Kings as their grandson. Yet God chose them, so what is He trying to communicate?

Through His line, Jesus showed us that our family histories and personal tragedies don’t keep God from using us. It doesn’t matter if you’re wealthy or poor, strong or weak, loved or forgotten; you are welcome in His family. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or what has been done to you because He can use you to accomplish great things.

Make a Difference:

Jesus is the light of the world and told us to carry His light into the darkness. Who do you know that is far away from Jesus who needs to know about His love? Their past doesn’t matter because He came to seek them out and bring them into the family.

As You Read:

We are officially in the New Testament! Take time each day to process what you’re reading because there are many things that the gospels share in a short amount of time. Take some time to go through the lineage of Jesus line by line to capture their amazing and flawed stories.