Jesus’ Family Tree

Many people when reading the bible skip over the big lists of names called genealogies.  I wanted to look at ‘What’s a genealogy?’ and ‘Why was it included in Matthews Book?

Matthew 1:1-17

 

 

What’s a genealogy?

There’s an old English proverb:

‘Great oaks from little acorns grow’

This tree came from an  tiny little acorn. You could say that this mighty oak is the grand father/mother of this little acorn and that in years to come these acorns will continue the family line.

I don’t know whether you have ever looked at your family tree, I am pretty sure in today’s culture you would understand what a family tree is more than a genealogy.

My family tree looks back at who my mum and dad were and who their mum and dad were and can go back 100’s of years discovering who your great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents were and often what they did for a job.

Well here in the first chapter of Matthew we see Jesus family tree or in the language of the bible genealogy (The Greek meaning translates; What has come into being) tracing back to his great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents to a guy named Abraham a very distant relative of Jesus.

Why was it included in Matthews book?

Back in the time before Jesus arrived on the scene all of the Jews were waiting for a Messiah/Christ, which was a person a king that would come and rescue them from Roman occupation and free them as a nation. Loads of people in the Old Testament the first part of the bible had said that this Messiah would come and everyone was on the look at for him.

Matthew by using the words Christ and Son of David he was leaving no doubt what he is claiming. He is claiming that Jesus is the one they have been waiting for the Messiah the one that would rescue them.

But simply claiming it was not enough they needed some proof.

Many of you would have heard of the national lottery. You fill out a ticket by selecting some random numbers and you wait patiently for the draw. You wait to see whether the machine will spit out balls with your numbers on. Now if you get all the numbers you either win the jack-pot or share it with others. Its not enough to say to the national lottery ‘yep I have the ticket its got all the numbers on it, I’ve won. They want to see it and check that you have the right numbers before releasing the jack- pot.

When it came to anyone claiming that they were the Messiah the Christ the one that was sent by God to save the Jewish nation they would have to check it out first. And one of the ways of doing this was to check that he was related to Abraham and King David. Why?

Because this was something that had been said by many people in the old Testament. The messiah would be related directly to Abraham and King David.

So Matthew was saying this Jesus is the Messiah! Look he fits all the criteria he is a relative a son of Abraham and King David.

So that’s why Jesus family tree sits here as the first part of what we call the New Testament.

May God bless you and may you become or realize that you too are or could be a part of this family tree