"I come from a family of highly educated people. My family has doctors, priests, war heroes, and more."
Have you ever heard people boast about their lineage, about the great people in their family line? Many love to speak of generations of doctors in their family. Today, some even use DNA screening to try to produce talented or gifted children. Just as people once boasted of royal or priestly descent, many now place their hope in engineered genetics, believing excellence can be manufactured at conception.
We see this in the church too. We boast about ministers and believing families as if they were a sign of God's blessing, or something to be proud of.
The Jews were proud to be Abraham's children, but Jesus rebuked them for not doing what Abraham did (John 8:39). John the Baptist called the religious leaders who came to him a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7-10).
The lineage from Abraham to Jesus includes people who committed shameful acts or had bad reputations: Judah, Tamar, Rahab, David, Bathsheba, and others. Yet they were included because of the faith they showed after recognizing their errors.
By contrast, Timothy's grandmother and mother were devout believers, and Paul encouraged Timothy to follow their example of faith (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14-15).
What do we learn from the lineage of Jesus? It serves:
To destroy pride in spiritual lineage and shift our focus to our eternal lineage.
To show that salvation comes by grace, not genetics.
To highlight that a life of faith is needed to be counted as a child of God.
To comfort the ashamed and the broken.
To prepare the world for a Messiah who eats with sinners.
Dear child of God, Jesus died on the cross and joined us to His lineage. Grow in faith, so that you may be found in eternity with the Heavenly Father, who created us for Himself.
Maranatha. Praise God, and Amen.
