Who Are You?

If you were about to tell the greatest story ever told, I wonder how you’d start? I suspect not many of us would choose to begin by giving a whole list of ancient family names! But that’s exactly how Matthew chose to begin his gospel, the good news story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

In recent years tracing your personal family records has become increasingly popular with many people trying to find out about their family history. Many of the people I know seem to discover that they come from a real mixed bag with some wonderfully interesting stories along the way.

When Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus, we discover that His family heritage is impeccable. His family line can be traced to before the Jewish exile to Babylon. It goes all the way back to Israel’s great king David, and then even further back to the father of the nation, Abraham himself (Matthew 1:1-16). But interspersed in Jesus’ family line are some truly interesting characters, reminding us that His line includes some scenarios that we might not expect.

We read of Boaz, who married Ruth, a Moabitess - a foreigner - (Ruth 4:13), and whose mother was Rahab, who had a rather surprising work situation (Joshua 6:25).

Then there’s Solomon whose mother had been Uriah’s wife and all kinds of underhand waywardness was involved in their coming together. That sad episode in David’s life is told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.

And finally, there is Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose husband Joseph was preparing to divorce her quietly when she became pregnant, because he knew he hadn’t slept with her and so naturally presumed that she’d been unfaithful to him (Matthew 1:19).

So, in the line of the Jewish Messiah, we find a non-Jew (Ruth), a prostitute (Rahab), an adulterous relationship (Bathsheba), and a child conceived by an unmarried mum (Mary and Jesus).

I dare say most of us might find some skeletons in our family history if we were able to look back far enough. Jesus is no exception. He truly is one of us. And yet, as John says in the introduction to his gospel, this same Jesus was the Word of God who became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:1&14).

As Matthew reminds his readers of the humanity of Jesus, John reminds us about his divinity. Both are completely true.

Whatever your background, whatever your story and family history, Jesus came to offer us all a new future, a new heritage, and, through faith in Him, our name too can be recorded in the book of life (Revelation 20:12). Will your name feature on that eternal list?