We live in a generation of people who tend to blame DNA when people don’t turn out so well. We blame parents that carry that DNA and we blame parents that must have made a lot of mistakes raising their child in order for them to turn out this way.
If you read the whole Bible and learn the names of the characters throughout, when you read the genealogy of Jesus as Matthew presents it in his gospel, it will at least raise an eyebrow. Amongst the many great and good people in that genealogy, there are a number of questionable characters…
Take Tamar, for instance. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah. She pretended to be a local prostitute and seduced Judah and gave birth to Perez and a few generations later, Boaz was born. Boaz married Ruth, a Moabite.
Then there is Rahab who was a prostitute. She hid the spies that went into Jericho to spy out the land for Joshua. She lied to those looking for the spies in order to protect them.
Rahab was the great-grandmother of King David. Though David was a good king, he made a few bad decisions – adultery and murder to name a couple.
And down the line, came Mary and Joseph. That is the family God chose to bring His Son into the world. By our standards, Jesus would have had every right to act out and be a ‘messed up’ character. Yet He did not. He lived a holy and sinless life. I wonder what made the difference…
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.” John 13:3-5
Jesus knew who He was. He knew where He came from, what His purpose was here, and where He was going. Because His purpose was so clear, He was able to live a sinless life – even in human flesh! Do we even begin to understand who He is and what He did? Our Holy God sent His only Son to be born into a genealogy of sinful flesh which He overcame because He knew who He was and what His purpose was.
Now He is interceding for us at the throne of grace because He totally understands us and everything we deal with in this world. “… but because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them… But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Hebrews 7:24-25, 9:26b-28
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17 This gift of salvation He has given us cost Him so much. But His love is so great.
This is the One whose birthday we celebrate December 25. While am so very busy doing all kinds of good things to celebrate Christmas, I want to take time to focus on Jesus, who He is, His purpose in coming into the world, and what He did for me because His goal is that no one would perish, but that everyone would come to repentance (II Peter 3:9) and that we would join Him in His Father’s house (John 14:1-4) and live with Him forever.
Thank you, Jesus. And Happy Birthday!
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