When the tinsel is untangled and the bows are boxed, it’s easy to be a little melancholy after the end of the Christmas season. All of the joy, laughter and fun of the holidays gives way to taxes, diets and busyness at work and school.
Is it possible to celebrate Christmas every day?
Matthew 1 is one of those passages that’s easy to skip over. The familiar genealogy of Jesus, from Abraham all the way to a Bethlehem stable. We know many, if not most of the names instinctively: Isaac, Boaz, Jesse, David, Rehoboam, Joseph and Mary.
But the list of names that are virtually impossible to pronounce is easy to miss. Yet we know that there is not one word in Scripture that is there by mistake and we know every word is God-breathed and profitable for us.
Celebrating Christmas every day of the year is important when we see that list of names. Forty-seven names — from paupers to princes, shepherds to slaves, kings to harlots.
There Is Grief in the Family Tree of Jesus
Who among us has not experienced grief? Heartbreak, sorrow, misery and grief — all of those things are woven through the fabric of our Lord’s family tree. The grief of Abraham leaving all he had known to go to land where he had never been. The grief of letting go of his firstborn, Ishmael, whom he loved. And what about King David? He had a son who died in infancy because of David’s own sin. His son Absalom killed his brother Amnon, and if that were not enough to break a father’s heart, Absalom led a revolt against his own father.
Jesus understands the grief in His ancestors, and in His descendants — you and me. Jesus understands when our heart is heavy. He understands loneliness — see Him in Gethsemane’s garden. Thanks to the incarnation, He will bear our griefs and carry our sorrows.
There Is Grace in the Family Tree of Jesus
Four obvious women in the genealogy — Tamar who dressed as a prostitute to seduce her father-in-law; Rahab, the town prostitute of Jericho; Ruth, a member of a race began in incest and that worshiped pagan gods and Bathsheba who lived in adultery with King David. Yet every one of them ended up in the family tree of the King of kings and Lord of lords — Jesus Christ Himself! Why? One word: Grace.
Is your family still a work in progress? Are there rough edges? Good. So is Jesus’s. There’s grace in these verses.
There Is God in the Family Tree of Jesus
Jesus was the virgin-born son of Mary, in whose womb the Father implanted His son. It is because Jesus was Mary’s seed (the seed of a woman, Genesis 3:15) and no the seed of Joseph that entitles Him to be your Savior and Lord. The virgin birth is the bedrock of His authority. God is in the family tree of Jesus.
This year, it may be easy to only see grief — at Christmas and all year long. Jesus knows that emotion well. But, thanks to Him, we can celebrate Christmas when we recognize the Grace of Christmas and the God of Christmas is right there as well, in the family tree of Jesus.
