We often want Jesus to be either a distant cosmic Savior or an immediate household guest. The two genealogies in Matthew and Luke insist he is both: rooted in history and woven into human stories. What does it mean that the Son of God has a family tree, with all its tangled branches—kings, strangers, scandal, and saints? Let that tension awaken a longing: for belonging, for redemption, and for the God who enters our messy line.
In Matthew 1:1–17 we read a genealogy that runs from Abraham through David to Joseph, organized in three groups of fourteen generations and highlighting Jesus’ Jewish, royal credentials—Messiah of Israel. Luke 3:23–38 gives a different list, moving backward from Jesus to Adam (and ultimately to God), emphasizing Jesus’ connection to all humanity. Mark and John do not include genealogies. Matthew’s list stresses legal descent and fulfilment of covenant promises; Luke’s stretches the family tree into universal scope and (traditionally) reflects Mary’s biological line or a different legal line—scholars debate—but both insist Jesus belongs to a particular people and to all people.
These lists are not dry ancestry charts; they reveal who Jesus is. He is the promised Son of David, heir to God's covenant with Israel, but he is also the Son of Adam—the one in whom human history finds its true center. Notice too who appears in Matthew’s line: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “the wife of Uriah” and others—people with complicated, scandalous, or foreign backgrounds—reminding us that the Kingdom's roots grow in broken soil. That’s the Gospel’s scandal and hope: God works redemption through ordinary, flawed lives. Don’t miss the weight here—God’s faithfulness does not bypass human mess; it enters it.
Today, name one branch of your own family or history that feels shameful, distant, or disconnected. Write a short “genealogy of grace”: list people who shaped you—good and bad—and next to each name write one sentence asking God to enter that story. Then make one small, concrete move of reconciliation (a call, a note, a prayer offered aloud). Let the incarnate Jesus bring dignity and healing into your particular line—because the Gospel meets you in history and invites you into healing.
In Matthew 1:1–17 we read a genealogy that runs from Abraham through David to Joseph, organized in three groups of fourteen generations and highlighting Jesus’ Jewish, royal credentials—Messiah of Israel. Luke 3:23–38 gives a different list, moving backward from Jesus to Adam (and ultimately to God), emphasizing Jesus’ connection to all humanity. Mark and John do not include genealogies. Matthew’s list stresses legal descent and fulfilment of covenant promises; Luke’s stretches the family tree into universal scope and (traditionally) reflects Mary’s biological line or a different legal line—scholars debate—but both insist Jesus belongs to a particular people and to all people.
These lists are not dry ancestry charts; they reveal who Jesus is. He is the promised Son of David, heir to God's covenant with Israel, but he is also the Son of Adam—the one in whom human history finds its true center. Notice too who appears in Matthew’s line: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “the wife of Uriah” and others—people with complicated, scandalous, or foreign backgrounds—reminding us that the Kingdom's roots grow in broken soil. That’s the Gospel’s scandal and hope: God works redemption through ordinary, flawed lives. Don’t miss the weight here—God’s faithfulness does not bypass human mess; it enters it.
Today, name one branch of your own family or history that feels shameful, distant, or disconnected. Write a short “genealogy of grace”: list people who shaped you—good and bad—and next to each name write one sentence asking God to enter that story. Then make one small, concrete move of reconciliation (a call, a note, a prayer offered aloud). Let the incarnate Jesus bring dignity and healing into your particular line—because the Gospel meets you in history and invites you into healing.
Matthew: 1:1-17
Matthew 1:1–17 gives Jesus’ genealogy, tracing his legal lineage from Abraham through David down to Joseph, the husband of Mary. It lists the generations in three groups (summed as 42/three sets of 14) to show Jesus’ descent from Abraham and David and his place in Israel’s history.
Open VerseLuke: 3:23-38
When Jesus began his public ministry he was about thirty years old, and Luke then gives a genealogy tracing Jesus (through Joseph) all the way back from Joseph to Adam, highlighting his human ancestry and ultimately his relationship to God.
Open Verse