Genealogies

It got really cold this week. So before I went to the office, I had a little chi tea my wife (Melissa Van Scyoc) made me. As I looked at my newly decorated tree, thoughts of Christmas overwhelmed me; not the Clark Griswold kind of thoughts, but about my next youth lesson centering on Jesus’ birth. I decided to read The Christmas Story (even though He was probably born around September of our Calendar).

In Matthew, he starts out honestly…what seems to be like boring genealogies. In fact, it reminded me of the book of Numbers. I usually just skip over random people’s names I can’t pronounce, and since the whole passage is pretty much filled with names like that, I have always skipped over it. I decided to read it this time. The words flowed over my tongue like poetry even though I struggled to say some of the names. After monotonously reading over So-in-so Begat So-in-son, the passage ended with “Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

I had unfortunately missed this incredible passage in which Matthew decided to begin his entire Gospel account. From Abraham, to David, the Jews had been waiting for this moment. Matthew was showing us—no proving to us—that Jesus was from a line of Royalty. The line prophesied the Messiah would come from the line of Abraham (Gen 22:18), through the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), and the family of David (2 Sam. 7:12-13). Matthew was introducing a King! Then Matthew not only shows Jesus’ natural connection with his Foster father Joseph, he proves to the Jews Jesus’ divine heredity. Jesus was Royally Divine. I could think of no better way to begin a story of Jesus at Christmas than to prove to the world He is who He says He is…the Christ.

So this Christmas when I eat the cookies and drink the milk Santa did not, I’m going to read the beginning of Matthew to remind myself I serve a King.

I’ll end with a few definitions that changed the way I pray and see my Savior:

The three names assigned to God’s Son:
Jesus= Savior, from the Hebrew Joshua.
Christ= Anointed, Greek equivalent to Messiah
Immanuel=Describes who He is-God With Us-Jesus is God.

So when Matthew ends the genealogy with “Jesus was born, who is called Christ,” he is distinguishing Jesus from any other person on earth. That’s a good reason to celebrate.

Merry Christmas

In Him,

Cody Van Scyoc