A Role for Me
Matthew 1:1 (ESV) 1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
When
I was younger, I often gave in to the temptation to skip the genealogy of Jesus
as recorded in Matthew and Luke. The names are difficult to pronounce, and the
long list seems rather boring and inconsequential. Why take the time? How do
people, mostly ancient Jewish men, relate to me, a twenty-first-century white man
some two millennia down the road? I would jump over to what I considered the
meat of the story, the Annunciation, the Magnificat, the Angelic visit to the
shepherds, the visit of the Magi, and most important the birth. This habit
robbed me of a special lesson of hope woven into Advent.
Reading
the long list of names reveals one of the great miracles of God. He regularly
uses imperfect, egregiously failed humans to forward His plans and desires.
Their abject failure pales when compared to His mighty and powerful purpose. Look
carefully into the genealogy of Jesus and you find adulterers, murderers,
liars, and cheats. There are even non-Jews in the Messianic lineage. For His
own reasons, God revels in restoring and using failed humans to flesh out and complete
His strategies. For me, a grievously failed goy, this is good news. His love
and plan overpower my sin and failure. There is hope for me. Through Advent,
not only do I find forgiveness, but I also find purpose. Advent proclaims that
there is a place for me in the broad sweep of God’s plan for restoration and
wholeness.
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