A Stained Incredible Lineage

2/23/09…This is incredible. I thought to myself, what can I learn by reading the genealogy of Christ at the start of Matthew? And then truth is revealed. In Jesus Christ, our Savior’s lineage on the female side was in part from Tamar, a Canaanite woman who posed as a prostitute to seduce Judah, Rahab who was a Gentile and a prostitute, Bathsheba who committed adultery with David, and Mary who in everyone’s eyes conceived Jesus outside of wedlock.. Our omnipotent and holy Lord’s lineage was from those whom society looked down upon and it was a lineage stained in sexual sin, both in His eyes and the world’s eyes. From the broken lives rose up a Savior to save us all; I think it speaks volumes that Jesus Christ’s lineage was not from the holiest of holies or from the righteous of righteous. True, the Immaculate Conception was pure, but the lineage was stained.

The interesting thing about this line of thought is tying this all back to the Old Testament and how it all connects. When reading the Old Testament on its own, we may wonder why are the stories of these particular characters shared? It is only when we get to the very start of Matthew that we fully understand these real stories of real people in the Old Testament were the lineage of Jesus Christ all the way to Mary. This was His family history, a dysfunctional family.

This just makes me want to fall down and worship Him with all my might. He made it a point to come from one of us so we could relate to Him. Why? Because as a living example he wanted to show us how much beauty can arise from so much dysfunction. This speaks of a love and compassion of which I have no words for. Our Holy Father choosing to come from one of us; why indeed would he do this if not for the all consuming love He has for us?

Oh my Savior, my God, my Love, how can I ever repay You for Your sacrifice? You did this just so I would know You understand me, and how broken I am, and how stained I am, and You humbled Yourself by sharing Your own family history in all of its dysfunction. And now Your real beauty shines as You show me the beauty that can arise from the depths of such brokenness… Father, I pray our homeless friends may understand there is beauty within the dysfunction of their lives and their Savior, our Savior knows this because His beauty came from dysfunction. Indeed, I am stunned by the depth of this truth.