Not a "Holy" blood line: A Different Christmas Story #1

Ever wish you didn't have to read that one story The Gruffalo over and over to your child? Your child loves it though so you do...unless you are like me and you try to persuade them with a shorter, easier to read or funnier story (think Green Hat, Blue Hat, If you give a Mouse a Cookie, or Goodnight Gorilla).
                   Yet, honestly, there is one story I never tire of reading each year. A story that continues to unravel layers and rich details. The Christmas story that tells of Jesus' birth. I've heard it again and again and there is always something new revealed to my head and heart. There is something so pure, truthful and even comforting to me to say these verses out loud every year, "...You (Mary) will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign...forever; his kingdom will never end." Luke 1:31-33 NIV

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This month, I am writing a short series (to be read like a devotional) to share what God has shown me with you. My hope is that the Lord will use this month to speak to our hearts as he changes our perspectives on the Christmas story. Hope you can join me. 

NOT a Holy Blood Line

(Matthew 1:1-17)

     When I think of kings I think of royalty, riches, honorable and noble qualities. Perhaps, my perspective of them as deserving or born into greatness comes from the fact that one is expected to worship or at least show loyalty and reverence to the king lest they get their head chopped off.

    History has shown how imperfect kings and their ancestry has been, but at the time I am sure that was not for the general public's knowledge. So why does it surprise me that Jesus' earthly blood line was so tainted?

     Maybe, like the Israelites, my version of a king comes from a misunderstood belief that a king would come from a dignified family, raised in a respectable manner and from a noble birth place.

     But, Jesus didn't. His earthly heritage was chalk full of sinners! 

Many of Jesus' great grandfathers were kings that did evil in the eyes of the Lord: Rehoboam, Abijah, Jehoram, Ahaz, Mannasseh, and Amon. Three of the four women named in the genealogy in Matthew were quite imperfect. Tamar pretended to be a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law, Rahab worked as a prostitute before her life was spared because she helped and listened to Joshua's spies before Jericho was conquered and Bathsheba committed adultery with King David.

Jesus really did come from humans full of folly, but he still came to forgive and save them and us! His imperfect genealogy shows how humbly he came into the world..."Who being in very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness..." Philippians 2:6-7

There is just something so freeing to know that if God would use a band of misfits to be Jesus' relatives then, he will certainly use us for his plans too.