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Matthew 1:1-17 - Christmas Brings Us Together: Where I
Come From…
Doug Partin – The Christian Church – December 02, 2012
I was never sure where the Partin side of my family came from. My dad,
whose philosophy was to tell people what you think they want to hear,
didn’t seem to be much help. It’s not that he didn’t show an interest in
our genealogy, but his conclusions about it changed pretty frequently.
At one point we were descendants from farm hands in France, Partin
being a derivative for a word that meant “pear tree.” Another time we
were direct descendants from Robert the Bruce of Scotland. And after
he failed to conquer England, these particular relatives were sent to
America. “These are staying and those are partin’.” My dad would say
to explain how we got the family name. It wasn’t long after this that a
“Partin Coat of Arms” showed up on his wall, that he purchased from
heritage site, a sure fire way to declare that we were actually from the
midlands of England. You can see why I wasn’t too sure about where
we’d come from. His last determination about where our family history
came from was that he was Jewish.
If nothing else, he did pique my curiosity about where I came
from; not that knowing would change anything about who I am, but I’ve
always loved a good mystery. Since then, I’ve sorted out a few things
about my ancestry, but there are still lots of questions left to answer,
and trying to find those answers makes me appreciate the kind of
information that Matthew provided about Jesus’ genealogy.
Everyone in Israel traced their genealogy back to Father Abraham,
even though some kept going all the way back to Adam. Even so,
tracing your ancestry through Judah and down to King David’s royal
line is quite impressive despite some of them being less than exemplary,
like Manasseh who was notorious for his wicked reign. But even those
ancestors played a large enough role in the life of Israel to be
mentioned in the history books.
Most people looking into where they came from don’t have this
kind of impressive historical record that not only mentions family
members by name but records their escapades, but most people are
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not descended from royalty. The stories of a few people listed in
Joseph’s genealogy are long forgotten, like Matthan, and some relatives
didn’t make the list at all; in order to get three groups of 14
generations, some people were simply left off the list. We know that
because you can compare Matthew’s genealogy to Luke’s version of it.
And when you do, you’ll also notice different names, like the one for
Joseph’s father. Matthew says it was Jacob, and Luke says it was Eli.
But don’t let that worry you, the two lists can be harmonized, and
if you’re interested in that sort of thing I’d love to get together with
you and walk through all the messy family implications, like the
possibility of Eli dying before he and his wife had a child and Joseph’s
mother being married to Eli’s brother Jacob; a good old fashioned
Levirate marriage that led to Joseph’s birth.
One thing is certain; none of the people in either genealogy are
directly related to Jesus even though Matthew as well as Luke begin
their genealogies by saying that this is Jesus’ family tree. Whether your
version says “the father of” or “beget” those words are not used to
connect Joseph to Jesus.
Joseph may have had the royal pedigree which helps us connect
the prophecies about the Messiah coming from the tribe of Judah and
through King David’s line; but Joseph is mentioned only as Mary’s
husband. In other words, he was not Jesus’ biological father, but Joseph
did accept the responsibility to raise Jesus as his own son, which meant
that Jesus had bestowed upon him a legitimate heritage through
adoption.
An adopted child may not get the family genes, but in those days
they not only got the traditions, preferences and character pressed
upon them by being raised up in the family, they were not only trained
in the family business, but they were given the family name and all the
entitlements and associations that went with it. So Joseph’s family
became Jesus’ family in this way.
It’s interesting that in the New Testament adoption becomes a
metaphor for salvation, and we who are adopted in this way end up
calling God “Our Father.” In fact, Father is probably the most common
term we use in prayer, and rightly so, for that is the pattern Jesus set
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when teaching his disciples to pray.
The fact that God is our Father also implies that only believers in
Christ are His adopted children. Admittedly Malachi wrote, “Do we not
all have one Father? Has not one God created us all?” (Mal. 2:10) and
Paul did say to the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill, “As even some of
your poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring’ ” (Acts 17:28). But
Scripture makes it perfectly clear that God is the father of unbelievers
only through creation.
Spiritually speaking, unbelievers have a different father. In His
severest condemnation of the Jewish leaders who opposed Him, Jesus
said, “You are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). And in 1John 3 two
spiritual families are clearly indicated: the children of God and the
children of the devil. The former do not continue to be slaves to sin;
but the latter do. This spiritual division can also be seen in the Apostle
Paul’s clear distinction between the children of light and the children of
darkness (Eph. 5:8).
The apostle John wrote about it in this way, “Jesus came to His
own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood
nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John
1:11-13
The apostle Paul wrote, “For you are all sons of God through
faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you
are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)
Yes, we are adopted into God’s family.
Did you notice that Matthew identified Jesus as the Messiah three
times in his genealogy? That’s a good indication of how Matthew
ultimately connected Jesus to Joseph’s ancestry. The prophecy of a
Messiah was integral to Abraham’s call, Rahab’s shelter of the spies,
Boaz’ redemption of Ruth, David’s establishment of a Kingdom,
Rehoboam’s division of it, the events that led to Israel’s deportation to
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Babylon under Jeconiah, Zerubbabel’s rebuilding of the Temple, and
Zadok’s priesthood. In fact, every person mentioned can be connected
by their need for, hope in, or promise of a Messiah. In fact, we can all
be connected to this family tree in the same way for we all need a
Messiah; we need someone to save us, to adopt us into God’s family.
For none of us want to end up in the wrong family; which reminds
me of the time, back in 1721, that a wealthy Irishman offered to adopt
Charles Wesley and make him his legal heir. The 13-year-old boy
refused the offer, choosing to continue his way through school under
very difficult circumstances. This turned out to be one of the most
momentous decisions of Wesley’s life. For under those circumstances
he came to know his need to be adopted into God’s family, and His life
was forever changed he accepted God’s offer of salvation; and Wesley’s
desire to see that same kind of change in others led him to become one
of the most well-known preachers and hymn writers of all time and a
social change agent in England. The boy who was adopted in place of
Charles became the grandfather of the Duke Wellington, who defeated
Napoleon. That is not to say that this boy was not a Christian, but it is
to show the difference that being in the right family can make.
Matthew’s account reveals how Joseph took Mary as his wife, how
she came to be with child, and how Joseph came not only to accept her
child as the long expected Messiah, but to celebrate it. It’s the story of
how these three came together as a family, and how the one who was
adopted became the one who would adopt any and all into God’s
family. So you could say that this is our spiritual genealogy as well.
While learning about our family history can be captivating, the
record of 42 generations reminds us of just how long this family waited
for God to keep His promise to send the Messiah. For Joseph and
Mary, the wait was finally over. The Messiah had come. All they had to
do was remain faithful to what they knew to be true. And we are in a
similar situation. We too know that the Messiah has come. And with
each passing day we also wait upon the Lord.
As they surely did, we too will have to fight off doubts, confront
lies and slander, and hold faithfully to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah.