For the rest of Lent we'll be working our way through the gospel of Matthew, slowly making our way to the cross...
Ordinary
| Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. (Matthew1:15-16) |
Matthew starts his gospel with a genealogy. His original audience was predominantly Jewish and he started with the genealogy to demonstrate that Jesus was, in fact, from the tribe of Judah and a descendant of David as the prophecies had foretold.
Many people look at the genealogy and pick out the significant names: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Hezekiah and so on. Some pick out the unusual names - Rahab, Tamar, Uriah's wife...
But today I want to pause on the last few names...
Why?
Because we know absolutely nothing about them!
They may have been boring normal folk, peasant carpenters like Joseph. Or one of them may have been a wild character... Maybe one of them was a lazy layabout, another could have been an elder and leader in the community.
Jesus' lineage is a mix of kings and commoners, honourable people and ragamuffins. He comes for all of us and He comes in the midst of grandads finishing their lives, dads raising their families, and sons dreaming about starting their families.
We tend to limit our focus on God for "Holy" moments: Church, Daily Devotions, saying Grace and so on. But God comes in the midst of all our lives.
Today's Lent challenge is to go through the ordinariness of the day and remind ourselves that Jesus came to be with us in that...
