“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, . . . “Matthew 1:1-17 (NIV)
These aren’t the first verses our minds run to when we think about the Christmas story. Every gospel writer presents Jesus in a unique light. Matthew, for example, seeks every opportunity to point the reader to Jesus’ Kingship, starting with the first verse. Matthew 1:1 is an introduction to a long genealogy. Modern readers are tempted to skip over this long, boring list of names, but a first century Jew would have found the list both impressive and exciting.
Matthew is announcing the “good news” of the coming of a King from David’s line. It would have rocked the first century Jewish community. For almost 200 years there had been no Davidic descendant on the throne. Herod, who claimed to be their King, had no royal blood and wasn’t even fully Jewish. He was, in fact, a local warlord, who had been put in power by the Romans.
In ancient Israel, the role of the God’s appointed king was to put right what was broken in the life of the nation. Israel’s kings, by and large, had failed in this fundamental task. The effect of this was captivity and judgment, which many felt could not end as long as they were still living under the oppression of a foreign power.
Matthew presents Jesus as the one who has now come to do what no mere human king could ever do. His mission, the reader will soon discover, is not simply to rescue Israel, but the nations, and ultimately to put right everything that has been put wrong through the fall in the whole cosmos itself.
But the story that follows is also a very personal one, because we are also being introduced the to the King who can put right the things that are wrong in our lives as we turn to him in repentance and faith. We celebrate the coming of Jesus because he is the King, the Christ, the Messiah who is able to rescue us from our sin and give us a hope and a future that is far richer than anything we could ever dream possible!
For more watch the following video:
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/31037/Genealogy-Of-Jesus
Jim Mckee
In The Fullness of Time 