Jesus Christ – Background Info

I read in a Bible study one day a fascinating statement about Jesus Christ. It went something like this:

“Most people have an opinion as to who Jesus Christ is. They think one of three things when asked who Jesus is to them.

1. A liar
2. He was a lunatic
3. He is the Son of God

I personally believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Lately, I have been talking about the birth of Jesus, mainly the different characters involved. I thought it would be fun to look at some background information about the times and places of those characters.

We don’t need Ancestry.com for this.

Two books in the New Testament address the genealogy of Jesus – the book of Mathew, and the book of Luke. You don’t need to go to Ancestry.com and look this up. You can see the ancestral details for yourself in the Bible.

What’s interesting is that Matthew and Luke approach the genealogy differently. Matthew approaches Jesus’ lineage from the family line of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, while Luke approaches Jesus’ lineage from the family line of Mary, the virgin mother who gave birth to Jesus.

Here’s what fascinates me, though. In Jesus’ lineage, you have several different characters. In the book of Matthew, we meet 46 people whose lifetimes span 2,000 years. They were all ancestors of Jesus.

But here’s the exciting thing – they all vary in personality, spirituality, and experience. Some ancestors were real heroes of the faith like Abraham, Isaac, Ruth, and David. Some were a little shadier like Rahab and Tamar. If you recall, Tamar was an adulteress, and Rahab was a harlot.

Then you have a few evil ones like Manasseh and Abijah. Moreover, you have several ordinary people in his lineage as well.

Do you want to know what’s cool?

The family trees show how God still works out His plan through various types of people – some good and some not so good. Therefore God is not limited to human failures or sins. God used all kinds of people to bring Jesus Christ, His Son, our Savior into a broken world.

God still does that today – uses all kinds of people to accomplish His will, and one of those people is you.

Let’s pray.

Father, I pray I would be as willing as Mary to carry out your will for my life. Lord, use me to do your will. Help me to be the vessel you want me to be – to do your work. Lord today, I say a special prayer for all the folks reading this. You already know their needs and hear their prayers. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, into the world for a wretched woman like me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

Bridge to Grace – a nonfiction novel

Counting the Cost