WARNING PREACHY…
(and unedited)
NOTE: This morning I am typing this with my thumbs on my
iPod: please forgive and expect typos.
In the discovery of who Jesus is, I am mindful of his
humanity. When The Word Became flesh, when Emmanuel (which means God
with us) came to earth and dwelt among us, when the child was born and laid in
the manger, God entered into our world in a specific human lineage.
If I were God coming to earth, I would have inserted myself
into the world by becoming a part of a high-born wealthy family. A family where I was guaranteed the comforts
of life and one without any blemishes in the blood line.
When I married into my wife's family I knew I was marrying
up. Seriously, my wife was college
educated and both of her parents had Masters Degrees. At the time, I don't think anyone (even
cousins) in my family was college educated, in fact, neither of my parents even
had a high school diploma. Her father
had written and published a few books while my father simply read books. Her family was white collar and mine was
desperately blue. All of this indicates
to me that I was marrying into a different class of people.
When my wife's great grandmother died, my father in-law went
through her personal effects and found journals, letters, and other family
related historical documents. He laughs
as he relates what he's learned but he hasn't been too specific. He indicated that the family line is not as
pure as the driven snow as we have always thought. That in the lineage of this family that I
married up into is a history of some stuff that makes our families seems so
very equal. There's something very comforting in that I think.
Now back to the lineage of Jesus.
A man named Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, had a son who
died and left a widow. Years later Judah
came upon a prostitute and lay with her.
A few months later he was told his son's widow was guilty of
prostitution so he ordered that she should be burned to death. However the daughter-in-law proved that it
was her father-in-law Judah's baby so she got out of having to burn. So she had the baby and named the child
Perez.
Matthew
1:1-3
The lineage of Jesus Christ...
Abraham the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah,
Judah the father of Perez.
When God inserted himself into humanity, he didn't do so by
putting himself into the best and cleanest family tree he could find, he placed
himself into one with many spots and wrinkles and at least two prostitutes.
Somehow, this comforts me; it makes our families seem more
equal.
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