So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to tthe Christ fourteen generations. (Matthew 1:17 ESV).
Our reading today comes from the opening words of Matthew’ Gospel. It presents us with a list of names in the family line of Jesus. It begins with Abraham and takes us through the lineage of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. Some readers skip over such lists, seeing them as boring or only filled with names that are hard to pronounce. The gospel account of Luke has a list of names like this too. There is another list in Luke’s Gospel (cf. Luke 3) that does contain some differences since all such genealogies are selective. However, the message is the same. In each of them God is saying, “See, I have kept my word; the promised Messiah and Savior has come through my chosen people.”
The list in Luke includes many names that are different from those in Matthew, possibly because Luke lists the ancestors of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The list in Luke is also longer than the one in Matthew, going back all the way to the beginning, to connect Jesus with God himself. This helps us see that the story of salvation — indeed, the story of the whole world — is really all about God. God created a good, amazing world, only to have it scarred by sin because our human parents disobeyed (cf. Genesis 3). But God did not sit idly by. He set out to redeem and restore his world!
From the beginning, God planned to renew us through his Son, Jesus. And when Jesus, the Savior, was born in Bethlehem, God’s plan took a major step forward. It affirms that God is One who keeps His promises. So as we look ahead to celebrating Christmas, let us join with the angels who announced Jesus’ birth, singing, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14)!