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Scripture for Sunday, January 8: Luke 3:21-38
Additional Scripture: Galatians 3:8-9, Revelation 5:6-10
As a child I wondered why, oh why, the Bible would include genealogies and other lists of names. The stories of God's people and his presence with them were so much more interesting! Even the wise sayings of Proverbs or the poetry of Psalms spoke so much more readily to my heart.
Why would God give us the tribal divisions in Numbers, for example? Who was interested in that?!
Apparently more mature people than I are interested in where we come from, and what sorts of people we belong to. Family stories are handed down generation to generation. We cherish old photos that give us windows into our immigrant forbearers' lives. And where memory fails, Ancestry.com has an ever-expanding database that allows us to research our family trees.
We all have cultural histories. We want to know whom we belong to and where we have been. Knowing the family history grounds us in time, space, and relationship.
The genealogies in the Bible stand in for the absence of Ancestry.com to show us the family tree of God's people, located in real time and space. And they also point us to the concrete humanity of Jesus Christ. The genealogies are one way Scripture testifies to the reality of God's entry into human history.
Both Matthew and Luke trace Jesus' family tree. While Matthew highlights Jesus' Jewishness as a son of Abraham, Luke highlights Jesus "globalness," tracing Jesus' decent from Adam.
Luke's gospel includes words and details that seem to be chosen specifically for a non-Jewish, "outsider" audience. Luke shows how Jesus has come to reconcile people from all sorts of backgrounds to one another and to God.
Luke's focus on the global kingdom of God is not a unique theme in Scripture.
God's call to Abraham includes the promise that "all nations on earth will be blessed through you."
The Israelites were geographically positioned as a light of God's presence and way as they encountered people from different backgrounds, living as they did on a land bridge connecting different ancient civilizations.
Isaiah expects that all kinds of nations will stream to Jerusalem (chapter 60); and the vision of God's kingdom at the end of time is a vision of people "from every tribe, tongue, language and nation--a kingdom of priests to serve our God." (Revelation 5)
It is a big, global vision. It asks us to listen and learn from others, as well as to share what we have been given. May we grow in the knowledge and love of our global Lord and Savior as he shapes us into his likeness.
Reflect
Consider a few aspects of your own cultural history. Who are your people and where have you come from? How does that history shape your encounters with people around you?
In what ways have you learned about walking with Christ from someone who was very different from you?
Brenda Salter McNeil works with organizations and churches desiring to pursue a multiethnic vision of God's kingdom among them. Read an article from Christianity Today about Salter McNeil's work, and what Christians from different backgrounds can offer to one another.
