Why does the Bible include Jesus' family tree?

Why Does the Bible Include Jesus' Family Tree?

If you've ever opened the New Testament, you've hit it on page one. Matthew 1 is 17 verses of names. So-and-so was the father of so-and-so. Most of us skim it. Some of us skip it.

Pastor Nathan admits he has too. "I've been preaching for almost 20 years," he said on Sunday. "I have never preached on the passage that we are going to look at today." When he finally read it out loud, he thought, "That's why." It "might be one of the most weird, confusing, boring passages in all of the Bible."

But he also said this: "If it's in the Bible, it's applicable." So why is it there?

It's not a list. It's a story.

Matthew opens with "This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1, NLT).

Notice the word the. Not a messiah. Not one of many. The one God had been promising for 2,000 years. As Nathan put it, Matthew starts his book by saying, "We found him."

The family tree isn't cleaned up

Here's what surprises people. Not every name on the list is a hero.

Abraham lied about his wife, twice. Jacob was known as a deceiver. David had a man killed so he could have his wife. Kings like Manasseh did unthinkable evil. Matthew even names four women, which was unheard of in an ancient family record, and their stories are complicated too.

"Man, I so appreciate that the Bible does not clean up Jesus' past," Nathan said. "The Bible doesn't sanitize where Jesus came from."

God works through generations

Matthew splits the list into three sets of 14 generations. The first is full of heroes. The second is full of kings who failed. The last covers years when God seemed silent.

"God works through generations to accomplish his will," Nathan said. "Even when you don't know God is working, God is always weaving it together."

That includes the season you're in right now. The hard parts too.

God isn't late

God promised Abraham a descendant who would save the world. Then about 2,000 years passed. Between the last page of the Old Testament and the first page of Matthew sit 400 years of silence.

People wondered if God forgot. But in those years Rome built roads and a mail system that connected the world. "If I were God, before I sent the savior of the world with the greatest news that the world had ever seen, I would want to make sure that the infrastructure was in place," Nathan said.

"God's never been late, man. He just doesn't operate on your timetable."

God knows your name

It's easy to feel like one person out of billions. This list says otherwise.

"Every one of those numbers have a name," Nathan said, "and every name is a person, and every person has a story, and every story matters to God."

God knows your fears, your hopes and your story. Your life matters to him.

Your past doesn't disqualify you

This might be the best news in the whole chapter. "Dysfunction does not disqualify you from being used by God."

If the list were all perfect people, none of us would fit. But it's full of broken, messy people, and Jesus came from them and came for them. "If God can use them," Nathan said, "then maybe he can use you."

Maybe you come from a hard family story. "You can break the cycle right now," he said. "God can begin with you today to rewrite the story."

Why it matters today

Most names on this list were ordinary people living ordinary days. Their choices still shaped what came next.

"Decisions that you make today will impact generations to come," Nathan said. Today matters. Your faithfulness matters.

That's why the family tree is there. It shows that Jesus welcomes people with a past into his family. That includes you.

Your next step
This is week one of Rooted, a series through Jesus' family tree between now and Christmas. Watch the full message from Pastor Nathan on YouTube or the REVO app.