People Like You and Me

As a young Catholic, I never picked up a Bible until my twenties. Catholics use missals and prayerbooks mostly.

I was told that when I started the Bible I should start in the New Testament rather than the Old Testament. I remember the first time I opened Matthew’s gospel. Thinking that it was like any other book, I began at the first page: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…”

Although I remembered hearing the names of David and Abraham during my visits to church, I didn’t know much more about those two patriarchs than the fact that they were Jews.

“Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah became the father of Perez…”

At this point, I halted and said to myself, “BORING!”

Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Ablud…”

I stopped reading. Not only was I clueless about who those people were, I couldn’t even pronounce their names! I closed the book and wondered why anyone wasted their time reading the New Testament.

Today, more than five decades later, and having read the old and New Testaments many times, I have a different opinion. If I could go back in time and talk to myself before I closed that BORING book, I’d tell myself that list of nearly unpronounceable names is not as mind-numbing as it seemed. Instead, it has the power to encourage the most discouraged among us.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ illustrates God’s absolute control over His plan of salvation. Through Abraham and David, God sent a Messiah who would redeem humankind from their sins and reconcile them to the Father. That plan for our redemption would not – could not – be thwarted, even by the sins of individuals in direct lineage to the Savior.

For example, Abraham offered his wife, Sarah, to an Egyptian king in order to save his own neck. David made another man’s wife pregnant, and then had him murdered to cover up his adultery. Solomon, also in the genealogy, built altars for his wives to worship false gods. Manasseh practiced witchcraft and human sacrifice.

But God’s plan for humanity’s redemption persevered – and continues to persevere. He wove the good and the bad into an intricate tapestry that unveiled first in a Bethlehem manger, then unfurled throughout Church history, despite the scandals, shame and divisions of His people.

Jesus’ genealogy is a register of people like you and me – sinful, weak, fearful. The King of Glory was born into our human family to redeem the lost, strengthen the weak and encourage the fearful. He was born to make us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,” so that we would accept and declare His salvation to those who don’t believe God cares for them (see 1 Peter 2:9).

When we see the inevitableness of God’s plan through the ages, we shouldn’t be so easily tempted to wonder if God really is in complete control of the affairs of our world – or of things that directly affect our lives.

We’d only have to remember the genealogy of Christ to realize that what God starts, He sees through to completion. He started our salvation when we accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and this also HE WILL SEE THROUGH TO COMPLETION.

And nothing can frustrate His plan.

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