Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 30, 2018
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: We are interconnected because of our humanness.
Where we come from can say a lot about who we are. My mom is big into the study of her genealogy. It’s interesting to hear her findings. We are descendants of Pocahontas’ sister. We have family related to her late father who she never met, as he died in the war. We are a mixture of many European cultures, but I am primarily from the Slovak side of Czechoslovakia. My kids are related to Davy Crockett on my husband’s side. These give me glimpses into who I am because I have information about who came before me.
This genealogy of Jesus connects Jesus to many of God’s chosen including King David (an important figure in the history and future of Israel), Ruth (the Moabite wife of Boaz), and Abraham (with whom God made the covenant that included all of Israel). This interconnectedness helps us to see that the people Jesus came to save (us and all of God’s children) are also connected by the very nature of being human. While Jesus could trace his roots all the way back, we too, can understand ourselves to be connected to all human beings because we have all been created by a loving parent, God.
There is significance to the mention of 14, which numbers the generations between Abraham to David, David to Babylon, and Babylon to the Messiah. Seven is the number of completion. In Christ, God’s work is made complete not only by 7, not only by 7 + 7, but by 7+ 7 three times. This is not to say God is done with us. Instead, it suggests that God is done messing around with covenants that get broken, renewed, broken again, and remade. This is the final and lasting covenant God will make with people. Jesus has come to make the covenant eternal.
Narrative Lectionary Daily Reading:
Matthew 1:1-17
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
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