Outsiders Welcome

Open your Bible to Matthew chapter 1, and you'll probably want to skip the first seventeen verses. It's a list of names. So-and-so was the father of so-and-so, who was the father of so-and-so. It reads like the fine print nobody bothers with. But stick with me here, because this list is actually the front door to the whole New Testament, and it's doing something way more interesting than you'd think.

Matthew opens with this line: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." If you were a first-century Jewish reader, that first phrase would stop you in your tracks. The words Matthew uses echo the opening of Genesis, the book of beginnings. Matthew is telling you, right from sentence one, that something brand new is starting. This isn't just another family record. This is a new beginning for the whole story of God and his people. And then he drops two names that would make any Jewish reader sit up: son of David, son of Abraham. David was the king God promised would have someone from his family sitting on the throne forever. Abraham was the man God chose to bless the entire world through. So in one sentence, Matthew is saying: everything God promised centuries ago is showing up in this one guy, Jesus.

Here's what stood out to me as I sat with this passage. Before Jesus ever heals anyone, teaches anyone, or forgives anyone, before he does a single miracle, Matthew wants you to know where he came from. And the family tree Jesus comes from is not the pristine, put-together family you'd expect for a king. We'll get into the details over the next few days, but there are liars in this list. There are outsiders in this list. There are people who did some genuinely messed-up things. And Jesus doesn't hide from any of them. He comes from them, on purpose.

That's actually really good news if you've ever felt like your story is too messy for God to use. This passage says otherwise, right from verse one. Before you get to the manger, before you get to the sermon on the mount, before you get to the cross, you get a family tree full of ordinary, flawed, real people. And God writes his biggest promise into their story anyway. So this week, as we walk through the opening of Matthew, read it differently than maybe you have before. Not as a boring list to get through, but as an invitation. If God could work through this family, he can work through yours. He can work through you.