GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CELEBRATION AND COMMEMORATION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST ON CHRISTMAS DAY…SPIRITUAL THOUGHT..6

Though Christ’s Divine nature was from eternity, His human nature had a Jewish background.  The blood that flowed in His veins was from the Royal House of David, through His mother, who, though poor belonged to the lineage of the great king. In fact His contemporaries called him “The Son of David”.

The people would never have consented to regard as a messiah any pretender who did not fulfill this indispensable condition. Nor did He ever deny it. Luke, who wrote for the Gentiles, traced Our Lord’s descent back from the first man, Adam. But Matthew, who wrote for the Jews, presented Him as the “Son of David” and “The Son of Abraham”.

Luke is concerned about “The Son of Man.” Whilst Matthew is concerned about The King of Israel.”

The genealogy goes beyond the Hebrew background to include a few non-Jews, and some who did not have a good reputation in the world. One was Rahab who was a foreigner and a sinner; another was Ruth, who was a foreigner though morally she was good, and was received into the Jewish nation.

A third was Betsabee whose sin with David cast shame upon the Royal line. Why should there be blots in the Royal escutcheon ?  Betsabee, whose womanly purity was tainted, and Ruth, who, though morally correct,  was an introducer of alien blood into the Jewish stream. Possibly it was in order to to indicate Christ’s relationship to the stained and to the sinful, to harlots and sinners and even to the gentiles who were included in His Message and Redemption.

There were sinners in Christ’s family tree, and he would seem to be the greatest sinner of all when He would hang upon the family tree of the Cross, making men adopted sons of the Heavenly Father.

Adapted from 'The Life of Christ' by Fulton Sheen