“We can draw strength, love and so many other blessings from our ancestors as we learn about them, practice gratitude for them, and perform sacred ordinances for them in the temple” If Only Our Ancestors Could Talk by Sheiyenne Baloo
What has this got to do with the gospel reading today? We are presented with a genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, arranged into three neat sections of fourteen generations all connected to Abraham and David. What is it about all these generations of people named that should even attract our attention?
These days more people spend time researching their origins. They want to know where they came from. Who are the people that in some way influence who they are and have become? In East Africa, given the great impact of tribes on people’s lives, we take pride and honor in the ability of being able, whenever we introduce ourselves, to also name three to four past generations from which we originate. Why, because those ancestors form an important part of our life story; they provide roots, or the foundation on which life is built. They are a source of blessings to who we are as individuals.
The genealogy affirms that Jesus indeed is a descendant of Abraham. It is part of our story as believers in Christ. It points to the blessing that foreshadows God’s fulfillment in raising up his anointed in the person of His Son Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as we read and reflect on the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the invitation for us is to recognize that all the names mentioned had a role to play in the coming of Jesus. And that God’s mercy and kindness is quietly and discreetly being extended to all of us. Given the fact those listed in the genealogy of Jesus were anything but paragons of virtue, we too, in spite of our own personal fragilities and weakness, can still have a role to play in bringing Jesus, Emmanuel, to all those who continue to long for his coming.