Advent 2 - Where Are You From?

Day 2 - Where Are You From?
Matthew 1:1-3a, 5-6, 17-21

Have you ever asked, “Where are you from?”

People ask me that from time to time. It’s hard to answer because my family moved around growing up. I usually settle on the place I graduated high school. Everyone comes from somewhere - even Jesus.

Matthew eventually gets to all the familiar bits of the Christmas story that tell us where Jesus comes from. A teenage girl named Mary “was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” before marriage to her fiance, Joseph. Joseph wants to break it off quietly until an angel says, “Don’t do that! Her son is special!” Magi - wise men - track down the holy family to present gifts and worship the newborn Jesus. Fearing a rival, the paranoid King Herod orders Bethlehem babies murdered. Joseph’s family flees to Egypt until it’s safe to go home.

You probably some of this origin story, but first Matthew drones on about a family tree. He introduces the most exciting person in history with a genealogy! You’ll hit a list of names ever so often as you read the Bible. I always ask, “Why are these here? Does God really care if I read these?” More seriously, how does a family tree help us better know Jesus?

Think about what a family tree does. A family tree tells a story. In some ways, Jesus’s family tree is like an ancient photo album. Snapshots filling an album’s pages weave together a family story. I loved looking through my grandparents’ photo albums. I learned that these pictures show where I come from. You’ve probably done the same. You realize these pictures tell your story, especially as your own pictures are added to the album. You come from somewhere, a group of someones. Photo albums and family trees remind you that your story didn’t start with you. It might not mean much to anybody else but it means a lot to you because it’s your story. You come from somewhere.

So does Jesus! He doesn’t teleport in from heaven. He doesn’t reincarnate every generation as a new person. Jesus experiences the full range of human life like we do. He even starts human life with a family. Saints and scoundrels fill his album, too. Just like us, his family tree is one of a kind. The roots of his family tree reach deep into the soil of our Old Testament, filled with names like Abraham, David, Hezekiah, and new names like Mary and Joseph. As we sing in O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, his family doubted, waited, and hoped for centuries until suddenly, Jesus arrives. This child who looks no different than any of us was destined to “save his people from their sins.” He’s God’s gift of hope.

Some critics complain about Jesus’s arrival. Why doesn’t God appear to each of us? Why doesn’t God reincarnate every generation? Why not sky-write every day, “Hello, this is God! I exist!” But this arrival fits. God the Son comes into the world just like us to fully experience life as one of us. Everyone comes from somewhere - even Jesus.

REFLECT
Why is it good news that Jesus has a one-of-a-kind family just like us?

PRAYER
Faithful God, your promises stand unshaken through all generations. Renew us in hope, that we may be awake and alert watching for the glorious return of Jesus Christ, our judge and savior, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. AMEN.