Among the four Gospels only two, Matthew and Luke, have genealogies. Matthew tells us that Jesus is the proper descendant of the royal family, that He is the legal heir of the royal throne. Such a person surely needs a genealogy telling of His origin and descent. Luke presents Jesus as a proper, normal man. To show Jesus as a proper man also requires a genealogy. In Mark, Jesus is pictured as a bondslave, as one sold into slavery. A bondslave has no need of a genealogy; hence, Mark does not include one. John tells us that Jesus is God. “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God.” With Him there was no beginning, no descent. He is eternal, with no beginning of life nor end of life (Heb. 7:3). In the beginning was God! For John to talk about His genealogy would be ridiculous.
With anybody else, no matter who he is or how many biographies people write about him, the genealogy will be exactly the same. But Jesus has two genealogies. Later on we shall see how these genealogies eventually become one. Once again we see that He is wonderful. In every aspect, He is too wonderful.
Now we come to the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. We need to realize who Jesus is. Who is Jesus? We may answer by saying that He is the Son of God, but this genealogy does not have such a term. Rather, it calls Him the son of David and the son of Abraham. Because Jesus is so wonderful, it is difficult to say who He is.
Jesus is the mingling of God with man, the mingling of divinity with humanity. This is the generation of Jesus. The generation of Jesus means that He is the mingling, the wonderful mingling. In this generation we have the mingling of the divine Being with so many human beings, with all kinds of people. We should no longer think that Matthew 1:1-17 is just a list of names.
The generation of Christ is composed of:
These are the forefathers, the great persons. All together they make up fourteen generations (1:2-6a).
These are the kings, the royalty, who also make up fourteen generations (1:6b-10).
The generation of Christ not only includes the highranking people, but also the civilians, the insignificant ones, like Mary and Joseph. The poor people, the little people, are also included in the generation of Christ. Christ was ranked not only with the patriarchs and with the kings, but also with a group of civilians. He was not only of the great ones, of the royal ones, but also of the little ones. From this picture of the generation of Christ, we can see that it includes all kinds of people.
This generation includes both the called ones, like Abraham, and the ones carried away to captivity. In this brief record we have the words “carrying away” (v. 17). Abraham was called out of Babel, the origin of Babylon. The generation of Christ includes not only the called ones, but also the backsliders. Perhaps five years ago you were a called one, but today you are a backslider. Do not be disappointed. The generation of Christ includes you. This generation includes Jeconiah, a king who was dethroned and carried away to Babylon as a captive. Have you ever been dethroned? Do not think you have not. In your Christian life you sometimes have been dethroned. Once you were a king, but you lost your kingship and became a backslider. Our forefather Abraham came from Babylon; yet you went back, not willingly, but were carried back. Praise the Lord that the generation of Christ includes even the fallen ones!
After captivity there was the recovery. Hence, we have another name, Zerubbabel, the name of recovery. Many captives returned with Zerubbabel. The generation of Christ includes all kinds of people: good ones, bad ones, called ones, fallen ones, and recovered ones. If I were to ask you which kind you are, you may say that firstly you were a called one, then a fallen one, and finally a recovered one. You were an Abraham, you became a Jeconiah, but today you are a Zerubbabel. We are all Zerubbabels. We are the called ones, the fallen ones, and the recovered ones.