Father Of David

The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.  Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.  Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab.  Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.  Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.  Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king…

Quite the ancestry!    John became the father of Henry, Henry the father of Edward.  Edward became the father of David, the deacon.   My knowledge of all those Pierce’s is miniscule compared to that of Jesus.  According to Matthew, Jesus goes all the way back to Abraham, many centuries of forefathers and mothers.  I go back to the mid-1800s.   

One wonders.   Matthew didn’t have the internet and ancestry websites searched by computers.   With no written records and relying on memory (or not), this sort of ancestry is guesswork and hoped-for lineage to make an important point which is Abraham was at the beginning from whom Jesus as descended. 

In Luke Jesus is descended from Adam – the first man, according to the Bible.  Now that’s an ancestor!   Then again, if he was the first man, then we are all descended from Adam.   Quite the genetic hurdle that had to be overcome and, of course, it disregards evolution.   As noted in the September issue of Scientific American, through evolution humans became a “different kind of animal” with “an evolved uniqueness.”  The authors stated, “Our uniqueness has to do with a capacity to teach skills to others over the generations with enough precision for building skyscrapers or going to the moon.”

Frankly, we needn’t be concerned about Jesus’s ancestry.  All we need to know is Jesus – who he was and what he taught.  He was unique, and for that reason we follow him – not Abraham, not Jacob, not Boaz, not even David.  We follow and learn from Jesus Christ, on whom a faith was built.

Deacon David Pierce