Sunday message · The Season of Grace series
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Message Summary
In the second message of The Season of Grace, a Christmas series, Danielle Allen turns to a passage most readers skip: Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23–38). Christmas brings family to mind, she says, and for some that is hard because of unhealthy families, unresolved conflict or someone missing from the table. It may help to know that Jesus also had a family tree. Her conviction is that the Christmas story was meant to change our families and our lives.
Luke used the genealogy to show that Jesus was qualified to be our Savior. He traces 77 generations from Jesus back to Adam, including Abraham, promised that all nations would be blessed through his family, and David, promised a descendant who would reign forever. The promise took thousands of years, including exile and four hundred years of silence, and Israel could have thought God had forgotten them.
Danielle’s first point is that God is always at work in our story, even when he seems to have forgotten. People of faith died still waiting for the promise (Hebrews 11:13–16), and Peter reminds us that the Lord is not slow but patient. She shares how, when she thought God had forgotten, he eventually brought a reset in a long, distant relationship with her father. As Tim Keller writes in Hidden Christmas, we cannot judge God by our calendar, and his promises, when fulfilled, exceed what we imagine.
Her second point is that God is not afraid of a mess. Jesus’ family tree includes David, a man after God’s own heart who had an affair and sent the woman’s husband to the front lines to die; Judah and Tamar, whose story is tangled with deception; and Jacob, who tricked his brother out of his birthright and blessing. As Max Lucado puts it, the Messiah came in spite of his ancestors. If Jesus could come from a mess, Danielle says, so can we; her own family tree has messy chapters too. God loves us in the middle of our mess, and when we bring it to him, he can transform it.
Finally, each link in the genealogy says something about who Jesus is: David establishes his right to the throne, Abraham ties him to Israel’s hope for a Messiah, and Adam shows that he represents all humanity and is uniquely qualified to be the Savior. Borrowing Tim Keller’s contrast between advice, which tells us what to do, and news, which reports what has been done and calls for a response, Danielle says the Christmas story is news: we do not save ourselves; God has come to save us.
She closes by asking how we will respond. Those still exploring might keep reading or talk with the person who invited them or the prayer team, and those who let Christmas fly by, as she admits she often does, can pause to respond. Echoing Max Lucado’s Because of Bethlehem, she asks how we can make our hearts a manger this Christmas, inviting Jesus into our mess, our story and our families, and prays.