An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham… Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

–Matthew 1:1-17

We love to know where we come from. Genealogy is a growing industry with websites like ancestry.com and others like it. It can be deeply moving to uncover stories of forefathers. Learning about the struggles of your ancestral past can give you hope and strength for the days ahead. This kind of inspiration can galvanize a family together and give exemplars for children to aspire to be.

My oldest son, Alexander, is named for Brevet Major General Alexander Shailer. General Shailer won the Medal of Honor and led the 7th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. We named Xander after this family hero with the hopes his name would inspire him to do great things like our forefather.

The very first thing that Matthew’s gospel tells us about the story of Jesus is his genealogy. At a glance that seems pretty boring. Though it does have some awesome names (Jehoshaphat, Zerubbabel). Yet, it serves a very important and moving purpose. It lets all who hear it know that Jesus is directly linked to the amazing acts and promises of God throughout all of history. Not only that, we know that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, our baptism grafts us onto this very same family tree.

A pretty impressive lineage we have in Christ…Don’t you think?