Tracing Grace: The Genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke

Tracing Grace: The Genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke

An Advent Reflection

1. Context of Our Reflection

As we stand near the close of the Jubilee Year 2025 and prepare for Advent, we reflect on God’s entry into human history. Advent reminds us of three moments at once: the past—the first Christmas; the present—Christ who comes to us daily; and the future—the Lord for whom we continue to wait with hope.

In this season, we look at our own lives and realise that we are more than a list of names or dates. Our personal history is part of God’s larger story. The genealogies of Jesus help us understand how God works through time, generations, and even overlooked people. They invite us to see our own family stories in the light of His saving work.

2. Genealogy: What, Why, How?

A genealogy is simply a list of names, a record of family lines. But in the ancient world, it carried deep meaning.

What: It was a way of documenting one’s roots, identity, and purpose.

Why:

• In the Hebrew Bible, genealogies (called tôledôt) showed origins, family history, and mission.
• In the Greco-Roman world, they gave legitimacy, status, and recognition.
• They connected a person to a larger story.

How: These family records were passed down first through memory and storytelling, and later through written archives kept by the Temple, royal courts, and families.

In short, genealogies told people who they were, where they came from, and what they were meant for.

3. The Two Genealogies of Jesus

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke each present a genealogy of Jesus, but they do so in different ways because they speak to different communities and highlight different truths.

Matthew (1:1–17):

• Begins with Abraham and moves forward to Jesus.
• Highlights Jesus as “Son of David, Son of Abraham.”
• Uses a structured pattern of *three sets of fourteen generations*.
• Includes five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah, and Mary.
• Connects Jesus strongly with Israel’s story, kingship, and covenant promises.

Luke (3:23–38):

• Begins with Jesus and moves backward all the way to Adam.
• Emphasises Jesus as the Son of God.
• Does not include women and does not follow a fixed structure.
• Places the genealogy after Jesus’ baptism to affirm His divine sonship.

Matthew gives us a Jewish picture of Jesus as Messiah. Luke opens the horizon wider, showing Jesus as the Saviour of all humanity.

4. Significance Then

• The genealogies reveal deep truths for their original readers:
• Matthew’s structure (3 x 14) points to King David, whose name adds up to 14 in Hebrew. It quietly declares: Jesus is the true Son of David—the promised Messiah.
• The inclusion of four Gentile women, each with a complex story, shows that God works even through broken histories and unexpected people.
• Jesus is shown as linked to both Abraham (promise) and David (kingship), and ultimately to Mary, through whom God enters human history.
• Luke’s genealogy takes us back to Adam, the “son of God”, underlining Jesus as the new beginning of humanity.
• The differences between Matthew and Luke are not contradictions but serve different theological purposes: Matthew emphasizes Jewish identity and fulfilment. Luke stresses universal salvation and new creation.

Each evangelist uses the genealogy to express who Jesus is and what He has come to accomplish.

5. Significance Now

These ancient lists speak powerfully to us today.

First, they remind us that God works through families—ordinary, imperfect, and sometimes painful. Every generation matters. Each person contributes something to God’s ongoing story.

Second, they teach humility. Ecclesiastes reminds us that generations rise and fall, but God remains. This helps us see our lives in the right perspective—precious, but part of something larger.

Third, they show that God sees our potential, not just our past. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary each show how God transforms lives and uses them for His purpose.

Fourth, they remind us that grace, not merit, lies at the heart of salvation. Jesus entered real human history, with all its messiness, to redeem it from within.

Fifth, One of the most comforting messages in the genealogies is this: God does not see us as we are, but as what we could become.

Rahab was known as a prostitute, yet God saw in her a courageous woman who would save Israel’s spies and become an ancestor of the Messiah. Ruth arrived in Bethlehem as a foreign widow with nothing, yet God saw in her a woman of loyalty and faith who would become the great-grandmother of David. Mary was a simple girl from Nazareth, unnoticed by the world, yet God saw in her the Mother of His Son.

The genealogies remind us that God looks beyond appearances, labels, or past mistakes. He sees possibilities hidden within us—virtues waiting to grow, gifts waiting to be used, and a mission waiting to unfold. His grace shapes our future more than our past shapes us.

Finally, the genealogies tell us that God is with us—Emmanuel—accompanying us through every generation, every struggle, every hope.

6. Advent Invitation

This Advent, the genealogies invite us to a simple but meaningful exercise:

Trace your own story. Look at your family tree or the people who shaped your life. Next to each name, add a memory, a virtue, or a blessing connected to that person.

Honour your roots. See how God has carried you through people you may have forgotten or taken for granted. Remember that behind every name stands a grace that has brought you to this moment.

God has been writing His promise through your story. Just as He shaped salvation history through generations before Christ, He continues His work through your life and family today.

May this Advent help us rediscover the grace that flows through our histories,

and may we welcome Christ who enters our lives, generation after generation,

as the Word made flesh dwelling among us.

Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi

Archdiocese of Madurai

Missionary of Mercy