🕃 The Holy Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus.
Ephesians 5:20-26; Luke 3:23-4:1.
Read Luke 3:23-4:1
Jesus’ genealogy is provided twice in the gospels: in the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew and in chapter three of the Gospel of Luke. Each genealogy account provides a different perspective. The account in Matthew’s gospel begins with Abraham and goes forward in time, but the one in Luke’s gospel begins with Jesus and goes backwards in time to Adam, the first man. Some of the names are identical between the two lists, but there are discrepancies. It seems that Matthew’s list purposefully includes three sets of fourteen names, with “fourteen” being understood to be a symbol for the name “David.” Matthew’s gospel was written for a Jewish audience and wanted to demonstrate that Jesus is truly the Messiah, born of David, in fulfillment of the promises made to the patriarch Abraham. Luke’s gospel was written for a Gentile audience, and his list beginning with Jesus and tracing back to Adam emphasizes how God’s salvation is open to all mankind.
God kept His covenant with Abraham, saying to him: “I will certainly bless you, and assuredly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you obeyed My voice” (Gen. 22:17-18). God fulfilled this promise to Abraham by the birth of Christ, and St. Paul teaches that “it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7). As people of faith, we too are descendants of Abraham!
The gospel accounts were written down to preserve Jesus’ teachings and tell us who Jesus is. There may be differences in the details between gospel accounts, but this is not a problem for us. Even their differences can teach us important truths about Jesus. Among the names of Christ’s ancestors are the righteous and unrighteous, Jews and Gentiles, men and women. As descendants of Abraham by faith, we have been grafted into Jesus’ family tree. Even though the genealogy lists are different in Matthew and Luke’s gospels, both serve to reveal that Jesus is the Messiah Who offers salvation to all peoples.