Scripture: Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25; Matthew 1:1-6; 1 Kings 15:34; 1 Kings 16:25-26; 1 Kings 22:52; 2 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 12:14 Series: Advent 2025
The biblical genealogies and the sign of Emmanuel reveal that what is special about Jesus and about us is not bloodline but God’s faithful, undeserved mercy and ongoing relationship with the world.
Illustrations: grandmother-genealogy, adams-family-line, frank-wilson-john-wesley-hardin, medieval-noble-pedigrees, horse-dog-pedigrees, ruth-in-genealogy, tamar-judah-perez, israel-in-exile
December 21, 2025
Emmanuel = Mercy
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-16. Matthew 1:18-25
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. - Isaiah 7:10-16
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus. Matthew 1:18-25
My grandmother was really interested in genealogy. This is back in the eighties and nineties before we had easy access to scannable records and Ancestry.com.
My grandmother didn’t have any of those tools. She would go to places around the country, often to local public libraries, and search the records there and fill out the family tree in the old fashioned way.
Her family name was Adams. The Adamses went back to before the American Revolution with David Adams, who claimed to be a General in the American Revolution after coming over from Scotland.
Another side of the family, on her mother’s side, were the Wilsons, and that’s where my first name comes from. Frank Wilson was the sheriff in Comanche, Texas, and a family friend of John Wesley Hardin, the notorious Gunfighter whose father was a Methodist preacher. He was named John Wesley for a reason, but his life took a little different trajectory than his namesake.
Genealogies became really big in Europe, in the Middle Ages, especially for nobility because of the value of noble blood in making marriages. Now we have genealogies in the Bible and I’ll get to those in a little bit, but they’re not as concerned about blood as in the middle ages. For nobles, arranging marriages was about setting up matches between these nobles from different regions, making sure the bride-to-be or the husband-to-be was of noble blood and having records backing this up. Nobles in the middles ages were glorified warlords and the only way they could trust that Gunther was going to take care of their daughter, Hilda, was to check the pedigree.
This is also where we get to pedigree records for horses and dogs. It comes from the same trajectory, even before any concept of genetics. There was this idea of good blood being passed down, especially kingly blood, noble blood.
One of the most anachronistic ways that we read the Bible is by reading it with this assumption of genealogy, of blood carrying something incredibly beneficial. We understand today that there are genetic traits which are passed down. They are passed down in our genes, not in our blood, but yes, there are genetic traits that pass down, baldness among others, sickle cell, different things of that nature, but that’s not what the genealogists in the middle ages were looking for. They were looking for good blood, blood that made someone good. They thought that people were good because of who their parents were.
Now, if you have your Bible with you or near you or on your phone, and you open up to the first page of the New Testament, there are a set of verses that no one has needlessly pointed on to a pillow. I’d imagine most of skip over these verses or skim them quickly.
There’s a fundamental misunderstanding that often takes place. The misunderstanding is thinking that the genealogies are there to show the tracing of holy blood, of special blood, but this is a mistake: that is not why they are there. The blood is not what is special. The genetic code is not what is special. We see this with the genealogy of Matthew.
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
Judaism is a maternal religion. The faith is transmitted via the mother. David’s great-grandmother was not Jewish. Ruth, as in the book of Ruth, Ruth was not Jewish. She was not Jewish by blood. This detail matters because it shows us that the genealogy in Matthew is not about the blood transmission of the Jewish race. Ruth is mentioned. She isn’t hidden.
It’s not even about good blood or bad blood because we have this moment earlier in the genealogy with Judah, one of the sons of Jacob. Judah has a child with his daughter Tamar, who is Perez, the one named in the genealogy, a child of incest. The genealogy that is not there for the blood prophecy of good blood. The Bible does not have a blood prophecy. The genealogy is there for the relationship between God and the world through the people of Israel. It is about the relationship.
Isaiah
This is what is going on in the prophet Isaiah chapter seven, which takes place before the exile. The prophet writes, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven This is what God is telling Ahaz the king to ask the prophet, and then the prophet shows the sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel. God with us. The sign is to the house of David, which brings us back to genealogy. The promise is through that line, even if the genetics don’t match up, even if the blood doesn’t match up, even if there’s a stain on the blood from earlier, it was never about the blood. It was always about the relationship between God and the world through the people of Israel.
King Ahaz asked for a sign and Isaiah delivers one. The young woman is with child, the virgin is with child. The impossible is taking place, but the impossible is going to take place after exile, after occupation, after a lot of challenging things, but that is a sign.
It’s a continuation of God’s relationship with the world through the people of Israel. God will raise up an anointed king in Israel, but not yet. Not yet in those days before exile. So many of the books of the prophets and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are about how to remain faithful to God despite exile. In Exile, the people were ripped from the homes and forced to work for a king not of their kind. For centuries, they toiled, dreaming of Jerusalem and return to the home that God had promised for them. Instead of giving up on God, exile offered a chance for the people to grow deeper in faith.
In the Books of Kings and Chronicles, we see very few seasons when the people of Israel and the people of Judah were following God. Instead, they turned away from God again and again, causing the prophets to come. Here is a small sample.
He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin. 1 Kings 15:34 ESV
Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.” 1 Kings 16:25-26 ESV
He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” 1 Kings 22:52 ESV
He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.” 2 Kings 8:27 ESV
And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 12:14 ESV
For us today, it is fair, as Christians, to understand ourselves in a state of exile, how can we remain faithful to God in exile from our promised land, the new creation, eternal life with God. We are not there yet. How do we remain faithful?
We do so by remembering God’s faithfulness towards us, God’s mercy towards us. How God showed us a sign with Mary and the child called Emmanuel, God with us. The sign shows us that we are not alone. In the midst of the brokenness of this world, this world still in need of healing, we are not alone. God offered us mercy when we didn’t deserve it. Only mercy can open mercy in us.1 That space offers an incredible possibility for God to move in our lives and transform us here and now.
In this week, as we prepare for the coming of our Lord, we remember that what is special in Jesus is not the blood of his Father, it is the blood he shed for us.
What is special about you is not your parents. No matter how awesome they are. Nor is it your famous ancestor was. You are a child of God created to praise and to serve and to love, and to be a light in the darkness. Don’t be afraid to be a light because God is with you.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Footnotes
-
Jean-Louis Chrétien ↩