December 14, 2025

What do we celebrate on Christmas? The birth of our country? No. The new year? No. When the groundhog sees its shadow? Come on, now. On Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. You know that. But you may not know the strange way Matthew begins the story of Christmas. He starts with a long list of names, called a genealogy. Genealogy is just a fancy way of saying family tree. Why would he tell the story of Christmas with a genealogy? One reason would be to remind us that Jesus was a real person. Another reason would be to remind us that he’s the promised Snake Crusher (see Matt. 1:1). Those are important reasons. But there just might be a final one. When we read the long list of names, we’re reminded of how sinful people are. There are some big-time sinners on the list. Even Abraham and David, men of great faith, were big-time sinners. What does all this have to do with Jesus? Well, Jesus wasn’t a big-time sinner. Instead, he was a big-time Savior from sin. Even though he was fully human, he was also fully God. And even though he came from a long line of sinners, he was born in a special way so he could do some special rescuing: he was from God. The angel Gabriel explained to Mary how this would happen: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . . therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). And since God is without sin, Jesus could be born free from the sin that marked his genealogy. Now here’s where the story gets really interesting. Mary was engaged to Joseph. He was shocked to find out Mary was pregnant! He decided the best course was to quietly break up with her. But God sent an angel to let him in on what God was doing. “Joseph,” the angel told him, “Marry Mary, for the baby in her has been conceived from the Holy Spirit” (see Matt. 1:20). Joseph listened. The angel continued, “The baby will be a boy. When he is born, your job is to name him Jesus.” Joseph must have wondered, “Why that name? It’s not a family name.” The reason was that the name means “Yahweh saves.” The angel explained, “Call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (see v. 21). Joseph and Mary obeyed the angel’s orders. They got married, she gave birth, and Joseph called the baby Jesus.