“Is this
not the carpenter, the Son of Mary,
and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here
with us?” So they were offended at Him.
Mark 6:3
The folks in Christ’s hometown of Nazareth resented Him and
that caused real attitude problems: “Who does he think he is anyhow? He’s just
a common laborer, a woodworker. He doesn’t come from a good family. After all, he’s
Mary’s son; he was born out of wedlock.”
People back then and there were judgmental just like they are
today. They felt anyone who they labeled as “illegitimate” could never obtain
greatness much less do anything for God. Being the Son of Mary meant “bad blood.”
The self-righteous are never so wrong as when they convince
themselves that they are better than others. Mary descended from royalty and
could trace her bloodline back to David and then even back to Adam.
Jesus had two genealogies recorded in scripture. Matthew
traces Jesus’ birthright through His adopted father, Joseph, who could have had
title to the throne of David if they were still doing that kind of thing at
that time. One big problem with this succession of legal heirs is that it
included King Jeconiah who was cursed by God in Jeremiah 22:24-28. The prophet
said that “Coniah” and his descendants would be cut off, meaning that the
messiah could not come through Joseph. This presented a prophetic contradiction
for the Messiah. Only the miracle of the virgin birth could solve this problem.
People assumed Jesus to be Joseph’s son but the genealogy of
Christ in Luke 3 is actually Mary’s. She was a descendant of David but not of
Jeconiah.
Christ had all the legal rights to the throne of David
because Joseph adopted Him and made him his own. He also had to have a human
blood line back to David without being a relative of Coniah’s. The King of
Kings was able to fulfill scripture because He was the Son of Mary.
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