Knowing Jesus

Having been given the mind of faith to see Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit, placed in a human family, where Joseph is made His earthly Father, we continue in this vein. We continue to give our Heavenly Father thanks for Jesus, our Brother.

Jesus, who is pure and divine,

Came to be a Brother of mine.

Why are we going to spend much time of this fact of Jesus being human and not just human, but being our Brother? There are two main reasons. The first reason is that if we do not believe that Jesus was indeed totally human, Lent would just be another ethereal celebration, where we honour and revere our Lord God, in flesh, and continue to be locked out from this Divine mystery.  The second reason is that unless we, in truth and in fact, by faith, know Jesus as our Brother, just as we are, then His death and resurrection will simply be mythical to us.

May our heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit, draw us even closer and nearer in genealogy, proving without a hint of bother, doubt or unbelief that each of us who dares to believe and receive it by faith, is of the family of Jesus.

We have already been inspired and encouraged to read the family tree of Jesus in these Gospels, Matthew 1: 1 – 17 and Luke 3: 23 – 38.  

Matthew begins straightway delving deeply in the ancestry of Jesus. A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 1: 1. He takes us right down to Jacob, Joseph’s father, then to Jesus. And Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Matthew 1: 16. 

Luke is way more elaborate and detailed in his recording of Jesus’ ancestry. Unlike Matthew, who starts from the top, from Abraham and works his way down to Joseph, then Jesus, Luke begins at the bottom. He begins with Jesus. Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli. Luke 3: 23. Luke carries us all the way up to Adam, God’s son. The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Luke 3: 38.

We have looked at all these things, to be reminded of them and to also show others who do not know, the fact that Jesus is not just human, but He has human ancestry. Jesus was descended according to the giving and pronouncing of the Holy God, through His Holy Spirit. Remember that He is the Person who told Joseph to take Mary’s unborn child into his household. Jesus was the first child of Joseph by Holy pronouncement and announcement. All that was required of Joseph was not his physical, human seed, but his faith seed. It is the faith that hears God’s pronouncements, believes them and lives them. It is the same pronouncement which was made about you, me and all who by faith will believe. It is the history of faith, if you like, which traces and places us with Jesus, as our Brother. Let’s reason this together.

Both Matthew and Luke have named Abraham as a father to people. However, we have been clearly told who the offspring of Abraham are. Let’s listen carefully to what has been written for us in Galatians 3: 7 – 9. Understand then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  

What does Jesus have to say related to Abraham and his children? We place ourselves in hearing and seeing view, where Jesus and some Jews, who were adamant about being descendants of Abraham, are so against Jesus, they want to kill Him. This all comes from John 8: 21 – 41. I quote these strikingly heart-stabbing words of Jesus, in response to those Jews who were claiming Abraham as their father. Abraham is our father, they answered. If you were Abraham’s children, said Jesus, then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father. John 8: 39 – 41a.  Faith is the one and only factor which makes us one of the many sons and daughters of father Abraham.  

Faith, and by faith only, will be the only way whereby we will accept Jesus in truth and in fact, as our human Brother. It is the only way that we will accept that He came in likeness of human flesh. Jesus came just like you and me, but He never sinned, like you and like me. He never lied to us, never tricked us, nor did He pretend to be like we are, when in truth and in fact He was not. Jesus, the totally Divine God, did not just put on flesh as we put on different garments, to suit different occasions.

Let’s pursue this some more.