By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
Heoi, ko nga whakatupuranga katoa o Aperahama tae noa ki a Rawiri tekau ma wha nga whakatupuranga; o Rawiri tae noa ki te whakahekenga ki Papurona tekau ma wha nga whakatupuranga; a no te whakahekenga ki Papurona tae noa ki a te Karaiti tekau ma wha nga whakatupuranga.
O le aofa‘iga o tupulaga mai ‘iā Aperaamo se‘ia o‘o mai ‘iā Tavita, e sefulu ma le fa. O le aofa‘iga o tupulaga mai ‘iā Tavita se‘ia o‘o i le taimi na ‘avea fa‘amalosi ai i latou i Papelonia, e sefulu ma le fa. O le aofa‘iga o tupulaga mai le taimi na ‘avea fa‘amalosi ai i Papelonia se‘ia o‘o i le taimi na fānau ai le Keriso, e sefulu ma le fa.
Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Matthew 1:17
Matthew’s genealogy is not just a list of names. It is perfectly constructed, made up of three sets of fourteen generations. Three fourteens make six sevens. Jesus is the final generation, the seventh seven.
Tim Keller points out that the number seven has deep meaning in the Bible. It’s the number of completion, pointing to rest.
God rested on the seventh day of creation.
Every seven years, the land in Israel was meant to rest so it could recover.
Leviticus 25 speaks about the seventh seven, called the Year of Jubilee, when all debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, and the land rested.
By showing us Jesus as the seventh seven, Matthew is telling us something profound: Jesus is like the ultimate Year of Jubilee. In him, all debts are forgiven, and all captives are set free.
Here’s one big takeaway from this: You don’t have to earn God’s love. It’s a gift, freely given by Jesus. You can stop striving, stop worrying, and rest in what he’s done for you.
What blows me away every Christmas is the realisation there’s room in Jesus’ family for everyone—no matter who we are or what our story is.
Maybe you’ve felt like your past, your background, your situation—things that are inside and outside your control—disqualify you from being part of Jesus’ family.
The truth is, he came to set the captives free. No matter who we are, before Jesus we were stuck in a place we couldn’t get out of on our own. Matthew’s genealogy shows us that Jesus came to take us hopeless prisoners and bring us into his glorious freedom.
This Christmas, I am reminded that Jesus is able to take our stories—no matter how broken—and give them a new beginning.
