Good News for the Highly Favored

WELCOME TO ADVENT

This exploration of Luke 2:1-20 and Matthew 1 reveals something stunning about God's character: He doesn't come to us because we're good—He comes because He is good. The genealogy of Jesus isn't filled with perfect people; it includes prostitutes like Tamar and Rahab, adulterers, and foreigners. Matthew deliberately highlights these marginalized figures to show us that God's love reaches into the mess of our lives, not after we've cleaned ourselves up, but exactly as we are. When the angels announced Jesus' birth, they didn't go to priests or rulers—they went to shepherds, the most despised outcasts of first-century society. These were people whose testimony wouldn't even hold up in court, yet God entrusted them with the greatest news in human history. The symbolism is profound: Jesus lying in a stone manger, the very type used for unblemished lambs destined for sacrifice in Bethlehem, announced to shepherds who would immediately understand the significance. This is the Lamb of God, and the message is clear—whoever we are, whatever our past, God sees us, finds favor in us, and invites us into His redemptive story. The question we must wrestle with is: who do we include in the Jesus story? Are we extending the same radical, unreasonable love to those society overlooks?

This Week:

Angels We Have Heard On High