Significant

This is part 2 of 2 about Luke 3:23-38. Click here to read the passage, click here to read the first part, and then come back!


...




When you read the end of Luke 3, there's one thing that is glaringly obvious - there are loads of people in this list of names. And I don't even know half of them. If they were walking down the street, I couldn't pick them out of a crowd. I couldn't tell you their greatest accomplishment. I certainly couldn't tell you their name. I mean, this is not the Hall of Fame we're talking about here.


But I would also venture to say it doesn't matter, either.


Really.


God chose them. He put them where He did, when He did, for the purpose that He did. And I must trust His judgment.


More importantly, I must withhold my own. I see the name Menna or Sala on a list like this and I think, "Who's that guy?" Honestly, that might be the guy I'd be tempted to make fun of in the cafeteria at school or standing by the water cooler at work. He might be the guy with quirky behavior or the girl who's laugh is just the wrong pitch. We all know those people who for whatever reason get on our last nerves.


And we judge them. Maybe even bully them. Maybe even abuse them verbally...or physically.


And this genealogy reminds me today that the people I don't know are just as significant as the ones I do know. Because God selected them. They have meaning and purpose. They have value and a place in God's Story and Kingdom.


And I am convicted. How often do I mistreat someone because they are different or seemingly unimportant? How often do I treat people as if they weren't made in the image of God, just like I am?


Don't ever count someone out because you don't see their value. Don't ever consider someone unimportant because you don't see their worth. God chooses each person for a special purpose and just because we can't see it or understand it doesn't it make it any less significant.


Live knowing that you are significant to God. Live treating others with that same significance.


"This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers." 1 John 3:16


Christ died for us. Christ considered us worthy of his sacrifice. The only response after faith is to value others in the same way, even to give our lives so that they might come to know and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.