Luke 3:23-38

Biblical genealogies are often-ignored readings. They are not in the lectionary, they are rarely addressed in bible studies and are treated more like historical remnants than the more easily accessible scriptures that have become familiar. They are afterthoughts. When read straight-through, they are a mix of unfamiliar – and admittedly, sometimes difficult – names as well as the names of people whose stories are so widely-known that they have often made their way into the popular consciousness.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ in Luke has it’s own narrative. A narrative that is brought out solely because of the reader’s knowledge/lack of knowledge of the people these names belonged to – after all, inside the context of the genealogy itself The reader is not told who did what (except for having parents); instead everyone is equal. When fifteen or twenty names go by that are otherwise not known there is a sense of alienation, confusion, frustration, and embarrassment for the reader, but when a name does appear that the reader recognizes there is a flurry of association in the reader’s mind with the memories they have of these stories. This recognition makes a feeling of ease, perhaps even a coy sense of having inside knowledge. The pattern of rising and falling in action in reading the genealogy repeats until the final name of God creates the feeling that the reader has “made it” successfully through.