An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1Jesus was one of the poor kids. His immediate family could not have been very high in the socioeconomic hierarchy of their world. For one thing, they lived in a scrappy little backwater village in a scrappy little backwater province of the Roman Empire. For another thing, Jesus' presumed father, Joseph, was a "carpenter" - a word which in the original language could also mean essentially a construction worker, someone who worked with wood and stone and things of that sort. Nothing glamorous. Jesus probably looked like a construction worker's son. Wouldn't have made much of an impression at a cocktail party. His hands were probably calloused. His feet were probably dirty. His clothes were probably rough and plain. But in his veins flowed the blood of kings - and not just any kings. His country's most famous kings. Some of the most powerful, prestigious rulers from ancient Israel's golden days... people like David, and Solomon.
I love Jesus for choosing to come as pauper to this planet that needs so desperately to learn to value the poor, to elevate humility, to believe in something great beyond the outwardly unimpressive exterior of economic deprivation... because there is always something powerful pulsing through the hearts of the unnoticed, the unwanted, the unloved, the unesteemed.
In this case, for instance, the blood of kings. Jesus was a prince.
