…the son of Boaz… (Luke 3:33 ESV)
Backwards
Some of us have ancestors that we are not particularly proud of. I have a many-greats-grandfather who was a horsethief. You might have worse branches in your family tree.
And we can not do anything about it. They are back there, like rocks of shame.
Jesus had some bad eggs in His ancestor-list, too. Boaz might seem innocuous enough, but Boaz was married Ruth, who was a Moabitess.
We read her story back in her book with fondness, but culturally, historically, and religiously we have forgotten the impact of that delineation. People from Moab were, in the history of God’s people, the worst of the worst.
But Jesus fixed that, and some other dark spots in his ancestry, by His very existence. The grace of Jesus is that powerful. The grace of Jesus is that wonderful.
And He fixes our histories, too. Both our personal histories and the histories of more distant pasts are washed with His redeeming blood.
Because Christians are grafted into HIS family tree. A tree that goes like this: God, then Jesus, and Jesus’ siblings.
Rejoice in the amazing cleansing and renewing power of Christ Jesus.
We cannot fix our past. But in one fell swoop, Jesus can.