Following a Road Map of Bad Assumptions ...

Back in my day, traveling across the country, required a road map, a physical one printed on paper.  I realize that today this practice has been completely outmoded by Siri and the GPS in general.  But not so long ago, paper road maps were a thing.  In fact, one of the key benefit services AAA provided for you was a spiral bound vacation map that started at your house, and ended wherever you told them was your final destination.  As you progressed across the countryside you simply flipped the pages of your map moving from one page to the next.  And the maps told you not only distance, but what cities were on the horizon and their relative size and perhaps key points of interest.  A significant undertaking for a personalized map of your particular journey.  The other approach to maps was a Rand McNally map book, which was quite large and resembled more of a magazine you would put on your coffee table than perhaps what you envisioned a map to look like.  Rand however included the entire 50 states in a single map collection, one on each page, and was updated each year to include new road changes.  Also included in the map magazine were breakout pages with large cities to give you better details should you require them.  The final map option was a simple large map you bought at a gas station or picked up in a hotel, that showed where you were and the surrounding areas.  It folded itself up nicely into about a 5x8 pamphlet for easy storage or portability.

The key thing about paper maps, is that you needed the right ones, covering the right areas you were interested in, and of course, that they were correct (at least as good as the last couple years).  Today, we trust the automated lady’s voice on our phones, or in our cars, that tells us to turn left in 500 ft, or to take a particular exit on the freeway and then bear right.  GPS and the automation that goes with it, requires more faith on our part, than traveling with old paper maps did, because we are completely unable to see the entire journey should it fail.  At that point, it is back to paper maps again, if they still exist.  But GPS rarely fails, so most younger folks have no idea what it is like to ever have need of a paper map.  And outside of the few oddities, everyone is comfortable trusting the GPS when it says to turn left, it has at least some idea of what it is doing.  But if ever there were an A.I. based GPS, that developed a “sense of humor” along the way, watching the humans do stupid things just because they told us to, might prove frustrating for the humans in the story, even if funny to the A.I..  It would be the same way for me in the back of the car, when my mother backtracked 100 miles on vacation, having misinterpreted North and South on her AAA vacation map.  Talked about wasted time, and a frustrated kid, who now spent 200 miles extra in his car just to get back to even from where the mistake occurred.  Somehow, I can envision an A.I. based GPS who will one day run me amok, just for the fun of it.

Another way to surely mess up your destinations is to make bad assumptions about what path or which road you intend to follow to get there.  Take for example, getting maps of Texas for your journey, when Texas is nowhere near where you intend to go, Montana is.  Or say, planning to depend on GPS to route you through a National park on foot only to discover your carrier has excellent city coverage, and nearly NONE when you get 20 miles off road.  Either way, you’re in a pickle.  It is not much different when we make assumptions first about what scripture should say, and then set about attempting to prove it by finding and googling the specific texts that “might” prove out what we believed before we opened the book (or the online page) to begin reading.  And sometimes bad assumptions are not just made by us.  Sometimes they are made by many of the readers of the age, or perhaps even a writer or too.  Take Luke as a case in point.  The gospel of Luke (a letter to his Greek friend), ends chapter 3 with a snippet about Jesus being baptized, and then an entire section on the “as was supposed” genealogy of Jesus.  The road map to His ancestry.

Let’s take a second look at these passages and see what else they might reveal, particularly about bad assumptions on our part.  Luke picks up in verse 21 saying … “Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, [verse 22] And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”  Luke presents only 2 verses to cover a much larger event with a lot more dialog than is presented here.  First Luke omits how John the Baptist did not feel he was fit to baptize Jesus (perhaps He knew Jesus did not need baptism to begin with, as there was nothing to repent for).  Luke also omits how the first two disciples of Jesus were previously disciples of John, who John tasked to follow Jesus instead of himself.  When Jesus gets back from the wilderness it these two who go to find their brothers and bring them to Christ as well.  But enough about what Luke omits, what Luke does present is a simple clear picture of one thing – that the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Jesus as He came up from the waters of the Jordon.  And a voice from heaven itself thundered saying – Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.

If you were a bystander on the banks of the river and saw these events you could conclude but one thing; you are watching the Son of God be recognized by the Godhead and affirmed verbally as to who He is.  Jesus is the beloved son of God, the only son as John would write of in his gospel.  Why is that important to Luke (aside from affirming it to his Greek friend)?  I believe it is because of what follows.  Luke continues in verse 23 saying … “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,”  Before we enumerate the road map, catch the subtle statement of the bad assumptions of this road map.  Who was Jesus the son of?  In the immediately preceding verses Luke states plainly that Jesus has been claimed by the Holy Spirit and by God the Father as His Son in whom He is well pleased.  So Luke states plainly the genealogy of Joseph, the road map tracing back the lines of “His” fatherhood are only a supposition.  If you really wanted to be accurate you would need to trace back the lineage of His mother Mary who was indeed human.  The Father of Jesus was God the Father.  The road map then that Luke lays out is about nothing more than the adopted father of Jesus, the man charged with raising Him, not with siring Him.

As for raising Jesus, the genealogy traces back as …

“[verse 23] the son of Joseph,                (Joseph is 41 generations from David)
which was the son of Heli,
[verse 24] Which was the son of Matthat,
which was the son of Levi,
which was the son of Melchi,
which was the son of Janna,
which was the son of Joseph,
[verse 25] Which was the son of Mattathias,
which was the son of Amos,
which was the son of Naum,
which was the son of Esli,
which was the son of Nagge,
[verse 26] Which was the son of Maath,
which was the son of Mattathias,
which was the son of Semei,
which was the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Juda,
[verse 27] Which was the son of Joanna,
which was the son of Rhesa,
which was the son of Zorobabel,
which was the son of Salathiel,
which was the son of Neri,
[verse 28] Which was the son of Melchi,
which was the son of Addi,
which was the son of Cosam,
which was the son of Elmodam,
which was the son of Er,
[verse 29] Which was the son of Jose,
which was the son of Eliezer,
which was the son of Jorim,
which was the son of Matthat,
which was the son of Levi,
[verse 30] Which was the son of Simeon,
which was the son of Juda,
which was the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Jonan,
which was the son of Eliakim,
[verse 31] Which was the son of Melea,
which was the son of Menan,
which was the son of Mattatha,
which was the son of Nathan,
which was the son of David,                  (David is thirteen generations from Abraham)
[verse 32] Which was the son of Jesse,
which was the son of Obed,
which was the son of Booz,
which was the son of Salmon,
which was the son of Naasson,
[verse 33] Which was the son of Aminadab,
which was the son of Aram,
which was the son of Esrom,
which was the son of Phares,
which was the son of Juda,
[verse 34] Which was the son of Jacob,
which was the son of Isaac,
which was the son of Abraham,             (Abraham is eleven generations from Noah)
which was the son of Thara,
which was the son of Nachor,
[verse 35] Which was the son of Saruch,
which was the son of Ragau,
which was the son of Phalec,
which was the son of Heber,
which was the son of Sala,
[verse 36] Which was the son of Cainan,
which was the son of Arphaxad,
which was the son of Sem,
which was the son of Noe,                    (Noah is ten generations from Adam)
which was the son of Lamech,
[verse 37] Which was the son of Mathusala,
which was the son of Enoch,
which was the son of Jared,
which was the son of Maleleel,
which was the son of Cainan,
[verse 38] Which was the son of Enos,
which was the son of Seth,
which was the son of Adam,                  (Jesus will be 74 generations from Adam)
which was the son of God.”

You will notice how often the names repeat the in genealogies, as tradition dictates.  You will also notice Nathan is the son of David where they trace Jesus from instead of Solomon in this map.  You will notice there is no mention of Ruth (married to Boaz) in the lineage of David.  Nor is there mention of Rahab from the wall of Jericho mentioned either.  In fact the entire road map is devoid of women entirely – and traces the wrong parentage in the first place as Luke eludes to in the “as was supposed” comment he makes before He dictates it.  How this lines up against Mary’s ancestry might be nicer to know.  And the first clue we are using the wrong road map to trace back to God is in two easy to see places – it begins with God the Father claiming Jesus at His baptism.  And it is devoid of women entirely throughout the entire map.  Jewish traditions at the time, assuming males to be the only thing that counts, results in a wrong road map that only gives us an inkling of a bloodline that is shared through adoption.

The Bible and the Gospels are full of the stories of the impacts of women.  Indeed the story of Mary and of Elizabeth begin this gospel itself.  I believe Luke knows the importance of women to the gospel story.  And perhaps has placed this genealogy here to satisfy the legalistic requirements of the Israelites of his day, who want to see a bloodline traced back to the beginning to know “where” Jesus comes from.  But Luke preceded all this by offering a direct commentary on where Jesus comes from.  For those that prefer to see a bloodline, they miss the point.  Jesus is the Son of God.  It is this position that makes Him the Messiah, it is not the road map based on bad assumptions.  Jesus is at the heart of any map of salvation.  We are not saved because of what Adam and Eve did, nor of Abraham, nor of David.  We are saved because of what God did for us.  To send us His only begotten Son, that whoever of us should believe upon Him would be saved.  That is the gospel.  That is the road map.  We do not need to believe in David, but we do need to believe in the promise of God to send us Jesus.  It is the life of Jesus that matters.  Not that failings of Abraham, Adam, or David – the perfection of Jesus is the road map we should follow.

Given this, if we could allow ourselves the freedom of abandoning preconceived ideas and assumptions, and make Jesus the heart of our Bible study – what scripture reveals could be so much more than it does today.  We have the advantage of knowing the gospel story from end-to-end.  We have the life of Jesus fully documented.  We have His words directly.  We know His admonitions, His promises, and His deeds.  We have His example of His own full submission of His will to the will of His Father.  If He needed to do that, how could we ever deny our own need to do the same exact thing.  Where we allow doctrine to separate us from our common sense, and from the example of Jesus, we allow it a disservice which makes the work of God for us ten times harder.  Where we are able to submit, to follow, and to be humble, we make it ten times easier.  Let us follow the road map of peace.  It begins with the recognition of the Father God Himself, as He tells us, “This” is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.