Genealogy & Incarnation
Cathedral Newsletter – 24 December 2025
Friends in Christ, this Christmas Eve, I am really looking forward to focussing with you on the genealogy of Jesus! It’s the start of chapter one in the Gospel of Matthew.
It’s going to be great. But do pray for the people asked to read the lesson!
If you are a Bible enthusiast - and what a good thing to be - then, without any major sermospoilers, here are two fascinating articles about the genealogies from scholar James Bejon:
Jesus’ Genealogies: Contradictory or Complimentary - exploring the differences between Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies of Jesus.
We Three Kings of Israel Aren’t! A method to Matthew’s apparent madness - exploring how Matthews gets to his 3 x 14 generations, by excluding 3 kings of Judah from his genealogy!
As I said, go you Bible nerds. (And you can watch or listen to the sermon replay here.)
For the rest of you, how about this excellent paragraph from the Southern Baptist preacher, R. G. Lee (1886-1978). Some say it’s one of the greatest paragraph they’ve read on the incarnation…
Christ who in eternity rested motherless upon the Father's bosom and in time rested fatherless upon a woman's bosom, clasping the Ancient of Days who had become the Infant of Days. What deep descent…
R.G. Lee (1886-1978)
from the heights of glory to the depths of shame,
from the wonders of heaven to the wickedness of earth,
from exaltation to humiliation.
from the throne to the tree,
from dignity to debasement,
from worship to wrath,
from the halls of heaven to the nails of earth,
from the coronation to the curse,
from the glory place to the gory place!
In Bethlehem, humility and glory in their extremes were joined. Born in a stable! Cradled in a cattle trough! Wrapped in swaddling clothes of poverty! No room for Him who made all rooms! No place for Him who made and knows all places! Oh, deep humiliation of the Creator – born of the creature! But in His descent was the dawn of mercy.
Because we cannot ascend to Him, He descends to us.
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Thank you to all who have volunteered in service of our Lord Jesus, not only at Christmas, but in so many ways during the year.
People have been introduced to Jesus. People have come to follow Jesus. Lives have been changed. And lives keep being changed as the gospel of Jesus goes forward.
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney