Thinking about Jesus

Just thought I'd share some things I've been reading and learning about.

1. Jesus' ancestors

• First of all, he was born of the Virgin Mary, who was pledged to be married to Joseph. Hence, to the world it appeared that Jesus was an "illegitimate" child. Most of us are reminded of this every Christmas.
• Joseph and Mary can both trace their families back to Zerubbabel, a guy that played a pretty neat role in the post-exile time of rebuilding things on Jerusalem.
• Zerubbabel along with other important not as well-known ancestors of Jesus like Boaz, came from the tribe of Judah. Hence Jesus is the Lion of Judah and Micah 5:2 talks about the Messiah coming from th tribe of Judah
• Boaz was the Great-grandpa (or perhaps with a few more greats in front) of the famous King and Psalmist David. He was also the husband of the Moabitess, Ruth. Wait, Jesus didn't come from a pure Israelite family? Nope.
• How's this for scandal? Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite. Their 2 oldest sons died and to make a long story short Judah ended up sleeping with his daughter-in-law (the Bible doesn't specify if she was Canaanite or not, but I think I would lean towards thinking that she was). And actually at the end of the book of Ruth everyone wished for the descendants of Ruth and Boaz to be like those of Judah and Tamar. Pretty crazy, huh?

2. Jesus as a "Man of sorrows"
I'm not a big fan of those stories and people that say that Jesus was in love with so and so and make up all these things about His life that have ridiculously little to no Biblical grounds. There is a lot we don't know about Jesus' life, but I think sometimes we ignore those things that we do know. Isaiah says Jesus was familiar with suffering. So often I think we sugar coat Him and make Him to be this walking, clean little saint who had an easy life. I don't think that's the case. Yes, He was perfect. But I wonder how many people really took Jesus seriously. I wonder what all happened in His life to make Him a "Man of sorrows." Maybe His earthly grandparents died when He was young. He was "despised and rejected by men." There no way that could have been an easy life! Yet He was perfect... I guess He can identify with more of the struggles in our lives than maybe I realize....