Rev. Brian J. Nygaard
Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church – Merrillville, IN
February 25th, 2024
2nd Sunday in Lent
Text: Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16 (Psalm 22:23–31; Romans 5:1–11; Mark 8:27–38)
“Your Spiritual Family Tree”
Where do you come from? Are you German? Are you Polish? How about Slovakian, Danish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and the list goes on and on. Perhaps you’ve joined the millions of Americans who in recent decades have traced their family origins back for several generations. Some folks are just curious to discover who their ancestors were. Others want to see if they have any famous relatives in their past. One Web site, RoyalAncestors.com, allows visitors to investigate whether or not they’re related to kings and queens of previous generations. In fact, visitors to the site can purchase the three-volume Royal Ancestry Bible to aid them in their search. This work attempts to include all colonists who have at least 20,000 living American descendants and who descend from English or French kings or the Emperor Charlemagne. Maybe one of you will be the next Princess Diaries story as you are completely unaware that you are royalty until. . . they come knocking on your door.
In today’s Old Testament Reading, God allows Abram and Sarai to look forward, not backward. He gives them information about their descendants, not their ancestors. He informs them that they will have royal descendants, kings, and that they will be the parents of whole nations of people. In so doing, God helps each of us see that we have been grafted into a royal family tree, spiritually speaking, that dates all the way back to Abraham and Sarah.
As a Result of God’s Work, We Are All Members
of the Royal Spiritual Family Tree
Descending from Abraham and Sarah.
Today, we consider God’s promises to Abraham and Sarah, and in doing so, you will clearly see “Your Spiritual Family Tree.”
God promised a rich and royal family tree to Abram and Sarai (vv 1–6). In our text we read, “‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.’ . . . ‘Behold, my covenant is with you, and shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.’”
What amazing words to hear. After 99 years of life, Abram is hearing that his and Sarai’s descendants would be many nations. Their descendants would be kings. Their names would be new. But above all of this, their blessings are everlasting. “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”
What a great promise to hear from God. Having no child with Sarai, Abram is told his descendants would be numerous. And not just a handful or even ten, but rather many nations. And on top of that, we all know how we turn on the tv whenever we hear something is happening in the royal family, but for Abram, he won’t have to wait to hear the news because his family will be filled with kings. And no longer would they be called Abram and Sarai, but rather Abraham and Sarah. The parents to generations and generations, a blessing that will be forever.
And God fulfilled his promise in spite of Abram and Sarai’s circumstances. God fulfilled his promise with physical descendants. Two nations of people came from Abraham: the descendants of Ishmael, through Hagar, and the descendants of Isaac, the nation of Israel, through Sarah.
Kings were indeed descended from Abraham and Sarah: all the kings of Israel, the greatest of these earthly kings being David and Solomon as we can read in Matthew 1 and the Genealogy that proceeded Abraham. But there is one final and greatest King descended from Abraham and Sarah. And that is Jesus Christ.
In fact, all of these fulfillments of God’s promise are because of this greatest physical descendant, King Jesus. Jesus is a King who came to serve. Jesus is a King who came to die as we read in Mark 8:31, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed.”
All of this was contrary to what the disciples imagined the one promised to fulfill God’s first promise to Adam and Eve in the Garden. No one would think that this one, who is righteous must suffer an unrighteous punishment. This is all contrary to the expectations anyone would have thought. Knowing that Abraham would bear kings, shouldn’t it be that those in royalty must conquer, dominate and succeed? And here Jesus the King of kings is coming to serve others, to die?
But, it is Jesus’ serving and dying that makes possible the covenant by which God is “God to you” (v 7); that is, Jesus’ death has reconciled you to God, brought you back together with God. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
Therefore, God has also fulfilled his promise with spiritual descendants. No longer are all people trapped in the “lineage of death” that is described in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” All who share the faith of Abraham are his true descendants and God “grafts” souls into this new line of Abraham via Baptism and faith in Abraham’s great King of kings.
We, then, are also members of this royal family tree. God has established his covenant with you—“to be God to you and to your offspring after you” Remember what has been promised. It is an everlasting, eternal, endless covenant given to Abram, to his sons, to their sons, to you! That is, Jesus’ death on the cross has reconciled God to each and every one of you by taking away every sin that separated you from God.
You are heirs of the promise and you, too, are royal, reigning with Christ. Just like Abraham being given a new name, you too have had a new name placed upon you in the waters of Holy Baptism. You have been “grafted” into the family tree and it will continue to future generations until our King returns.
So, now we get to rejoice as an eternal family reunion awaits us—with our father and mother Abraham and Sarah, with Isaac, with David, with our own loved ones, all in the arms of Jesus.
Today, God has helped you trace your spiritual family tree back more than four thousand years, all the way back to Abraham and Sarah. And you don’t need the Web site RoyalAncestors.com to know that your spiritual family tree contains royalty, not only David and Solomon, but the Anointed One, Jesus Christ, who reigns eternally as King of kings and Lord of lords. With him, you and all in this incredible spiritual family tree will reign forever! Amen.