Honoring the memory of people gone before is a value most cultures hold onto. While some do it differently than others, the value of honoring the past is one that is high and lifted up. Consider how you honor the memory of people gone before, or how you pass values down through your family.
In Jesus' eyes, the children of Abraham are rejecting the memory of Abraham (the one whom God said lived by faith). A very difficult lesson for the Jews of Jesus' day to learn is that God created a lineage of faithfulness, not a lineage of genetics. This is why God can embrace the Gentiles, both in the Old Testament and in the New. God's mission was always to create a people from many nations, even promising such to Abraham.
Notice that when the Jews called Jesus a Samaritan and demon-posessed, Jesus did not answer the charge of being a Samaritan. He answered the charge of being demon-posessed. But Jesus, geneaologically, wasn't a Samaritan. Jesus was a Jew from Northern Israel, not even that close to Samaria. But Christ is far bigger than one family tree. Christ is all, and is in all, says the book of Colossians.
Jesus makes it even more clear- He pre-existed humanity, and therefore is greater than any one family tree. Before Abraham was, I am, Jesus says. And with that, the crowd has heard enought and picks up their stones for a blasphemy trial (and execution). But that was to come later...
For today, I celebrate the fact that Jesus is far more than a Jewish carpenter from the first century. He also identifies with me, with my family tree, with my situation and with my issues. And, because of the cross, I can now identify with Him as well.
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