Life in a List of Names

A missionary to a primitive tribe resisted, for a long time, translating the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, and opted rather to translate the narrative that follows it. He proceeded to teach the locals all about Jesus through Matthew's Gospel. Eventually, he returned to the genealogy. When those to whom he was preaching heard the genealogy, they were stunned and said to the missionary, "So what you are saying is that this Jesus was actually a real person?" The missionary was of course overjoyed that they had embraced the real Jesus. This shows something of God's wisdom in placing a genealogy in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, and here in Luke's Gospel.
God, need I say, is smarter than us and He has included these genealogies for a specific purpose. They can really startle us with details about Jesus. This particular genealogy is no exception.