Matthew 1:1-17
“An Outsider from the Beginning”
by: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN www.eastridgeumc.com
How many of you have ever thought to yourself, “I am not good enough to play a part in God’s unfolding history.”
“I have led too sinful of a life.”
“I just don’t have the right education.”
“My family background is just too messed up.”
“I don’t have the right kind of job, nor have I lived the kind of life through which God can use me to bring others to Christ.”?
“Who am I to invite others to church?”
“Who am I to tell people about Jesus?”
And, “Does God even accept me, warts, failings and all?”
How many of us have thought to ourselves, “I am just not good enough to be a part of this!?”
God’s answer to our self-doubts and questions can be found in the first paragraph of the first book in the New Testament.
The average person who thinks, “Maybe I’ll read the New Testament” is probably puzzled to find, on the very first page, a long list of names he or she has never heard of.
But this list isn’t a waste of time.
For in reading this list and studying the persons named in this list—we may find that the term “inclusive” is not just a modern politically correct buzzword; it is a deep message to you and to me about Who God is and what God is about.
Here we have Jesus’ genealogy, as written in Matthew.
But it’s a funky genealogy for the King of the Jews, the Messiah, the Chosen One of God!!!
For there are “outsiders” included in Jesus’ family line.
There are ordinary people and extraordinary people.
Also listed are persons of questionable character…
…persons who lived somewhat scandalous lives…
…and persons who no good Jew of the 1st Century would ever admit to having in their bloodline—not if they wanted to be considered pure, respectable and part of the “in” crowd.
In Jesus’ day, genealogies were the most natural way to begin the story of a person’s life.
So, we should not be surprised that Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy.
But we should be surprised by some of the names included here.
The most amazing thing in Jesus’ genealogy is the names of the women who appear in it!
For one thing, it wasn’t normal to list women in your family tree.
But in Jesus’ genealogy five women are named:
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “the wife of Uriah” who is Bathsheba, and Mary.
And when we look at who these women were, and at what they did, the situation becomes even more spectacular.
Tamar was considered a seducer and an adulteress.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Another woman in Jesus’ bloodline is Ruth.
Ruth was not a Jew.
She was a Gentile from Moab, and Moabites were especially excluded from the Israelite community.
They were major outcastes.
They were an alien and hated people.
“Uriah’s wife,” is mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy as well.
This was Bathsheba, the woman whom David seduced and whose husband he murdered.
I could go on and on…
And I’m sure you wish I would…
…but what do we get from all this?
Well, for one thing, we find that Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world had both Jewish and Gentile blood.
So, right here, even before the birth of Christ, Matthew shows us the essence of the Gospel of God in Jesus Christ…
…for right before our eyes God shows us barriers going down…
…barriers that normally stand in the way…
…barriers between people…
…barriers that cause division, hate, pain and war.
Already, the great truth is here for all to see—that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female…” for all are one in Christ Jesus.
Right here at the beginning we are given a taste of the radical-ness of the Gospel of Christ.
God loves all people, and Jesus came to save all people!!!
No one is outside the realm of God’s love and forgiveness.
And there is no one whom God cannot and will not use.
God is “inclusive”…long before that idea or term was ever used.
And Jesus, was an “outcaste” by worldly and religious standards—right from the start, at birth even.
What does that say to you and to me this morning?
How does that effect your feeling of self-worth as it pertains to God’s ability and desire to use you in God’s work?
The names in Christ’s genealogy represent the persons, small and great, known and unknown, sinner and outcaste through whom God has already worked to bring the Messiah into the world.
This list of names is a testimony to the fact that God works through the nitty gritty of ordinary human beings to bring God’s divine purposes to fulfillment.
And therefore, no matter who we are or where we come from—we all have an important part to play in God’s saving of the world!!!
And that also means that we all have an important part to play within God’s Church—the vehicle which God uses to save people.
It can be easy for us, even within the Church, to forget our common sinfulness and fallen nature, and thus, judge other people who sit in the pews beside us, pray at the chancel rails with and for us, and thus form cliques which hurt people and shut persons out.
One of the most beautiful things about East Ridge United Methodist Church is that probably none of us have exactly the same theology.
Some of us are maybe a bit more conservative, some are more liberal.
But don’t you hate those labels?
Labels divide us…kind of like…Jew and Gentile…
…in or out…
…cool or un-cool.
None of us have a corner on the truth, and none of us have a corner on righteousness.
We all share just two things.
We are all sinners, and we are all loved equally by God!!!
Therefore, in the things which really matter in life…
…we are not so different from one another, are we?
And we are called to love and serve one another just as Christ has loved and served us!!!
Wow!!!
That’s a huge task.
That’s a big responsibility!!!
Are we doing that, really doing that without discrimination toward anyone?
It’s easy for us humans to build walls, to separate people, to talk badly about one another.
But that is not Kingdom business.
That is not how God operates!!!
Here at the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we find that God can and will find God’s servants among those whom the “respectable” folks might shrink away from in horror!!!
Yes, at the end of the list of these persons, comes God’s anointed, the long-awaited Messiah.
The way it happened is very strange.
But we are also about to find out how Mary, Jesus’ mother, had become pregnant not through her fiancé Joseph, but through the Holy Spirit.
Judah treats his daughter-in-law Tamar like a prostitute, Boaz was the son of the Jericho prostitute Rahab, and David committed adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite, whom he then killed.
Matthew seems to be saying,
“If God can work through these bizarre situations and people, you haven’t seen anything yet!”
Jesus will eat with tax collectors and the lowest of the low in the communities He visits.
Those who will accept His message are not those in power nor the religious authorities, but instead, people who are a lot like Rahab and Tamar.
And in part, because of this, He will be put to death by those who consider themselves better than the rest.
God is the One Who can create “children of Abraham” from mere stones, but Who, in fact, chooses to work through the ordinary lives of ordinary people to bring into being the Savior of humankind.
And God still works like this today: keeping His promises, acting in character, loving the unlovely, and always ready with surprises for those who learn to trust Him.
People like you and people like me!
