A Scandalous Love Affair: With Broken People
Matthew 1
The Rockefeller family is considered to be one of the most philanthropic families in the world, helping humanity globally in issues like economics, religion, education and environmental affairs. Yet the Rockefeller family tree is filled with many skeletons. William Avery Rockefeller, "Big Bill," was a con man, womanizer and a thief of a traveling salesman. He advertised himself as a “Celebrated Cancer Specialist" and hawked "herbal remedies" and other bottled medicine charging $25 a bottle, a sum the equivalent to two month's wages. He often posed as “deaf and dumb" as he scammed others. He fled from a number of indictments for horse stealing, eventually living under an assumed name. He married Eliza Davison in 1837, and shortly thereafter brought Nancy Brown home, as a "housekeeper" who became an alternate lover and who also bore his children.
As the saying goes, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. His son, John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was proclaimed to be the "most ruthless American" selling bootleg liquor to Federal troops at a high profit, which gained him the initial capital to embark into oil. In 1870 he and others incorporated their petroleum holdings into the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) and then either bought out his competitors or drove them out of business. By 1881, he had a near monopoly of the petroleum industry in the United States. By 1897, he had turned his interests toward philanthropy, funding the Baptist Church, the YMCA, and founding and endowing the University of Chicago with more than $80 million. He endowed major philanthropic institutions, and finally established the Rockefeller Foundation (1913), to promote public health and to further the medical, natural, and social sciences.
Maybe there are skeletons in your closet, too: embarrassing family members with a checkered past who have missed the mark in God’s eyes. The story of the Rockefellers remind us that everyone has skeletons in their closets. But while some may have fallen short of God’s will for their lives, no one is beyond redemption. And the Bible reminds us that no one is beyond being used for God’s purposes. God chooses to love us and be in relationship to us despite our sins. This is really the great scandal of God, that he would dare tie himself to a broken and sin-filled people. It is nothing short of “A Scandalous Love Affair” because a holy and perfect God has bound himself to a willful and sinful people.
There was another family tree in the Bible. It is the bloodline of Jesus Christ who was born into a specific family in a specific time, in a specific place involving real and sometimes sinful people. Matthew’s genealogy tells us three things. First, Jesus was human. Jesus was flesh and blood and born into a family like you and me. Second, Jesus was the promised Messiah. The Messiah had to be born in the right family, the tribe of Judah, from which all of the kings of Israel came and this is the tribe of Jesus. Jesus’ genealogy not only shows that but establishes Jesus’ legal claim to the throne of David. Jesus is the Son of David and that means He is the fulfillment of God’s prophesy to David. He is the seed of David that God would raise up and establish His Kingdom. Finally, it shows Jesus is the Savior of the whole world, not just the Jews. There are Jews and Gentiles in Jesus’ genealogy, meaning that he not only came from both but he also came to save both Jews and Gentiles.
In Jesus’ genealogy are many names that you may be familiar with from the Old Testament. But the genealogy of Jesus is anything but to be proud of. It contains some righteous people, but it also contains many sinners and broken people. Yes, Jesus has skeletons in his closet too. Abraham was a liar having passed his wife off as his sister to save his own life. Like his father, Isaac also deceived King Abimilech about the identity of his wife. Jacob was a cheat and a swindler. Judah slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar, who disguised herself as a prostitute to get pregnant. So their son Perez was illegitimate—born out of immorality. Boaz was very honorable but he married a Moabite woman which the Law forbid him to do. David was a man after God’s own heart, but he was a murderer and committed adultery with Bathsheba. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. Ruth was a Moabite and a Gentile.
So what do we learn from the genealogy of Jesus? Third, despite our sin, God still uses us in his plan of salvation. Despite all sinful and broken people in Jesus family, he still was able to use them to bring about a holy and pure and sinless Savior into the world. That is the message of God’s Word…that we have a loving father in Heaven who worked for thousands of years to redeem man, because they were lost in their sin. And yet he uses those same people as part of his plan of salvation. We’re not his backup plan, we are his plan and his chosen instruments for salvation. Perhaps you today have sin that has filled your life. The message that Jesus brings is “follow me”. Jesus loves you and died for you and wants to claim your life for him. There is no one too wicked or too evil for the grace of God or to join in the work of God.
When it comes down to it, it’s not about the power of our brokenness. It’s about the power of God’s grace that comes in and meets us in our brokenness, reclaims us and moves us on to wholeness. It’s about God’s grace and God’s redeeming power for our lives. God is so forgiving that he wipes the slate clean and says, “I can get you from where you are to where I want you to be.” It’s about God’s grace and wherever we are in our brokenness. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, God can turn you in the right direction and give you the power to be obedient to his will. How? Paul puts it this way, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” In other words, where our brokenness increases, God supplies even more grace.
Fifth, God meets us with grace at the point of our brokenness. “It’s not about the power of your brokenness, it’s about the power of the resurrection and grace that God has released, and that grace is big enough, wide enough and deep enough to overcome any brokenness in your life. God says, “Bring me your brokenness, and I’ll bring you my grace.” That’s the power God has released in his relationship with us. Max Ellerbusch tells the story of the Friday six days before Christmas. He was working feverishly in his instrument repair shop so he could have all of the Christmas holiday at home with the family when the call came. His 5 year old Craig had been fatally struck by a car. Craig has been standing at the curb waiting for the crossing guard to give the signal and when he did, Craig stepped into the street and a car blazed out of nowhere going so fast that no one had seen it. The crossing guard, shouted, waved and had to jump for his own life but the car never stopped.
Grace and Max drove home from the hospital through the Christmas lighted trees, not believing what had happened to them. When he entered the house and passed Craig’s empty bed, it suddenly hit him and he burst into tears. Life seemed in that moment so empty and senseless. That night he lay in bed thinking: “If such a child can die, if such a life can be snuffed out in a minute, then life is meaningless and faith is a delusion.” By morning his hatred was focused on the driver who was a 15 year old caught. He came from a broken home. His mother worked the nightshift and slept during the day. He ditched school and took the car keys and went joyriding. His name was George Williams. Max phoned the lawyer and demanded he be prosecuted to the limit. “Try him as an adult! Juvenile court is not enough.”
Late the next night, Max was pacing the hall in the middle of the night and asking God to show him “why?” At that moment, the presence of Christ fell upon him. His breath went out of him with a great sigh and with it all the anger and hatred. In it’s place was a feeling of utter love. It was so sudden that it dazed him, like a lightning strike that turned out to be a dawn. He went back into the bedroom where his wife was numbly sitting up and staring straight ahead. He then said, “Tonight, Craig is beyond needing us. Someone else needs us: George Williams. It’s almost Christmas. If we don’t send George a Christmas gift at the juvenile home, he may not get one.
George turned out to be an intelligent, confused, desperately lonely boy, needing a father as much as I needed a son. He got his Christmas gift on Christmas day, his mother got a gift as well. We asked for and got his release a few days later and our home became his second home. He works with me in the shop after school, joins us for meals around the kitchen table and became a big brother for my three younger kids. And then he writes, “In that moment when I met Christ, more was changed than just my feelings about George. That meeting affected every area of my life: my approach to business, to friends and to strangers….I now know for certainty that no matter what life does to us in the future, I will never again touch the rock bottom of despair. No matter how profound the blow seems, the joy (and grace) I glimpsed in the moment blinding moment…is even more profound.”
So why does God meet us with grace at the point of our brokenness? It really comes down to this; God is pursuing a love affair with you. He not only wants to lavish his love on you but he wants you to experience grace’s power for healing. Only then can we claim his power for your life. It’s not about the power of punishment, but about the power of purpose. When we make mistakes, we will have to deal with the repercussions, but God says it’s not about the punishment but about the power of my purpose for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the plans I have for you. And my plans are to prosper you, not to harm you, but to give you hope and to give you a bright future.” You see it’s about more than the power of failure; it’s about the power of God’s restoration. God says, “Look, then when you get to a certain point you will call on me and I will listen. When you seek me with all of your heart, I will be found and I will bring you back from captivity. I will bring you back from brokenness.” That’s God’s power and that’s what he does with the grace that he releases through the life of the Savior.
God is pursuing a love affair. And he will never give up on us or turn his back on us. We serve a God of not just second or third chances! We serve a God whose grace and power in infinite. How does God do it? How does God keep supplying this grace? Well, it’s out of a pure love affair. It’s so pure, that it even seems scandalous. We mess up, but God keeps saying, “Get up, I can help you.” We turn around and God says, “I still love you, I want you to come into this plan I have for you.” We define scandal as someone who misses the mark. God says, “I’m going to redefine scandal. I’m going to take your brokenness and I’m going to give you my grace and all of my love in spite of your brokenness, rebellion and sin.” Now that’s scandalous.
Despite what we’ve done, despite what we’ve been through, God says, “I can use you. It’s not about the power of your brokenness; it’s about the power of my grace. And through the resurrection of my Son, I’ve released that power. And it’s available to you.” Matthew says God’s love towards us is like that of a father towards his children, that we may be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. He spares nothing for that to happen. We may be broken and we may fall short of God’s expectations, but we cannot escape his love for us because it’s a love affair. No matter what you’ve done or said or how far you’ve run from God, God’s love is never failing. Why? Because it’s a love affair. We don’t deserve it, didn’t earn it. We’re not good enough to receive it. But God gives it anyway. Why? Because it’s a love affair. Today God says, “You are forgiven, now take my grace and move on to wholeness.”
So today give God your brokenness. And maybe you’ll want to open up your hands as a gesture to God and say, “I’m giving you my brokenness, I’m openly seeking you and ready to receive your grace. Maybe it’s with your marriage relationship, and maybe you are at a 7 and you need a 3 to get you to wholeness. God says, “I can supply it.” Maybe you’re at a 9 with your children, and you just need a 1. God says, “I can get you there. Give me what you have.” Maybe it’s about personal desires that have gotten out of whack. Maybe it’s about envy. Maybe it’s about your job. God knows, and you know. Give God your brokenness right now and receive his grace.
