Matthew 1:1-17
Jesus’ Family Tree
When I was in college I was walking across campus when I came across a woman who was in one of my classes.
She also came to our Campus Bible study.
She was maybe in her 50’s, which seemed ancient to me.
We got into a long and in-depth conversation that afternoon, and at some point she said, “I believe heaven will be beautiful, but I won’t be there.”
As we continued talking I learned that as a young girl her father had molested her, abused her and told her she was no good.
When she got older she married a man much like her father.
He abused her and regularly told her she was stupid and good for nothing.
And she believed all this.
It’s what she had been told her entire life.
And so, although she believed in God and in Jesus as well as heaven, she couldn’t conceive that she would ever be there since she figured she just wasn’t good enough.
We talked a lot about God’s love and grace that day.
I’ve also had times in my life when I felt that I didn’t measure up, and that God couldn’t possibly love someone like me.
How about you?
Mind if I ask you a question?
How are you feeling this morning?
What motivated you to come to church, to this worship service?
Are you feeling good?
Has it been an inspiring week or has it been awful?
Do you feel that you are at the end of your rope?
Do you ever wonder if God loves you?
Do you think that you aren’t good enough for God to use you for God’s good purposes?
(pause)
The first 17 verses in Matthew’s Gospel present us with Jesus’ Family Tree.
And in doing this, Matthew makes a major theological statement right from the very beginning: God is able to use extremely flawed human beings in order to carry history forward to achieve God’s goals.
A friend of mine is hooked on genealogies and tracing her family tree.
A lot of people are interested in this; that’s the reason Ancestry.com makes so much money.
And I can understand why it’s so interesting.
We want to know where we come from.
Others of us want information about the rates of cancer deaths, or Alzheimer’s
in our gene pool.
In any event, this friend tells me about her family’s history.
She describes pioneers, soldiers, and preachers.
Sometimes people name-drop their historical connections to make themselves feel extra special like being a Daughter of the American Revolution or a Kennedy or a Rockefeller.
But when we look at Jesus’ Family Tree, we quickly conclude that it is anything but a roll call for the institute of halos and harps.
Even His ancestors who are admired have a tainted history.
It starts with Abraham, who more than once, like Pinocchio in order to save his neck.
And it’s been said that Abraham’s grandson was “slicker than a Las Vegas card shark!!!”
The guy cheated his brother, his uncle…
…his very name—Jacob—means “cheater” or “trickster.”
But he’s on the list leading to Jesus, the Messiah.
Jacob’s son, Judah, was the father of Perez and Zerah.
But do you know how he became their father—by committing incest with Tamar—and she’s on the list we just read as well.
Good grief!
It’s not a pure line leading to Christ.
In Revelation Jesus is called “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”
But Judah was a hypocrite, an adulterer and he and his brothers sold Joseph into slavery.
What kind of people were these?
If we jump to verse 6 in our Gospel lesson, we see that King David is in Jesus Family Tree.
But King David had Uriah the Hittite killed because he wanted Uriah’s wife—Bathsheba for himself.
So our “wonderful” King David was not only an adulterer he was also a murderer.
Listen to verse 5 again: “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.”
Why does Matthew bother to say that Boaz’s mother was Rahab?
Rahab was a prostitute when she first entered the biblical story.
Ruth was a foreigner and wasn’t even Jewish.
Manasseh makes the list, even though this wicked king sacrificed his own son in the fire to Baal and consulted mediums and spiritists.
Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he is described in 2nd Kings Chapter 21 as “a terror to his people.”
God used a guy like THAT as part of the history leading up to Jesus?
A lot of the people on the list are kings; almost half of these kings were crooks, and all but a handful worshiped and idol or two for good measure.
Why do you suppose God used these people?
God didn’t have to.
God could have just delivered Jesus from heaven by stork or something.
It would have been much simpler that way.
And why are we told their stories?
Why does God use flawed humans, messed up people in the family line of Jesus Christ?
Could it be that God knows that you and I watched the news last night and heard about all the bad stuff, all the crooked people?
Could it be that God knows we worry about where history is headed and that God wants us to know that even when things seem to be the bleakest—God is still in control?
We just had an election, and a lot of people are scared.
There are wars that are escalating.
There is so much hate in this world, so much violence.
Last week a group of Neo Nazis marched down the streets of a major city in Ohio, in broad daylight for all to see.
What is going on?
Is there any hope?
It’s amazing, you know.
Jesus’ genealogy is a summary of nearly the entire Old Testament capturing the stories of the patriarchs, the Israelite’s slavery in Egypt, and the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land.
Then we have the destruction of Israel and the exile of Judah and finally the return from exile.
And here’s the point: Jesus’ birth is the climax of this entire story of God’s relationship with humankind.
Jesus is the end to which the entire biblical story moves.
The last person mentioned before Jesus in the genealogy is Mary, and unwed, pregnant peasant girl with no rights and no political clout.
And finally we end the list with “Jesus who is called the Messiah.”
Period.
That’s it.
No other names are mentioned.
No more names are needed.
It’s as if God is announcing to a despairing and discouraged world: “See? I did it!”
“I did it like I promised I would.”
The plan succeeded—even though every person involved along the way was just as flawed as anyone else—it all led to the birth of the Savior of the world.”
Perhaps you think you aren’t good enough for God to love you.
Maybe you feel you are just too messed up for God to ever use you.
Perhaps you have skeletons in your closet—secret sins or addictions to deal with.
One the outside you might look like you have your act together, but on the inside you don’t feel good enough.
“Well,” says God, “Welcome to the club!”
You are not alone.
You are not a freak.
You are just the same as every person who has ever lived, no better--no worse.
During this time of Advent—this time of getting ready for Christmas—this is an important thing to keep at the forefront of our minds.
God took on our DNA and became one of us.
God traveled the birth canal.
God tasted the food we eat.
God hung out with befriended normal folks—prostitutes, beggars, tax collectors, hypocritical religious people, drunks, lepers, and crazy people.
People like me and perhaps you.
God felt the pain we feel and was tempted in every way we are tempted.
And although He was without sin, He is able to sympathize with our struggles, with our sin and He died in order to set us free.
Jesus’ name means “our God saves.”
Jesus knows us completely.
He sees our misgivings and questions.
He understands our faults, failures and insecurities.
He knows the things we dare not tell anyone.
He knows what makes us laugh and what makes us cry.
He sees the way we have been misjudged and misunderstood.
He sees the hurts we carry and the doubts we have.
He understands what happened in our past and what we long for in the future.
Jesus isn’t shocked by anything about us.
Jesus loves us no matter what and He died to set us free from our fears, our torment, our self-hatred, self-doubt and sin.
He has great plans for us.
To use a double negative, there in never NO future with Christ.
(pause)
God is LOVE.
And love is greatest for you, for me and for every other sinful and broken person who has ever lived this life, traveled these trails, and experienced the highs and lows of it all.
Perhaps Jesus’ genealogy is here to prepare us for the unexpected ways God works, and to show us what God can do with our lives—no matter who we are, where we are or what we have done.
As I look back on my life, and you look back on yours—I think we will find that many of the best things about us may well have come from painful experiences, redeemed by God Who, as a popular song puts it: “makes beautiful things out of dust.”
Will you pray with me?
Amazing God, we thank You for Your steadfast and unconditional love.
We thank You that none of us is not good enough for You.
Jesus, You came into this world to turn our lives into something good, useful, meaningful, helpful—beautiful.
As we begin this season of Advent, help us to see Who You are more clearly and fully in the stories surrounding Your birth.
Amen.
