“The Bad Girls of Jesus’ Genealogy”
Matthew 1:1-17
Robert Warren
Westmoreland Church of Christ
March 6th, 2005
1. Once again I am going to preach from Matthew 1:1-17 which is the genealogy, or family tree, of Jesus, the son of Abraham, the Son of David.
a. Last week we looked at the whole list of names from Jesus back to Abraham.
i. I hope that you saw that God went to incredible lengths to make sure that a savior would be born to fulfill God’s promise to save the world and to save us humans.
b. We saw a long line of people that God used to make the unbroken line from Abraham to Jesus.
i. God used cheats, liars, sinners, murderers, prostitutes and so on to make up Jesus’ family tree: if you could have a family reunion that included all of Jesus’ ancestors you would have a well-rounded group of people. Good, bad, ugly and everywhere in-between
ii. But, this showed us that God is able to work through our weaknesses to accomplish his will.
c. We also saw that a lot of history transpired to get Jesus to Bethlehem to be born of Mary and Joseph.
i. Empires rose and fell. The nation of Israel went from one man, his wife and nephew to thousands of slaves in Egypt and then to a mighty kingdom which was finally carried off into exile, presumably to never be seen again.
ii. But through it all, God was working to put a Roman emperor in place who wanted a census to be called so that a peasant girl and her betrothed husband would be in Bethlehem to give birth to their first born.
iii. And all that shows that God is faithful to fulfill his promises, no matter how unlikely the circumstances seem.
2. Well, that big picture is all well and good, but today I want to focus in on something very surprising about Jesus’ genealogy that has a very important message for us even to this day.
3. I want to look at four people that Matthew includes in his genealogy that by all respects shouldn’t be in this list. What do I mean they shouldn’t be here?
a. Well, remember what I said in the last two weeks about how important genealogies were for the Jewish people.
b. They really took their genealogies seriously, because they wanted to be able to prove that they were the right pedigree.
i. For some people, pedigree is very important.
(1) I have a wonderful dog named Lucky. She does everything that I think a dog should do. She greets me when I come home with an excited bark and a wagging tail. She climbs on my lap when I’m watching T.V. She will show concern when Susan or I am upset. She is warm when she lays on your feet on cold nights. She barks when someone comes up to the door. Basically, just about everything I want out of a dog. I think that she’s cute and I wouldn’t change a thing about her.
(2) but some people would say she is worthless, because they care about pedigree. For all I know Lucky is full-blooded Dachshund, but because I don’t have the papers to prove her pedigree, some fancy-pants wouldn’t want to fool with her.
c. In some ways the Jewish people were like this. A person could be a fine individual, but if they couldn’t prove that they were Sons of Abraham, that is, descended by an unbroken line to Abraham, then they were considered to be worthless.
i. You hear preachers talking all the time about the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans, and this is why. The Jews looked down on the Samaritans because they did not think that th Samaritans had a good pedigree. They considered them half Jewish and half not-Jewish, which was as bad as not being Jewish at all. And of course, the Samaritans did not appreciate being looked down on, so they hated the Jews back.
ii. Many Jewish men would pray everyday thanking God that they weren’t women or Gentiles...they were grateful that they had a good pedigree.
d. So, it was a matter of great honor to have a good family tree. If you said that someone had a few rotten branches in their family tree you were speaking fighting words, that’s for sure.
4. So, you would expect that Matthew would be very careful in his genealogy of Jesus to show that he was of the finest pedigree. After all, he was showing that Jesus was descended from the father of the nation through Abraham and descended from the greatest king through David.
a. You would think that Matthew would be very careful to show that Jesus had the purest of pure Jewish pedigree; as Paul said, that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Jew of Jews.
b. You would think that Matthew would be very careful to show that Jesus was descended from very upright and honorable people, after all, Jesus is the king of the world and royalty are from good families.
c. You would think that Matthew would go out of his way to show that Jesus’ family tree was without any shame or embarrassing relatives.
i. If there were any crooked branches or diseased parts of the tree, you might think that Matthew would gloss over them or outright hide them.
d. The typical Jewish genealogy like Matthew was compiling would show all of Jesus’ ancestors to be good people, male people, and Jewish people.
i. In the Jewish way of thinking, especially to folks like the Pharisees, only holy, male and Jewish people were worthy of respect.
5. With that in mind, there are a few people in Jesus’ genealogy which are downright improper. They’re shocking. They’re inappropriate. They’re scandalous.
a. And, as I hope to show you today, they’re there for a very good reason.
b. A reason that just might be important for you today.
6. So, let’s look at those surprising people in Jesus’ genealogy. There are four of them, and they have three strikes against them: they are not Jewish (except one), they are not holy, and they are not men.
a. That’s right all four of them are women. Besides Mary, there are four women mentioned in Jesus’ list of ancestors.
i. Does that shock you?
ii. Maybe not, you might not have even noticed them. But let me tell you, this would have been shocking to the Jewish readers that Matthew was writing to.
(1) to the first readers of Matthew’s Gospel, their names would have stood out like a sore thumb.
(2) considering that Matthew was trying to show the legitimacy of Jesus’ claim to be the King, these four women would have seemed counterproductive to his argument.
(3) a normal Jewish genealogy did not include women, and especially not these kind of women. Sure, you might mention heroes of the faith like Sarah or Rachel, but not these women.
7. Let me explain. Not too long ago there was a book out called “Bad Girls of the Bible.” I cringed when I saw that title. It seemed to me that the author was using modern marketing to make a quick buck off the bible. Sure, there were a lot of ‘bad girls of the bible’ from Eve to Jezebel to Salome, but this just seemed like a way to sell a book with the promise of sex and intrigue from the bible.
a. But, that being said, you could title my sermon today, “Bad Girls of Jesus’ Family Tree.”
b. That’s right, every one of these women in Jesus’ family tree, not counting Mary his mother, had a questionable past.
c. What was Matthew thinking by airing this dirty laundry? Why mention these women where there were so many others that he could have mentioned that would not have been so embarrassing?
d. Well, the answer to that is a source of great hope for us today. As shocking as their names would have been to Matthew’s first readers, they are encouraging to us today.
8. First, look at who they are and what their stories are: there names are Tamar, in verse 3, Rahab in verse 5, Ruth in verse 5, and Uriah’s wife, otherwise known as Bathsheba, in verse 6.
a. This is a very intriguing list of women from the bible. Normally a genealogy would list no women, and Matthew picks 4 that you wouldn’t think would be mentioned.
b. 3 of the 4 were involved in adultery.
c. At least 3 of the 4 were Gentiles, considered unclean by the Jews.
d. 3 of the 4 were involved in sexual sin.
e. All of their stories are tragic.
f. Let me explain, briefly.
9. First we have Tamar, whose story is pretty extreme.
a. Her story is told in Genesis 38. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of Jacob’s son and a very important person in Old Testament history. She married Judah’s son Er, but he died before she had a child. According to custom, she was supposed to marry her brother-in-law so that she would not be childless. But, Onan would not give her a child, so God took his life. Again, according to custom she was supposed to marry Judah’s third son, but he drug his feet and did not give his son to Tamar. So, she appeared to be doomed to die without ever giving birth to a child.
b. So, she took matters in her own hand. She dressed up as a prostitute and waited until her father-in-law, Judah, came along. He hired her, laid with her, and she became with child through him. When Judah found out that his widowed daughter-in-law was pregnant, he was going to have her killed until it was revealed that he was the father of her child.
c. Because of her deception, she had two children, Perez and Zerah, and through them the line of Jesus was kept intact.
d. But still, what a sordid tale! Sounds like a plot line from “Desperate Housewives” doesn’t it? A woman losing two husbands and then having to trick her father-in-law into having a child by acting like a prostitute.
e. So, Tamar was an adulteress, and a prostitute at that, if only in show. She may or may not have been a Gentile: Judah married a Gentile, so she could have been one too. Not a very flattering story?
10. Next there is Rahab.
a. She was a Canaanite woman. Remember, the Canaanites were the enemies of God’s people who fought the Israelites every step of the way into the Promised Land. Her fascinating story is found in Joshua 2. Not only was she a Gentile, she was a hated Canaanite. And, to make matters worse, she was a prostitute. She lived in the city of Jericho, which was an impressive walled city that would have been impossible to defeat had not God intervened.
b. When the Israelite spies went to see how strong Jericho was they stayed with her, and Joshua 2:1 says clearly that she was a prostitute. When the king of Israel heard that there were spies afoot, he ordered Rahab the prostitute to turn them over. But, she lied and said that they had already left, even though she had them hidden. Later she lowered them from a window in the wall of the city with a rope and they escaped with their lives. She lied for a good reason, but it was still a lie.
c. As a reward for saving their lives, the Israelites spared her life when they destroyed Jericho. And, as a result she gave birth to Boaz, and carried on the line to Jesus.
d. Rahab, then, was a prostitute, a Gentile, and at times, a very skillful liar.
11. Next is Ruth.
a. Her story, of course, is found in the book of Ruth. She was a very good woman but she came from a very bad pedigree. She was a Moabite woman. The Jews were forbidden to marry anyone that was not a fellow Jew; and Moabites were considered to be among the worst of the Gentiles. But, during a very bad famine a Jewish man named Elimelech went to Moab with his two sons. His sons broke the religious law and married Gentile women, one of whom was Ruth. So, even though she was a good woman, she should have never been in Jesus’ family tree, since the Jews were forbidden to marry Gentiles.
b. I won’t tell her whole story, but she showed incredible loyalty to her mother-in-law and is one of the best examples of character in the entire Old Testament by her faithfulness, loyalty, integrity, and love. But the fact remains, she was a Gentile, who would have been considered unclean by the Jews.
c. But, she ended up marrying a Jewish man named Boaz, and she gave birth to a boy named Obed, who was the grandfather of David, and therefore an ancestor to Jesus.
12. Finally, to round out these questionable links in Jesus’ family line, there is Uriah’s wife, otherwise known as Bathsheba, and her story is tragic as well.
a. You probably know her story. She gets involved in a very bad story, and we’ll probably never agree with how much of this was her own fault. These are the facts. King David, later in his life, was home at a time when his armies and generals were out fighting. One day he was walking on the roof of his palace and saw a beautiful woman, as Lewis Grizzard would say, “Nekkid,” as she was bathing. He finds out that she is the wife of one of his generals, a Gentile woman, and sends for her.
b. Long story short: she comes to him, they commit adultery, and she becomes pregnant. David, trying to hide is sin, sends her husband into battle in such a way that he is sure to die, and sure enough, he does. She gives birth and the child dies because of David’s sin.
c. So, here you have a woman who is a Gentile, and involved in adultery (though how much of it was her blame is a matter of debate). Her story involves deceit, treachery, adultery, and even murder.
d. But, later she gives birth to a son named Solomon, who is another link in Jesus’ genealogy.
13. Do you see how shocking these women are in the genealogy of Jesus? This is like the dirty laundry in Jesus’ family tree. These women are:
a. Gentiles, and therefore considered unclean and out of the ‘pedigree’ of the Jewish people.
b. Sinners, involved in deceit, prostitution, and even murder.
c. They are tragic figures: the four women lose four husbands between them.
d. And finally, as if everything else were not enough, these women were; well, they were women, and to the Jewish mind, a woman was not much more than a piece of property or a farm animal.
14. Why would Matthew include them in his genealogy. Granted, he could not write them out, they are in the genealogy because that is how things happened. But he didn’t have to mention them...there are many other women that are not mentioned. It’s not so much that he included them in the genealogy, he actually highlights them. That right, he points out the Gentiles, the prostitutes, and the sinners in Jesus’ family tree when he could have just not mentioned them?
15. I believe that their inclusion in this family tree is there for a very important reason, a reason that is very important for you and me.
a. You see, Matthew was writing to Jewish people to show them that Jesus was their king.
b. But he was also writing to the rest of the world. To the Gentiles of his day. To the Greeks and Romans that would be reached by the next generation. To the people that Matthew would never even dream of. Finally, to you and me here today.
c. He was writing to the religious people of his day; the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. But he was also writing to the sinners of his day. He was writing to the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the women and the unclean Gentiles.
d. Jesus was not coming to just be the King of the Righteous Jews. He was coming to be the King of the world. He was coming to save the Jews, but also to save the Gentiles. He was coming to save the holy rollers, but also those people who had a past.
i. He came to save folks like Tamar who went from good to bad as well as folks like Rahab who went from bad to good.
16. Matthew shows us that God was willing to use some questionable people in his plan to save the world. He used women. He used Gentiles. He used prostitutes and adulterers and the men who participated in their sin. He used sinful, fallen people to bring about his sinless and perfect Son.
a. In the beautiful genealogy that led to Jesus there are a lot of questionable people: and remember, I only mentioned the women this week because they were surprising; there are a lot more tales to tell.
b. From these broken sinful lives, these less than perfect people, out of these questionable actions, God worked his plan to bring the savior of the world.
17. What do we learn from this?
18. God can and will use anyone he wants to accomplish his purposes.
19. God is willing to forgive the worst of sins if we are willing to be used by Him.
20. God loves to use the ‘least likely’ tools for his tasks.
21. The Good News in all this is that no matter how bad you are, no matter how bad you have been, no matter what mistakes you have made: God has still sent his son to save you.
a. Probably few of us have lived lives as bad as these we have read about today...but even if we have, we can still be saved by Jesus.
b. God has proven by these women that he can and will save anyone who is willing to be a part of God’s plan of salvation.
c. By including these questionable women, Matthew makes it very clear from the first verses of his Gospel that God is a God of incredible grace and mercy: He is a God who even uses fallen and unclean people.
d. This isn’t just a story about the King of the Jews who came to save Israel, it is a story about the King of the Everyone who came to save the World.
e. “For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten son, the descendant of Gentiles, sinners, and outcasts, that Whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
f. Jesus is all about grace and mercy, not just in his life, but even in his history. Jesus is God’s show of grace and mercy from the Garden of Eden through a deceptive daughter-in-law, a prostitute, a Gentile, and an adulteress, all the way to you and me, giving God our sins and our past to be forgiven and saved.
22. No matter who you are and what you’ve done, you can be saved by this Jesus who comes to us through an unlikely family tree.
a. Believe: Repent: Confess: Be baptized: Live for God.
