JUST JESUS 15: A series in Luke
Matthew 1 (ESV)
December 22, 2013
Tis the season for Christmas cards and occasionally, those cards don’t turn out so
well. Let me show you a few examples. (Awkward family photos- family edition.)
These photos are a simple reminder of a greater truth we all know. Families can be
embarrassing. In fact, this usually gets clarified over the Christmas season as you
run into awkward cousins you forgot about or kooky aunts that you never knew and
you are reminded that the family tree can sometimes be embarrassing. In short,
most family trees have a few bad apples. And it is normal to want to prune those out
of your life.
As funny as those family photos are, embarrassing family trees are not restricted to
kooky aunts and awkward cousins. Some family trees are blighted with real evil and
terrible judgment. With the advent and popularization of genealogy and ancestral
research, people have more recently been able to find out a great deal about their
family tree. And some of it, they wish they never found out. In addition to birth,
death and marriage certificates many of these ancestry-based websites now have
prison records from the 18th-20th centuries that have been digitized and made
searchable. This has led to people finding bootleggers, thieves, murderers and worse
in their family tree. It’s one of those things you find and immediately try and forget.
Who would want a family tree with so much rotten fruit and broken branches? Who
would want to know the crimes of your great great-grandparents when they are an
embarrassment for the entire family? If you had a choice, your family tree would
probably look quite different. That is what makes the genealogy of Jesus all the more
interesting. There are so many twisted branches in Jesus’ family tree that it will
make you cringe. The question to consider today would be why God chose this
family to bring his son into the world. Everyone in Jesus’ family tree doesn’t have to
be rich, successful or important in the world’s eyes but the lineage I am going to take
you through today is not simply full of awkward cousins and kooky aunts. There is
murder, rape, prostitution, lying, thieving and everything in between in Jesus’ family
tree. Why would God allow such a strange ancestry for his son?
Matthew 1: 1-6
This passage is fairly standard stuff, I am sure you would agree. You have probably
read this before and possibly glossed over it. Let’s just be honest, I am sure some of
you have endeavored to read the Bible all the way through but when you got to the
Book of Numbers you gave up after the third time that someone begat someone else.
But this genealogy is loaded with meaning. Because this family tree is twisted, it
reveals something about the nature of God.
Before we go further, it is important to address something that many of you may
have noticed before or at least have been questioned about. There are two
genealogies for Jesus in the Bible, one in Matthew and one in Luke. And they are
different. There are discrepancies and pretty large differences. Some people will
highlight this as another reason why they don’t believe in God or trust in the Bible.
While on the surface it makes sense to slam the disparate nature of these two
geneaologies, I want you to know there are several ways to rectify the incongruence.
Here are a few things to consider: 1) Levirate marriage made everything more
complicated when it comes to tracing family trees. Levirate marriage was a Godgiven practice to care for widows and their families. If a man died, it was common
for his brother to marry his wife and care for her and any children she might have
had. In this way, the deceased brother’s name and bloodline would be carried on
and the widow would be cared for. With this in mind, you can see how charting a
lineage could be true in two different tellings. When you are charting a family tree
through a bloodline more than specific people, it changes its trajectory. More
specifically, you might chart a lineage with a priority on the last name and not the
first name.
Consider the idea of telling someone that you are driving up to San Francisco. They
know you live close to highway 280 and so they assume that is how you are going up
there. But they end up seeing you driving on highway 101 and they demand to know
why you were lying to them. As it turns out, you were on the other side of town and
so it made sense to start on highway 101 and then cross over the bridge. Or maybe
you rode the access roads for a while to avoid traffic and then you got on highway
280. The long and short of it is this: We went from Saratoga to the San Francisco.
That was the journey we were on. Different people could map it different ways but
the destination is still the same.
Another thing to consider is that Matthew and Luke were writing for different
audiences, which changed the highways they were traveling. Matthew was writing
primarily for a Jewish audience and he wanted them to see the journey passing
through David to Abraham. Luke was writing for a gentile audience and he wanted
them to see the journey going back to God and Adam in the Garden of Eden. On top
of that, some theologians believe Matthew is traveling through Joseph’s lineage and
Luke is traveling through Mary’s. It is the same destination, different paths but one
truth.
Back to our passage today, the most scandalous thing about Jesus’ lineage is not the
perceived discrepancies between Matthew and Luke’s versions of it, but who is
included in this twisted family tree. Let me introduce you to some of the bad apples.
Matthew 1: 3
Judah and Tamar from Genesis 38: Judah, the father of three sons, watched two of
his sons die as each of them married Tamar in hopes of bearing children and
continuing the family line. Tamar’s first husband, Er, died and in the tradition of
levirate marriage she was married to the next brother Onan. For selfish reasons,
Onan creatively avoided producing children with Tamar as a means of shirking his
responsibility. Onan dies as well and Tamar is left waiting for the next brother to
become old enough for her to marry.
The third brother becomes old enough for marriage but a fearful Judah avoids giving
this son to be married to Tamar. This widow decides to take matters into her own
hands and furtively approaches Judah, masked as a prostitute, while he is out of
town. Judah becomes one of the first johns in the Bible, sleeping with Tamar and
subsequently impregnating her. Later, it is found out that Tamar is pregnant via
prostitution and Judah calls for punishment in the form of death because of her
dishonor. At this time, Tamar exposes Judah as the father of this child and in a
moment of true contrition, he confesses his sinful unworthiness.
This story has it all: sex, secrets, more sex, public embarrassment, prostitution and
lies. This is the twisted family tree of Jesus. You know when we hear Jesus referred
to as the Lion from the tribe of Judah. This is Judah. A man who wouldn’t obey God’s
law by caring for this widow by giving her the next son in line to care for and carry
on his son’s name. On top of that, he visits a cult prostitute (or so he thinks) and
then tries to cover his tracks.
Up next, we have Rahab and Salmon from Matthew 1:6. We talked about this a few
weeks ago when we discussed Jericho along with Zacheus and Rahab. Rahab was a
gentile and a prostitute. She was not a Jew and she slept with men for money. This is
the great great-grandmother of King David. She was a woman outside of the
community of faith who had lived a dishonorable life. Rahab’s son, Boaz, went on to
marry Ruth. We often hold Ruth up as a picture of faithfulness and perseverance and
rightfully so. Let us not forget, this is a woman who hailed from Moab. She was a
Moabitess. And the letter of the law said that Moabites were not to be allowed into
the temple to the 10th generation. And yet, her great great-grandson built the
temple.
I saw a story about a woman named Rachel Pechman in the New York Times from
last year. She was in court to change her last name along with her husband’s and
two small daughters’. The Pechmans stumbled upon an etymology of their name and
realized that in many European countries, Pechman meant, “bad luck man.” When
they broke their name down into its parts, they looked back at their history and
looked forward to their future and decided to no longer be the bad luck family. So
they changed it.
You would think that somewhere around verse 5 or 6, it would become clear that
God might at least try to start this family back on a better trajectory. They were the
bad luck, bad behavior crew up until this point. This family tree was twisted with
plenty of bad apples and a few lemons. But then we come to King David, the man
who was a man after God’s own heart. He had multiple wives and multiple
concubines. He was up on the roof one night and saw a beautiful woman bathing.
She was married to one of his mighty men. This was a crew of guys who had been
with David since very early on. These were his comrades in arms, men who saved
his life and fought on his behalf. This woman, Bathsheba, was married to one of
these mighty men. David slept with this woman, and got her pregnant, and then to
cover it up, he had this man killed. We have moved from sex, secrets and
prostitution to full-blown cover-ups and murder.
I know you probably have seen all of the magazines at the front of the store when
you check out with groceries. Some of those stories will make your jaw drop. These
magazines gawk at and stalk celebrities and catch them in all of their bad behavior.
It is easy to read the headlines and shake your head at the downward moral slide of
America, but these guys have nothing on Jesus’ family. Sex, lies and murder. And
that’s just King David, the man after God’s own heart. This is scandalous stuff and it
should be on the front page of The Enquirer, but instead, it is in the first 10 verses in
one of the most well-known and well-loved books on the planet. It is in the first 10
verses describing the family of Jesus.
These are the simple examples that stand out. But even the “good” examples on this
list are utterly broken people. At the top of the list is a man named Abraham, who
twice lied about his relationship with his own wife to save his hide. As they
journeyed through the desert, Abraham came across powerful kings and he told
them that Sarah was his sister. He did this because she was beautiful and he was
fearful that they might kill him so that they could have her. So instead, he said, “You
can have her, she is my sister.” He offered his wife to the most licentious powerful
men of his era to save his own hide. Solomon, the wisest king of all time was sexually
promiscuous, to the point of making Wilt Chamberlin look like an amateur.
Manasseh was an extreme idolater.
This is an extremely twisted family tree. The good are bad and the bad are worse.
Why would God put together the lineage this way? There are so many ways this
could have happened. Couldn’t he have chosen better ancestors? Perhaps a more
distinguished group of fathers, grandfathers, great grandmothers and great greatgrandmothers. Instead we have thieves, whores, liars, swindlers, murderers and
idolaters.
I want to show you why this lineage looks like this. Verse 1 sets the route for this
genealogy. It travels from Jesus to David and David to Abraham. From the perfect
Messiah, to the murderous adulterer, to the coward who offered his wife up to
licentious kings. All of this is predicated on God’s interaction with Abraham. In
Genesis 12, God tells Abram that he would become Abraham, the Father of a great
nation. He says he will bless him with more offspring than the sand on the shore or
the stars of the sky. Paul, in the book of Galatians, frames up this promise and shows
that it is a promise of the coming of Jesus. Abraham’s offspring would bless all
nations because Jesus was the offspring of Abraham. God’s promise wasn’t that the
Jewish people would bless all nations but rather that the Jews were blessed with the
privilege of being the group the Messiah would come from. I’m sure you know this,
but I would hardly call the Jewish people blessed through history. They have been
abused, taken advantage of, enslaved and slaughtered. Even today, they stand on the
brink of perpetual war. From the very beginning God chose not to engage with the
Babylonians or the Assyrians, the Romans or the Byzantines. He chose the Jews, one
of the lowest, weakest and smallest groups on the planet. And he did it to highlight
something about himself. He didn’t do it because this group was particularly worthy
of this honor but rather because they were not.
Don’t miss this point this Christmas season: God chose the smallness of the Jews in
order to highlight his vastness. He chose their weakness to highlight his strength. He
chose their sin to highlight his grace. This lineage is exactly as it should be. It
includes exactly the people it should. And it all hinges upon God’s promise to
Abraham. We often hear about God’s covenant, or God’s promise to Abraham to use
him to bless all nations but we miss one of the most important parts of this whole
experience.
I want to show you where God ratifies his promise. In the ancient Near East culture,
it was quite common for two parties to make a covenant. The modern day
equivalent would be the signing of a contract. After both parties agreed to the
principles of the swap or transaction the covenant would be ratified. In 2013, we
make a deal and then ratify it be signing a contract with lawyers, several pages of
initials, notaries and fine print. In the time of Abraham they would do something
very specific. The two parties would kill an animal or animals and split them in half.
The two parties would then walk between the torn pieces of flesh. The implications
of this gruesome scene are visceral and simple. If one of us does not keep our end of
the deal, our fate will be the same as the torn flesh of this sacrificial animal.
Now then, I want to read to you the ratification of God’s covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 15: 7-11
Abraham has heard the promise but he wants some assurances. God has told him to
leave his home, his family and everything he has ever known because of a promise.
Abraham is still a bit tentative, “How will I know that I will posses it?” So God
responds with “Let’s sign on the dotted line.” Do what you guys normally do down
there to seal a deal, sacrifice some animals, shed some blood and split them in half.
Abraham would have immediately known what was going on. God was sealing the
deal and signing on the dotted line with Abraham.
Genesis 15: 12-16
Abraham falls asleep. They are coming to the big moment but Abraham doesn’t
quite understand what is going on and then he falls asleep. In a dream, God tells
Abraham that his offspring will have a difficult future. He is prophesying about the
days ahead when the Israelites will be slaves to Egypt for 400 years. And I don’t
want you to miss what happens next.
Genesis 15: 17-18
Abraham is still asleep or at least groggy at this point. The papers have been
prepared, the notaries are ready and Abraham is asleep. In verse 17, a smoking fire
pot and a flaming torch passed through the torn flesh. As we will see throughout the
rest of the Bible, elements of fire are often images used to refer to God; the burning
bush, the refiner’s fire and the consuming fire. In this moment, God passes through
the pieces. Do you know who doesn’t pass through the torn flesh? Abraham. He is
snoozing on the most important day of his life, the most important moment in his
life. He is meeting with God and now is the time to shake on it and say, “We have a
deal.” And he is asleep. God passes through the torn flesh. God signs the deal.
This is a perfect picture of God’s grace and God’s approach throughout the Bible. He
is signing for both parties. He is paying the price and we are receiving all of the
benefit. He is doing the work and we are receiving the reward. Can you imagine
closing on your house in Silicon Valley? Getting ready to sign yourself up for a
lifetime of payments in this astronomical housing market and then watch in awe as
the banker signs on both lines. He is the promisor and the promisee. God made a
promise to Abraham and then God kept up both sides of the equation. Paul said it
well, “If we are faithless, God is faithful still, for He cannot disown himself.”
God’s deal with humanity has never been a two party agreement. It’s always been
about his grace despite us. The genealogy of Jesus is a reminder that God was
faithful to that promise. Through cowards, liars, adulterers, prostitutes, murderers,
thieves and idolaters, God signed on both lines. The lineage is a bold reminder that
grace is not dependent upon us.
If that story of Abraham and God sounds familiar, it’s because it should. On the last
night of Jesus’ life, Jesus prayed to his Father about the coming of the cross. And it
was a tough deal to accept. Sinless Jesus would go to the cross for sinful man. It was
the worst deal in human history. The great exchange at the cross was a one-sided
affair. Our choice to sin broke our relationship with God and God paid the price to fix
it. God signed on both sets of dotted lines. Because Jesus had such a twisted and
broken family tree, Jesus’ body was twisted and broken on a tree for his family. His
flesh was torn so that we could walk through into eternal life. He was humiliated so
that we wouldn’t have to be. He was beaten so that we wouldn’t have to be. He was
killed so that we wouldn’t have to be.
Jesus went to the tree for his family. He signed for you and for me on both lines. The
deal is done. All you have to do is accept it. That is the greatest gift of all this
Christmas season.