The family tree of Jesus.
Don’t think of Matthew 1 or Luke 4 as genealogies. That makes these chapters sound completely boring and academic. No, these chapters are anythingbut boring and irrelevant. They are provocative family trees, written by provocative individuals. These were family trees that should have embarrassed, even humiliated Jesus and his followers. I mean, have you ever felt embarrassed about being related to someone? I know I have, to the point of denial and complete avoidance.
Yet Jesus wasn’t embarrassed or humiliated at all. Nor were the two disciples (Matthew and Luke) who gave us Jesus’ family tree. I mean, these chapters are just what the tabloids would have ordered! They're sensational! They're filled with faith (to be sure). But they're also filled with politics, innuendo, sex, crime, greed, and corruption. You know, the kind of things that have kept the gossip industry booming for centuries!
Matthew, if you were a proud follower of Jesus, and wanted his name glorified to the ends of the earth, why would you give us Jesus’ sordid family tree? Skip over the family tree like Mark does. Skip over the family tree like John does, and talk about Jesus’ co-existence with God in creation, as the living word. But whatever you do, don’t give fodder to the tabloids and naysayers.
What was Matthew's motive for showcasing Jesus' family tree?
But no, Matthew showcases Jesus’ family tree. But why? What was his motive? I think a clue is found in Matthew 9:9-13 where we discover how Jesus met Matthew. Matthew 9:9 (NIV) begins,"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him."
Here's a critical detail about Matthew. Matthew worked for the IRS of his day. He was a tax collector (a tax enforcement officer or an auditor). The Jewish people hated tax collectors. They hated being exploited. They hated being robbed of the fruits of their labor, only to see that money wasted on Herod’s pet projects and distributed to the Herod’s cronies. Matthew was a Roman collaborator, a "traitor" to his Jewish brethren. But there is more.
Matthew 9:10-11 (NIV) continues, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and 'sinners' came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
Matthew ran with sinners. He was part of the unchurched crowd. That word 'sinners' refered to people who lived sinfully instead of religiously. Sinners were people who had no qualms about being greedy, corrupt, impure, drunk, indulgent, etc. And yet herewas Jesus, sitting among them, eating and drinking, and taking an interest in their lives. And Jesus wasn’t embarrassed at all.
When confronted by the Pharisees Jesus says in Matthew 9:12-13 (NIV),"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Now don’t misunderstand. Jesus wasn’t running with tax collectors and sinners in order to share in their sins. I know a lot of Christians who hang out with thewrong crowd, but not for the reasons Jesus did! Jesus was running with tax collectors and sinners in order to lead them to eternal life. Jesus’ goal wasn’t participation. His goal was to call these people to new life. He had come to show mercy, and to offer his life as a righteous sacrifice.
The Pharisees wanted Jesus to write off Matthew the tax collector and his sinner friends. But Jesus stood up for them, and he identified with them. That impressed Matthew. For Matthew, Jesus was the savior of tax collectors and sinners— people written off by the self-righteous religious community. For Matthew, the glory of God is Jesus’ identification with sinful man.
Consider the men that Matthew writes about in Matthew 1.
Consider the stories of the men in Matthew 1. Last week we considered the stories of the women listed there (Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Ruth). Consider the men listed. The whole lot of them struggled with sin. If you dig into the Old Testament stories, there isn't a stone left unturned. We see these men at the heights and depths of their humanity. We see great faith, but we also see great failure. We see hot and cold. Yet the glory of God is that they were all part of God's sovereign plan.
So Matthew is creating quite a mess in Matthew 1. What do you do with Jesus’ family tree? What do you do with your own dysfunctional family tree? Do you write off your family, or do you show mercy? Do you destroy them, or do you become a living sacrifice and lay down your life for them? God would have been just by destroying a Judah, Tamar, Rahab, David, or Bathsheba.
When Jesus hung out with Matthew and his sinner friends, Jesus was telling them that God loves all people, even people who have turned their backs on God. Even people who have made a mess of their lives. That struck a chord with Matthew. And that is why Matthew highlights the mess in Jesus’ family tree. With Jesus, every life has value, every human being has value, no matter whathis circumstance, no matter whathis family tree, or background, or religiosity, or lack or religiosity.
God overcame some severe circumstances so that Jesus would be born.
I want to share a hard truth that God showed me this week. I am not being political here.I am being biblical, hardcore biblical, unapologetically biblical, and hardcore Jesus. Christmas is about the birth of baby Jesus. So let’s talk about some of the circumstances that God overcame so that Jesus the savior would be born.
I hear politicians, scientists, grade school teachers, and even Christians suggest that not all human life has infinite value. Exhibit A: If a baby is to be born with autism, Down syndrome, or some other malady, does it have the same right to life, is it just as human, just as valuable as any other baby? Many, including some Christians these days, would say no.
Exhibit B: As we speak, people are lobbying our national leaders for a worldwide one-child policy. Not having any children, and aborting that second child and every one thereafter, is your environmental duty. Babies grow up and consume, and create a devastating carbon footprint. They eat beef. They eat grain produced by gas-guzzling farm equipment. They burn gas in their SUVs. They burn coal to stay warm. The planet has eternal value. Humans of finite value threaten the planet. Therefore we must limit our families to one child.
Exhibit C: If a child is born of rape, or incest, or violence, that child should be terminated. This is set forth by many Christians and pastors. Nothing good could possibly come of an ill-conceived pregnancy, they say.
Friends, the height of human arrogance is that we determine who has value and worth and dignity before God. The Pharisees did it, we Christians do, and the world does. Well, scientists, politicians, Hollywood, intellectuals, and environmentalists don’t determine which human beings have eternal worth. God does! Nor is it our right to limit God and destroy a life because we're too narrow-minded to believe in God’s power.
Jesus is a descendant of a dysfunctional family.
What does it tell you that through Joseph, Jesus is a descendent of Judah and Tamar? Remember the story of Tamar that we talked about last week? Judah and Tamar committed incest, and Tamar became pregnant with twins! Pretty messy, wouldn’t you agree? Judah wanted to clean the whole mess up by burning Tamar and her unborn babies to death. But God had a different plan.
By the way, I totally messed up a historical detail last week. I told you that Matthew traced Mary’s family tree when he actually traced Joseph’s family tree. I was relying on my memory, and some of you called me out on it! There is a lot of debate about these family trees, and I got it wrong.
But back to the point. Go take a poll among your Christian friends and ask them, "If a baby isconceived froman act of incest, should that child be born?" We know Judah’s answer. He would have had Tamar burned at the stake. He would have given her the worst kind of death.
But God had a different plan. When Judah commits incest with Tamar, she gives birth to twins named Perez and Zerah (see Matthew 1:3). And through Perez’s lineage, through Perez’s children,and Perez’s children’s children, comes the savior, Jesus Christ. Does it disturb you that in Jesus’ family tree God advances his eternal plan through the child of an incestuous relationship?A child most people would just as soon abort? Matthew is getting us to rethink the value and worth of a person's life, especially in God's sovereign plan.
But if some people had their way,Jesus would have never been born. Christmas would have been aborted. But as it stands, God determined the infinite worth of his children, and acted according to his sovereign plan, and Jesus was born.
Matthew the tax collector and his sinner friends had no value in the eyes of the Pharisees. But Jesus showed Matthew the glory of God. Matthew saw that it was God’s great pleasure to send his one and only Son, born of dysfunctional lineage, to redeem mankind from the curse of sin. That is what Christmas is all about. That is what Matthew is showing us in Jesus’ family tree.
God can advance his plan under any circumstances.
Case in point: David and Bathsheba. King David commits adultery. Bathsheba, his mistress, becomes pregnant. David murders Bathsheba’s husband Uriah in orderto get him out of the picture. Can God still advance his plan under such circumstances? Is God’s power greater than the escapades of an adulterous and murderous king? And the answer, according to Matthew’s family tree isyes! The baby Jesus became a descendent of David and Bathsheba, through Joseph. The nerve of Matthew!He mentions that Jesus is the descendant of an incestuous relationship, an adulterous relationship,and a murderous relationship.
It’s a miracle of God’s grace that we ever got to Christmas in the first place. But God loves his children. He loves the Judahs, the Tamars, the Davids, the Bathshebas, the Matthews, the tax collectors, the sinners, the Pharisees, the conservatives, the liberals, the moderates, the wounded women, and the struggling men.
God loves the alien and the stranger, the illegal, the poor, the rich, the moral, the immoral, the righteous, the unrighteous, the churched and the unchurched, the faithful and unfaithful, the pure and impure, the idolatrous, the Catholic, the Protestant, the Nazarene, the Baptist, the Methodist, and the Presbyterian. God loves the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Islamist, and the Jihadist.
The real scandal in the manger isn’t whether Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit,which we all believe to be the case. The scandal of the manger is that God’s grace visited us rather powerfully on Christmas. God's grace touched struggling men and wounded women. Through faith in Jesus, we who were far away can be brought near to God.
Matthew celebrated Jesus' love for sinners.
Matthew and his sinner friends would have celebrated 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV) at Christmas."Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offendersnor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
No sin, no matter how great, can disrupt the sovereign purpose of God. And that is just as true of your sin as Judah's, Tamar's, David’s, Bathsheba’s, Matthew’s, or Jon Morrissette’s.God is calling you to himself. He is willing to forgive the mosthorrendous evils and he is ready to put his grace on display for his own glory. This is the meaning of Christmas.
There is a lot of pain in Jesus’ family tree. There is a lot of pain in your family tree. Christmas isn’t about brushing that pain under the rug, putting on the fake holiday cheer, and surviving another Christmas with family. God sees that pain, God feels that pain, and God became the scapegoat of that pain as he died on the cross. No human being is exempt from pain.
Christmas is about God valuing all men, even the most evil and vile among us. It’s about God offering eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s about the new birth that comes in Christ, a second chance, or a hundredth chance.
And thathundredth chance is not just for us, but for those who may have hurt us. A mother, a father, a sibling, a teenager, a son, a daughter, a relative, a friend, or an enemy. We don’t get to determine who God values and shows grace to. Praise God that he desires mercy. Let's join him in showing that mercy to others this Christmas.