Matthew 1_1_6 The Christmas Family Tree

Matthew 1:1-6“The Christmas Family Tree”

There is a difference between The Family Christmas Tree and The Christmas Family Tree.

I don’t know how your family tree looks, but the Falotico’s have some characters on every limb! Researching your genealogy can be risky. You may find out some things you wish you hadn’t. That is exactly what you find in the Christmas Family Tree. Like my family tree, Jesus had a few surprising characters in His tree! We read about them in Matthew 1.

ILL: One day a little boy came home from Sunday School excited about his lesson. When his mother asked him what he had learned, the little boy replied, “I learned all the “FORGOTS” of the Bible.” What do you mean his mother asked? “You know, Abraham forgot Isaac, Isaac forgot Jacob, and Jacob forgot Judah.” In that Spirit we may call this “the forgotten chapter of the Christmas story.” It is a genealogy – a list of names, most of them unpronounceable. Because of that, this is the portion of Scripture that we tend to overlook.

ILL: It reminds me of the man who was asked to write a book review on the phone book, His summary: “Great cast of characters, but the plot is weak.” That’s the way we tend to feel when we examine Matthew 1.

This cast of characters includes four women. That in itself is unusual because when the Jews made a genealogy they didn’t include women in the list: They traced the family tree from father to son. But Matthew includes four women in Jesus’ family tree. They are Tamar (3), Rahab (5), Ruth (5), and Bathsheba (6). All of them are very unlikely people. With the exception of Ruth, none possessed an exemplary character.

Limbs on the Christmas Family Tree

Tamar- She makes it into the genealogy of Jesus on one basis: she was a sinner. Her story is found in Genesis 38. It is a story of prostitution, deceit, and treachery. But the Bible tells us that we are all sinners. Often I hear somebody say, “People are good at heart.” But Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Romans 3:12 says, “There is none who does good, no not one.” And 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “Christ came into the world to save sinners.” If you fit that description, then you are one of those that Jesus came to save. There are two ingredients necessary for salvation to be accomplished. You provide one ingredient and God provides the other ingredient. All you have to do is provide the sin and God provides the Savior.

This brings us back to Tamar. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah who was the grandson of Abraham. All you need to know is that Judah had a son named Er who married Tamar. Er died and his brother Onan grew up to marry Tamar. But He too suddenly died, leaving Tamar both husbandless and childless. So she hatched a scheme to cause her father in law Judah to sleep with her. Her plan was simple: dress up like a prostitute, seduce Judah to sleep with her so that she could become pregnant. This story reeks of deception, treachery, lust, feigned prostitution, and even the hint of incest as the father in law sleeps with his daughter-in-law. And this is all we know about Tamar. Tamar got into the genealogy of Jesus because she was a sinner. “JESUS CHRIST CAME TO SAVE SINNERS.” He mixed with sinners, He ate with sinners, He lived among sinners, He died between two sinners, and He went to paradise with a penitent sinner.

Rahab – Rahab the Harlot. Notice her profession – the oldest profession in the world. But that’s not all. Rahab was also a Canaanite – who were the hated enemies of Israel. A sinful harlot and a hated Canaanite!

When Joshua sent spies into the city of Jericho, Rahab hid them in her house. The spies hid in Rahab’s house because people were accustomed to strangers coming and going from the prostitute’s house at all hours of the night. In exchange for hiding the spies, the spies promised to spare her from Jericho’s destruction if she would hang a scarlet cord from her window.

It’s a great story, but we must not miss the point that Rahab was a harlot. That was her “profession,” But she became a woman of faith. You don’t have to take my word for it. Hebrews 11:31 says, “By faith Rahab…” She became a believer and was saved!

She was spared the destruction of Jericho and in course of time became the great-great grandmother of King David. A Harlot… a Canaanite… but also a woman of faith, she made the list and she is a part of Jesus’ family tree.

Ruth – She was not a Jew. She was from the country of Moab, and that takes us back to Genesis 19 and the destruction of Sodm and Gomorrah. On that dreadful day Lot escaped Sodom with His wife and two daughters. His wife was turned in to a pillar of salt, but Lot and his daughters found refuge in a cave. His daughters had been badly corrupted by their time living in Sodom because they conspired to lure their father into sleeping with them. On successive nights they got Lot drunk and slept with him. Both daughters got pregnant by their own father and gave birth to sons – one son was named Moab and the other Ammon. Those two boys – born out of incest- grew up to establish nations that were incredibly evil and bitter enemies of God’s people. Ruth could not even come into the congregation of the Lord. Why not? She was a Moabite. We are told in Deuteronomy 23:3, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” But the book which bears her name tells of a romance blossomed between the Moabitess and Boaz the Israelite. They were a very unlikely couple but God’s providence brought them together in marriage. They had a son named Obed who had a son named Jesse who had a son named David, making Ruth David’s great grandmother, and that’s how a person from the hated nation of Moab entered the line of the Messiah.

Bathsheba - The last woman is not mentioned by name. She is identified as the woman “who had been Uriah’s wife.” The story of Bathsheba’s adultery with King David is well known. Suffice it to say that adultery was only the beginning. Before the scandal was over it included lying, a royal cover-up, and murder. The child that was conceived on the night of the affair died soon after birth.

However, David went on the marry Bathsheba and they had another son- Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. Quite an outcome for a union that began in an adulterous affair, but don’t miss the main point: Bathsheba made the list.

Lets review these four woman for a moment:

Tamar: Incest, immorality, feigned prostitution, a Gentile

Rehab: Her occupation was prostitution, lying, deception, a Canaanite

Ruth: A woman from Moab- a nation born out of incest

Bathsheba: Adultery

Four unlikely women: Three are Gentiles; three are involved in some form of sexual immorality. Two are involved in prostitution. One is an adulterous. All four are in the line that leads to Jesus Christ.

Lessons From The Christmas Family Tree

Why would God include women like that in this list?

God’s grace is greater than your sin.

Question… Can a prostitute go to heaven? Yes or no? Can an adulterer go to heaven? Can a murderer go to heaven? Can a treacherous liar go to heaven? You’d better say yes, because Rahab and David are both going to be in heaven – and Rahab was a Prostitute and a liar and David was an adulterer and a murderer.

When you read the stores of these four women – and of the men on the list – God’s grace shines through the blackest of human sin as he chooses flawed men and women and places them in Jesus’ family tree.

Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners

Many people are intimidated by Jesus, They hook him up with a lot of religious paraphernalia – big sanctuaries, stained glass, robed choirs, pipe organs, formal prayers, and all the rest. When they look at the trappings of religion, its all very intimidating to them.

This genealogy is in the Bible to let us know that he had a background a lot like yours and mine. He called himself “the friend of sinners,” and He said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.” (Luke 19:10)

There’s a lot of dysfunction in Jesus’ family tree. There’s a lot of brokenness and a lot of pain. So, He knows exactly what you are going through this year at Christmas time.

I Hope you won’t skip Matthew 1 in your Bible reading. This unlikely list of unlikely people may be the greatest chapter on the grace of God in the entire Bible.

Years ago a pastor by the name of Henry Morehouse was walking in the poor section of a city. He saw a boy five or six years of age coming out of a store carrying a pitcher of milk. The little boy made his way carefully down the street, but then he slipped and fell. The pitcher broke and the milk spilled out all over the sidewalk. The boy let out a wail and Morehouse rushed to see if he was hurt. There was no physical harm, but the young boy could not be consoled. He kept crying over and over, “My mama will whip me. My Mama will whip me.” Mr. Morehouse said, “Maybe we can put the pitcher together again.”

The boy stopped crying. He watched Mr. Morehouse place the base of the pitcher on the sidewalk and start building up pieces. But the pitcher was broken in too many pieces to be repaired. The boy was in tears and could not be consoled.

The preacher gathered the boy in his arms and walked down the street to the store. He bought a new pitcher and then he and the boy returned to the milk store and had the new pitcher washed and filled with milk. He carried the boy in one arm and the balanced the pitcher in the other hand all the way to the boy’s home. On the front steps of the boy’s home, he put the pitcher carefully into his hands and asked, “Now, will your mama whip you? A smile broke out on the little boys streaked face, and he said, “No sir, because it’s a whole lot better pitcher than what we had before.”

The point is that we are broken people. There is no use trying to patch the pieces together again. Without Christ you are a broken and hopeless and despairing individual. But when we come to Jesus, He gives us a new life. All this because of the grace of God.