An Unexpected Family Tree

Family Trees can be interesting thing. Maybe you’ve heard this song about a very strange one. I’m My Own Grandpa

Mine isn’t quite as complicated.

I do have this really cool picture frame in my office that has these pictures in it.

Philip Wagner 1858-1940

Henry Wagner 1890-1943

Oliver Wagner 1919—1997

Vernon Wagner 1949-1994

Scott Wagner 1972-present

Matthew begins his Gospel with a genealogy, echoing the genealogies of the Old Testament. He thought of his work as a continuation of the Old Testament story of God’s gracious redemption of his wayward people.

Frank Thielman

Genealogies were very important to the Jews because it was the way in which one could prove the authenticity of their blood line and the proof of what tribe they belonged to.

Now keep this in the back of your mind too… when someone ascends a royal throne, knowing the genealogy is very important.

Text: Matthew 1:1-17

-Matthew divides his genealogy into 3 sections and as he states each section is divided into 14 generations.

-Numbers are very important in the Bible. 14 is a 7X2 and 7 is the number of perfection. 3 is God’s number. This is no mistake.

1. Matthew’s genealogy demonstrates the unexpected lengths that God has gone through to save his people.

-God keeps his promises. From the garden and throughout the OT God has said he would send someone to overthrow the power of Satan and to bring his kingdom to earth.

-Look at how Matthew divides up his genealogy.

A. Abraham

-The promise that the messiah would come from Abraham. On at least 3 occasions God tells Abraham that he is the man whose linage would bless the whole earth. This is Messianic prophecy.

-Abraham is the the father of the Jewish nation. If the Jewish Messiah was going to come, he’d better be Jewish. This genealogy proves that.

B. King David

Connects the Jesus to the royal line

Promise to David

2 Samuel 7:12–13 NIV

When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

C. The Exile to Babylon-

The exile was front and center in the history of the the Jewish people.

The Jesus is the one who leads people out of captivity and not just into freedom but into the kingdom of God.

2. The names in Matthew’s genealogy are connected to some unexpected circumstances as well.

Abraham wondered from Babylon to Egypt and back to the Promised Land. God provided a son who wold eventually become a nation.

Isaac, almost sacrificed on a mountain

Jacob was nearly killed by his own brother, had problems finding a wife

Judah’s generation would have died in a famine had they not sold their younger brother Joseph into slavery

The nation of Israel grew in Egypt but they were slaves

They escape under the leadership of Moses but wonder in the desert for 40 years.

Once they entered into the Promised Land life for Israel was a roller coaster depending on their obedience to God

Under King David and his son King Solomon Israel prospers but they soon become morally and spiritually corrupt as they begin to worship other gods.

Over and over again God sends prophets to warn them and call them to repentance but most of the time it falls on deaf ears.

God allows the nation he created from scratch to be taken in to exile. First Babylonians then the Persians. The allowed Israel to return to their homeland. Greek and Roman subjugation would follow. This would bring a common language to this part of the world along with peace and roads that would unite the region.

In the midst of all this apparent chaos and change God would always preserve a remnant. So the Jewish nation was never completely snuffed out.

And so a man named Jacob fathered a son he named Joseph would be pledged to Mary who would give birth to a son who would be named Jesus who is the Christ.

There was never a moment when God’s plan for redemption was ever in peril. God is faithful and saw his promise to Abraham all the way through to completion.

The history connected to Jesus’ family tree isn’t always pretty and Matthew doesn’t try to clean it up.

3. The character traits of some of the people in this genealogy are also quite unexpected.

Abraham—lied about his wife being his sister…twice

Jacob was a cheat and a swindler

Judah sold his brother into slavery and slept with his daughter-in-law

Rahab was a prostitute

Ruth was a gentile

David committed adultery and then murdered someone to cover it up

Solomon who took on hundreds of wives became a worshiper of many pagan gods

Rehoboam split the nation of Israel

Side note:

There are 5 women mentioned in this genealogy

This is really unusual in Jewish genealogies

You know who’s not mentioned? Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel or Leah

Who is mentioned

Tamar- seduced her father-in-law through prostitution

Rahab-a prostitute

Ruth-a Moabite

Uriah’s wife (Bathsheba)-Adulteress

and of course

Mary-a young virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph

So why these 4 four previous to Mary?

3 of them were caught up in in illegitimacy regarding sexual activity. Is Matthew attempting to cushion the blow of anyone who might bring accusation against Mary? She is a virgin promised in marriage and here she shows up pregnant. Perhaps

But I think the bigger picture with these women and with the men as well is that Jesus has come to save precisely such people. The marginalized, the foreigner, the sinner.

Let’s be honest Jesus family tree is just as dysfunctional and sketchy as anyone's.

One of the themes of Christmas is Hope. Since God met with Abraham and promised that he would father a great nation and out of that nation would come Messiah, hope stirred in the hearts of every Jewish man, woman and child.

That hope was realized in the coming of Jesus, the first time. Today the church hopes in his return. That great and glorious day when he returns.

And this is our hope

Revelation 1:7 NIV

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.