"The Wonderous Leaves on Jesus’ Family Tree"

Introduction to reading of the text—Matthew 1:1-17

Before reading the text, I want you to know I intentionally choose this reading—There are some real jewels in reading the "begats" that for most of us, we would rather not take the time to discover. My friend, Dick Watts, a Presbyterian minister in Normal, IL, preached on this scripture one Christmas Eve while we were living there. He told the stories of several of the women mentioned in the genealogy. As Dick awakened their memories for us that night, he connected us, as frail humans, to the lineage of Jesus. Surely if these characters could be part of the line of Christ, we could fit in too. The unknown stories of these marginalized women, which were once buried for me amongst the many names, sparkled with grace and redeemption.

Thus, the following is a reading of Matthew’s genealogy for Jesus. Some of them are difficult to pronounce so bear with me—

As I read this to you be asking yourself—what can the gospel writer possibly be saying to the Jesus community during the time of this writing? And what can it be saying to us today?

Do the reading: Matthew 1:1-17

There are five women (including Mary) mentioned in this record. I would like to briefly tell you the story of several.

Tamar: Married to one of the three sons of Judah, one of the founding fathers of the Hebrew people. A strange and complex story. Her husband died, he was so bad, God killed him off. As custom, Judah then gave Tamar his second son, Oran, in order that the dead brother might have an offspring. But when he slept with Tamar, in the biblical words, he "spilled his seed on the ground"—in other words—Oran refused to impregnate Tamar. This failure to honor custom angered God so God killed him too.

Judah had one last son, whom he promised to Tamar, but given the unhappy results of the previous marriages---he just conveniently kept forgetting to give Tamar his third son in marriage.

Thus, Tamar was left, then, all alone in a society where a woman alone was nothing except poor and vulnerable. So Tamar made a bold move to continue the family line. She dressed like a prostitute and went out in the road to wait for Judah, her father-in-law to walk by. When he saw her, he propositioned her not knowing it was Tamar. She agreed but only if she could hold on to his ring and walking stick.

He agreed, and in the old-style language, "he went into her, and she conceived". He of course went merrily on his way.

Later, as her pregnancy became obvious, family members told Judah that Tamar had tricked him. Judah was furious and ordered that she be brought out to be burned. Tamar pleaded her case by sending Judah the ring and walking stick he had given to her with the message, "The man who gave me these is the one who made me pregnant." Judah finally admitted that she, Tamar, was more righteous than he was. As a result their sons, Perez and Zerah, were incorporated into the Messianic Line.

Then there is the unnamed woman—"the wife of Uriah". This woman is another foreigner named Bathsheba. One day, King David from his palace sees her taking a bath on the roof. Stunned by her beauty, he sends for her to come to his bed. Bathsheba later sends word to David that she is pregnant. David has a problem; she is married to Uriah, a stalwart soldier of David’s, who is fighting out of the front line. Ultimately, David devises a plan to set Uriah up on the battlefield so that he is left alone fighting the enemy. Uriah is killed and David calls Bathsheba to be his wife. An angry God kills the child of that union. But later, Bathsheba will conceive again; and bear Solomon—who in his own right will be a great king, and ancestor of Jesus.

Several others are mentioned—Rahab—the prostitute who saves Joshua’s spies from being killed in Jericho and Ruth the foreigner who follows her mother in law Naomi home to Israel where she marries Boaz and becomes the great grandmother of David the King from whom the Messiah will come.

Here are some closing questions my friend Dick Watts posed to us that Christmas Eve night?

"Why these women in a genealogy that needed only the names of men?

Why these women –only 5 out of 42 generations—they were not the names one might expect like Sarah, Rebecca, or Rachel—but Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba?

Is it that they are foreigners, signs that Jesus is not just for the children of Israel, but for all the nations?

Is it that they were the marginalized ones without power, yet in their unconventional darings, they became the keepers of the line that led to the Messiah?

Is it that despite their unconventional sexual lives and unions, they proved to be channels of God’s unfolding purpose?

Might we not possibly have here the gospel in miniature, that as Paul so beautifully put—"we have the treasure in common clay plots, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us?"