My granny, my mumâs mum, lived a long life. She died when she was 95 years old, so she had a good knock. She was a solid Christian woman, but was also fairly old fashioned in her attitudes to certain things. For example, when I left the police force, I rebelled against short hair, so I didnât have a hair cut for a couple of years. I thought I looked like Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam! Granny would often say to me, â1 Corinthians 11 says that long hair on a man is a disgrace!â
Nonie and I got married in 1997 and I still had long hair, so at our reception, Granny produced a photo of me from when I was in the police force and had short hair. She showed it to just about everyone at our wedding, saying, âI know he looks ridiculous now, but he really is a lovely boy!â Interestingly, I look back at the photos of our wedding and granny was right: I didnât look like Eddie Vedder: I looked ridiculous!
Anyway, years before this, sheâd done a heap of research on both sides of our family tree. She went way back to about the year AD 900, which is pretty cool. Both sides of my family came out here from England. On my dadâs side of the family, his dad came out in 1922; his motherâs side a bit earlier. Her great grandfather got sick of living in England, so he built a big boat, put his whole family and all their possessions on it and sailed it out here in about 1870, which is a great effort! Tough stock. His son had the same adventurous spirit as well. He was an electrician who worked on the Harbour Bridge. He was up on the very top of the arch. The higher up you went, the more money you earned because it was so dangerous. That was dadâs side: adventurous, tough people.
Mumâs side all came out from England in the mid 1800s. But they didnât build a boat. They were even tougher: they swam out (thatâs a joke, by the way).
But, like all families, there are a few skeletons in our closet. âWhereâs auntie?â âSheâs having a holiday in the countryside.â âWhat kind of holiday?â âThe kind of holiday that lasts for about nine or ten months.â And when auntie came back, what do you know? Sheâd adopted a little baby, who looks surprisingly like her neighbour from up the road. These days no one bats an eyelid at that sort of thing, but go back 80 years and it was a very different story. That sort of thing was incredibly scandalous!
There was at least one mysterious death. There were one or two drunks who managed to squander vast amounts of money. On a brighter note, there were also a heap of Christians and several of the men were preachers and pastors. Iâm not the first Rev. Wakeford, which is cool.
You go back a bit further on my mumâs side, and one of my ancestors was the king of the southern half of England: lots of castles, vast tracts of land, servants, the whole nine yards. Now, I know thatâs about 1,000 years ago, so itâs a fairly tenuous link to royalty, but donât let that stop you from calling me âSirâ from here on in, or perhaps, âyour majestyâ.
Thatâs my family tree. I figure itâs pretty normal: lots of branches and plenty of nuts! Yours probably doesnât look that different. Go back far enough and you find all sorts of people. Family trees are fascinating things
Itâs Christmas in a couple of days, so I thought weâd look at Jesusâ family tree: Jesusâ pedigree, if you like, not because itâs so much better than ours, but because, apart from having so many unpronounceable names, itâs probably not that different from yours or mine. Iâll show you what I mean from Matthew 1:1-16.
Apart from Jesus right at the end of our Bible reading, these are regular people. Some were deeply religious; some were total shockers; some were faithful people who had some epic brain snaps, just like us; and all of them, except the last one, Jesus, were sinners. They all rebelled against God in some way. Either they did what they weren't meant to do, or they didnât do what they were meant to do. Theyâre just plain old sinners like you and me. So Jesusâ family tree is a bit like a mirror. As we look at this we see bits and pieces of ourselves.
Some of us are a bit religious. We come to church a few times a year: maybe Christmas and Easter and a few other times. And we do this because we think that by ticking that box a couple of times a year, weâre doing enough to keep God happy. Religious people know they arenât perfect, but generally they hope their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, and that God will be OK with them at the end.
Some of us are total shockers. Sure, we turn up regularly, but there are times when weâre having ourselves on. We give in to sin early and often, and our lives are a bit of a mess. Some of us keep our sin hidden a bit better, so we look pretty good. But under the façade lurks pride and arrogance: a feeling that weâre better than others. Christians who are like that are one of the main reasons so many folks stay away from Church. Theyâre sick of being judged.
Jesusâ family tree has all this, which means itâs both confronting and encouraging. Itâs confronting because we see ourselves here. But itâs also encouraging because if God can save and bless and use this catalogue of muppets and wack-jobs then maybe he can do the same with me.
There are 42 men in this list and five women. Iâll mention a few of the blokes but weâll spend more time looking at these five women, because a Jewish family tree with women in it is pretty unusual. Normally itâs just the men who are mentioned, so Matthew has included these women for a very specific reason.
The five women are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. These women were just like us: some made bad decisions; some grew up without knowing God; some were abused by others; some were just faithful and obedient. But all of them are included in Jesusâ family tree. These are the kind of people God rescues, redeems, forgives, blesses, and then works through. And it doesnât matter that all five are women. Their stories apply to men as well. So, letâs get into it.
The first one is Tamar, verse 3. You can read her story back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 38, but briefly this is it. Tamar was married to a bloke named Er. His parents couldnât figure out what to call him: âEr, Erâ, and the name stuck. Anyway, he was wicked in Godâs sight, so God killed him. There was no welfare back then, different to our culture. Back then, if a married bloke died without leaving any children, his nearest male relative had to marry the widow, take her into his home, and give her children to keep the dead husbandâs family line going, and to ensure that the widow had someone to take care of her when she got old. It sounds kind of weird to us, but with no welfare, a widow was in real trouble. So this is a pretty good law that God gave his people.
Anyway, ErâTamarâs wicked and now dead husbandâhad a brother. His name was Onan. It was his responsibility to give Tamar a child. But he was also wicked. He slept with Tamar but didnât want the responsibility of having a child with her: so he didnât finish the deed and instead spilled his seed on the ground, as it were. His sin was that he used Tamar for sex, showed her no respect or honour, and did not fulfil his responsibilities to her and provide her with a child. So God killed him as well.
Things arenât looking too good for Tamar. Her father-in-law had another son, but since the first two sons died while married to Tamar, he was scared the same thing would happen to son number three. So he didnât let him marry her. So Tamar took matters into her own hands and disguised herself as a prostitute, waited for her father-in-law to turn up, and seduced him. His name was Judah, verse 3. Tamar was desperate. She had sex with her father-in-law and got pregnant. She had twins, Perez and Zerah. Their mum was their dadâs daughter-in-law. Weird? Absolutely! So why mention this hill-billy freak show? Because Tamarâs story is not unlike some of ours. She was one of Godâs people, but her life was a total mess. Maybe that describes you. Youâre one of Godâs people but your lifeâs a mess. Youâve been used and abused; and maybe youâve tried to fix it yourself and only made matters worse.
It is hard to imagine the shame and violation Tamar would have felt, sinking to the level of pretending to be a prostitute and sleeping with the very man who should have been taking care of her. This woman is totally abandoned. Tamarâs story tells us that even in the darkest of circumstances, God is somehow still at work. He doesnât pick the most respectable people or the most religious people. He often picks people whose lives are totally messed up, people whoâve been sinned against terribly, and he rescues them and provides for them. He mends their brokenness and blesses them. These people end up being a blessing to others. Tamar did. She is Jesusâ great-great-great-great-however-many-more-times-great-granny. That makes her story part of our story. God worked through her to bring Jesus to us.
The second and third women are both in verse 5. Rahab is first. You can read about her in the book of Joshua. Rahab didnât disguise herself as a prostitute. She didnât need to because she was a prostitute! Briefly, her story is this: after forty years of wandering around the desert for their disobedience to God, the people of Israel were again at the Jordan River, about to cross over into the Promised Land. Joshua sent two spies in to have a squiz. Where did they go? A brothel! Thatâs not what I learnt in Sunday School when I was a kid. I was told they went to an inn and had a nice hot cup of cocoa. They didnât. They went to a brothel where they met Rahab, a prostitute. Rahab had heard of Godâs people and she had heard of God. She knew her city was toast. The long and the short of it is this: the spies promise Rahab that if she hides them from the blokes who are looking for them, then she and her family will be spared when Israel invade. That is what ends up happening.
Rahab is included in Jesusâ family tree for the benefit of anyone who thinks they are out of Godâs reach. If thatâs you, listen to Rahabâs story and let her tell you that there is no such thing as being out of Godâs reach.
Itâs hard to imagine anyone further away from God than a prostitute from a godless town like Jericho. Yet, here she is, in Jesusâ family tree: and sheâs in Hebrews 11 as well, the chapter about the heroes of faith in the Old Testament. How did all that happen? Well, God met her where she was. He saved her and he changed her. She started making decisions that brought her closer to God. She started to trust God instead of pretending he wasnât there. She quit her job as a prostitute. She met and married a faithful, godly Israelite bloke. No one is too far from the God, who can turn the prostitute from Jericho into the great-great-great-great granny of Godâs own Son!
Ruth is next. The book of Ruth in the Old Testament is all about her. Sheâs different to Tamar and Rahab. Her story is one of the most beautiful things in the Bible. She was an extraordinary woman. But, even so, what on earth is she doing in Jesusâ family tree? She wasnât even Jewish! She was from Moab! Moab and Israel were sworn enemies! Ruth grew up worshipping false gods and had never even heard of the one true God. But she married a Jewish dude whoâd moved to Moab with his parents for all the wrong reasons. He ended up dying. So did his brother and then their dad, leaving Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, abandoned and without hope. After a while, Naomi decided to go back to Israel, and Ruth, her daughter-in-law, went with her.
It would have made much more sense for her to stay in her own county and get married to one of her own people. But she had come to know and trust God with an unshakable faith. Ruth loved God and totally trusted him. She stepped into harmâs way to take care of her mother-in-law, and God honoured Ruth for that choice. He protected her and provided her with more than enough food to survive. And after a short time he gave her a godly husband, Boaz. How cool is God! Boaz was Rahabâs son, the son of a former prostitute! Boaz was a man who also loved God and was completely honourable toward Ruth. A little while later they had a baby son, named Obed. He grew up and had a son named Jesse. Jesse grew up and had seven sons, the youngest of whom was named David. So, Ruth, the girl from Moab, a sworn enemy of Godâs people, was the great grandmother of Israelâs greatest king. Only God can pull that sort of thing off. Heâs awesome!
So why is Ruth here? Ruth shows us that Jesus is for all people, and that gives you and me great hope! We werenât part of Godâs people when we were born. Neither was Ruth. But the gospel isnât limited to one nation of people: itâs for everyone. If you arenât yet a Christian, this tells you that the gospel is for you, that Jesus is for you. And get this: thereâs also a good chance that this church is for you. There are people from over 70 different nationalities who call MBM their spiritual home. Maybe youâre not a Christian just yet. Maybe you are not part of Godâs big family just yet, but you can be. You are invited to join Godâs family through believing in Jesus and giving your life to him.
Then youâve got Bathsheba. Matthew doesnât even say her name. He just says in verse 6, âDavid, the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriahâs wifeâ (NIV).
You can read about David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. It is absolutely clear that Davidâs sin is the focus. He sees Bathsheba having a bath on her roof next door to the palace. She was a very beautiful woman. David should have been at war with his troops but he stayed at home. That was his first sin. Having seen his beautiful next-door neighbour in the bathâwho was also married to one of his most famous, loyal, and brave soldiersâhe should have just though that his mate Uriah was a very fortunate bloke, and left it at that. Instead, David sins again by sending one of his servants to bring her to the palace. They end up having sex and Bathsheba gets pregnant. David needs to hide his sin so David sends for Uriah. David has him brought back from the war, has dinner with him, and gets him drunk. Then David sends him home, hoping that he will sleep with his wife, and that everyone will assume that the baby is Uriahâs. However, Uriah is a far more honourable bloke than David, so he sleeps on the front steps of the palace instead of enjoying a night with his wife. Why? Because all his men are away from their wives fighting a war, so heâs not about do something they canât do. The next day David does the same thing. He has dinner with Uriah, gets him drunk, and sends him home to be with his wife. Uriah sleeps on the steps of the palace again. Then David sends Uriah back to the war with a sealed letter to the commander. The letter tells the commander to put Uriah where the fighting is fiercest and then leave him high and dry in the hope that he will be killed. That is exactly what happened. Uriah, loyal, brave, and unbelievably honourable, is killed so that Davidâs sin remains hidden.
If you were going to do a family tree, this would be the thing youâd leave out: a king, an adulterous affair, an unplanned pregnancy, and a murder. So why does Matthew include it? Itâs here because these are the people Jesus came to save. People like David, a faithful bloke most of his life but also a man who had some epic brain snaps; and people like Bathsheba, whoâve had terrible things done to them. It would seem that Bathsheba didnât really have much choice in anything that happened. It all happened to her. Yet even this doesnât put her out of Jesusâ reach.
Time and again Jesus meets people who had fallen into epic sins. He never ignores their sin. Instead, he put his finger right on it and points it out, but always so that he could then show them grace, mercy, forgiveness, and give them a fresh start. Thatâs what God did for David. A short while after it all happened, God confronted David with his sin. David repented. God gave him mercy, grace, and forgiveness. God looked at Bathshebaâs life that was now a train wreck, and over the next few years, he put her life back together as well. This is what God does: he redeems and repairs broken people.
I donât know where you are at. For all I know, this might be exactly what youâre up to. Iâve preached to congregations within which there were adulterous relationships going on. Itâs terrible, of course, but Christians arenât immune from this sort of thing. So maybe this is you. It might be something else. But whatever it is, Jesus is pointing his finger at our sin so that we canât ignore it. But heâs only doing that so that we will repent, so that he can show us mercy and grace, so that he can forgive us and restore us. Thatâs what Jesus does. He can take us from that dirty darkness of sin and bring us to the clean light of grace and forgiveness. Thatâs why Bathsheba is in Jesusâ family tree.
And lastly weâve got Mary, down in verse 16. She was a teenager, engaged to be married to Joseph. Mary was a virgin, and rightly so. God came to her one day and told her that she was about to get pregnant. She knew this would be hard to explain to her fiancĂ©e, but that didnât stop her from trusting God and obeying him.
She saw Joseph a while later and told him she was pregnant. Joseph knows full well it wasnât him! âSo who was it?â, he asks. âGodâ, she says. âYeah, right!â She was right but, understandably, Joseph didnât believe her. Next thing you know, God tells Joe to pull his head in and listen to his fiancĂ©e and get married. They would have a son and he was to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Thatâs what Jesusâ name means: the LORD saves.
So Mary was faithful and obedient. But that doesnât mean she was perfect. When Jesus grew up, he started telling everyone that he was the saviour of Godâs people, the Son of God, and that he and God were one. Mary thought her son was mad. She didnât believe him. She heard him speak, saw him do miracles, but she thought he was out of his mind. It wasnât until after Jesus was crucified and raised back to life that Mary finally figured out that Jesus wasnât just her son, but that he was also her saviour.
Maybe this is you. You know about Jesus; you've heard about some of the things He said; you know about the miracles, but you havenât yet crossed over from knowing about Jesus to believing in Jesus.
Well, Jesus came here to save his mum. And he came here to save you as well. You mightnât be in the same boat as Tamar or Rahab or Ruth or Bathsheba. Maybe youâre like Mary. On the surface, things look good and respectable. You put up with Jesus but keep him at armâs length. If thatâs you, itâs time for you to stop messing about with Jesus. Sop resisting him and start making him your saviour and king.
Matthewâs family tree of Jesus really is a mirror. It gives us a long list of sinners who look just like us, except most of them have weird names. Apart from that, weâre just the same. None of them were so bad or so far away from God that they couldnât be saved. And none of them were so close to God or so good that they didnât need to be saved. Thatâs us. None of us are so bad or so far away from God that we can't be saved. And none of us are so good or so close to God that we donât need to be saved. Jesus is the only one who is able to change your heart, save you from your sin, and give you a new life. That is why he came. That is why weâre here. Thatâs what Christmas is all about.
Letâs pray.