It has become quite popular in recent years to do research on one’s family tree.
At the time of Jesus it was also popular for the powerful to do genealogical tables, or family trees, to establish their family line.
The theme of our advent party and our family Christmas Eve service is the tree of Jesse.
We are talking about the family tree of Jesus that Matthew traces back to Abraham.
I doubt that many of you have spent a lot of time meditating on this part of Matthew, but I read of one person who claimed that upon reading these verses, he was converted to Christianity.
So it may be worth a deeper look.
Actually, I think you have some of the major themes of the Gospel already identified in this family tree.
If you want to know how God works to redeem the world, the pattern of God’s work is revealed here.
The first thing that you notice is that you don’t know much about many of the people in these verses.
They were born, they married, had children & died but except for this genealogy, they are lost to the pages of history.
The truth of God’s work is that many of the major acts take place in obscurity.
Most of these people would have no idea that they were a significant link to God’s redemption of the world.
If you ever feel like your life is insignificant and that your life is without meaning, remember this family tree.
God tends to use the faithful acts in the hidden moments of life to create a link to redemption.
We, together with people all over this world, form the Body of Christ and that Body is strengthened or weakened by each persons acts of faith.
Next, Matthew reports: “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.”
Only by looking back from the end point of that chain could you see that pattern.
Anywhere in the midst of that pattern of 42 generations, you would have had difficulty understanding the pattern.
It is a matter of faith that someday when we look back from the end of time we will be able to discern the pattern of God’s activity reconciling all of the seemingly uneven movement of history.
The same is true of your life.
I know that many of you have had some painful moments that cause you to question the love of God in your life.
I also know that looking back on my life I can now see that some of the moments when I was low; God was working to use those experiences to form me.
The Gospel reassures us that the pattern of God’s love is there even when we cannot see it.
The third truth is suggested by the very unusual mention of the women in this family tree.
It would be unusual enough to have women mentioned at all in such a genealogy, but the specific women mentioned raise the issue of scandal.
First of all two, if not all three, were foreign women from nations that were often considered Israel’s enemies.
Usually genealogies are formed to assure the purity of the family line, and yet this one seems to almost emphasize the foreign pollution of the family tree.
Not only that but the stories of these women often are stories of scandal and immorality.
Tamar was a foreign woman who pretended to be a prostitute to seduce her father-in-law and bear his child.
Ruth is a little better story although with some questionable elements.
But Bathsheba combines adultery, deceit, murder, and abuse of power.
What are we to make of the Gospel’s bold declaration that Jesus family tree is full of scandal?
Are there not times when we have been ashamed of our thoughts and actions and wondered if we could ever be acceptable to God?
When we look at the world around us, don’t we sometimes wonder whether God hasn’t been defeated by the immorality and corruption of our society?
Do you sometimes despair that Christianity is a hopelessly idealistic faith not applicable to the real world?
When you read of scandals in the church, do you sometimes ask yourself why bother with your participation?
When such questions and doubts occur, remember the family tree of Jesus.
From the beginning God have us free will to decide how we will act in this life.
Often the choice is less than admirable.
Yet God is not defeated and even our faithless acts can be transformed by God’s redemptive activity.
To walk away from church, nation, or individual life in despair is to demean the redemptive activity of God.
The family line that produced the redeemer of this world was not without sin.
It was God, not the purity of the family, that redeems the world.
Our trust in such a God is seen in our refusal to give up on the God who has not given up on us.
Finally, let us look on the mystery of Mary.
This whole family line is of the house and lineage of David.
But wait, we are told that Mary’s pregnancy was of the Holy Spirit.
It was Joseph that was of the house and lineage of David.
But then we are told that Joseph adopted Jesus as his own son.
Adoption is a matter of choice.
The fulfillment of God’s redemptive promise came as a result of a gracious free choice both by Joseph and by God.
God’s choice of you was not forced but an expression of God’s gracious love.
