Cracks in the Family Tree
An Advent Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
Abington Presbyterian Church
December 23, 2007

Matthew 1: 1-17
    An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
    Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
    And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
    And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
    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.*

The first chapter of a book is the most important. If that opening chapter does not "hook" the reader, he or she is not going to read the rest of the book. But Matthew did not follow this rule. He began his gospel with the dullest recitation in the New Testament. He begins with Jesus’ family tree. When I was growing up we referred to this chapter as the "begats". There are 42 generations in that family tree, and it goes through King David to Abraham.

After reading all these names, the question needs to be asked: "So what?" Why did he begin with this? What was so important about 42 historic names? Why didn’t he begin with Mary and Joseph, the manger, and Herod? Isn’t that where Christmas begins? Isn’t that where the promise of this holiday, the promise of this season is found? What is so important about a family tree? That is what I want to look at today:

First, Jesus’ family tree contains cracks. Second, Jesus’ tree contains hope. Third, Jesus’ tree says something important about the value of each of us in God’s eyes and in God’s history.

I

There are cracks in that family tree of Jesus. Matthew must have been aware as he wrote the names down. Why did he include them? Ironically, there was another king who lived at about the same time. His name was Herod. He too had a family tree or genealogy and he went to great pains to hide it. He did not want people to know that there were some very ordinary people in his pedigree. So his family tree was hidden and his genealogical records destroyed.

In stark contrast, Matthew prints Jesus’ genealogy for all to read, and for those who read it carefully it reveals some amazing things about this man Jesus. First, Jewish genealogies rarely, if ever, contained the names of women. In those historic circumstances the role of women was not seen as important, yet there are four women named in that genealogy, saying to that ancient culture that these women had a vital role in God’s history of redemption… and it says to us today that women have a vital role in our history and our society.

But it does not stop there. In that list of ancestors are also foreigners. Three of the four women named were not of Hebrew birth. We might overlook that today, but when Matthew wrote his gospel, Jewish consciousness and pride was at an all time high. Being an occupied land, foreigners were not appreciated and were not regarded as "God’s people"…. And yet there, in prominent relief are the names of foreigners… Ancestors of Jesus. Why? This would be something that one might wish to hide. It suggested that Jesus was not pure. …. But it also suggests… no, it proclaims, that all nations are God’s people. It declares, that Jesus came as a savior for all people, and that "his people" were not merely the people of the law, (the Hebrew people), but also those who were excluded from the covenant and believed to be apart from God.

And then, there are a few of the individual names in that family tree. The Bible contains some of the stories of these individuals, and those stories are troubling. They are the scandals that "talk shows" might exploit today. First there is Tamar. How did she make her contribution to Jesus’ ancestry? She dressed like a prostitute and seduced her father in law. Rahab, another name in that family tree, actually made her living as a prostitute. And then David, who figure prominently in this ancestry, is linked to Jesus through the adulterous relationship that he had with "Uriah’s wife", Bathsheba.

Matthew did not gild his gospel. He told the truth about this man Jesus, and that truth said something very powerful about God and reality. The truth is that Jesus was a human being, and when one examined his pedigree, one would find some pretty seamy stories, and people of questionable reputation and character. Ironically this same truth is the cornerstone of hope.

II

Hope; it is the primary theme in Advent. The hope of the gospel is wonderfully realistic. It is a hope that declares all people, regardless of reputation or history, are part of God’s wonderful plan of redemption. It declares that the principle or the law that God operates on is the law of love and grace. It is a hope that declares that those individuals, who are regarded as impure, scandalous, or beyond redemption, are God’s people and that Jesus is their savior.

Listen carefully: Matthew has done a marvelous thing in this genealogy. This is a royal genealogy; the blood that flows through the people of this family tree is royal blood. Matthew has declared, unequivocally, that in Jesus Christ, all of us are part of his royal family. All of us are loved by God and worthy of love and respect from others. That is the nature of the hope that we declare in this season of Advent.

III

We live in a society that pays a lot of attention to pedigree, much more than we should. Most often this is seen in the pedigree of animals, particularly dogs. Dogs are wonderful creatures, and we love our family dog. Recently, I read about a woman is Scotland who was quite distressed about the treatment of "mongrel" dogs. It seems that they were not as valued, nor treated as well by authorities and shelters, as registered dogs. So she invented her own breed, and invited anyone to register his or her mongrel dog as part of this breed. You are only required to make a donation to your church and promise to provide a loving home for the dog.

It is a touching story, and it goes to the heart of the great act of hope that occurred in the birth of Jesus. God has taken the mongrels of this world… and has declared us royalty. God has declared that the kings and queens of this world are born not in palaces but in stables. He has declared that hope can be found in 42 generations that contain scandal. The hope that is declared in this Advent season is that all people are God’s and deserve to be treated as royalty.

But it is also a message of hope to this age about the future. It is easy to fall into despair about the way things are. The newspapers, the news, our lives are filled with stories that feed the sense of hopelessness that we have about the future. It is a message that in God’s history, scandal, pain, outcasts and foreigners are all play a part and contribute to salvation.

But there is a very special message of hope that comes to us individually. There are times when we wonder, "What is the use?" There are times when we feel worthless. There are times when we feel as though we are nobody and unimportant. Often it is related to circumstances in our lives: the breakup of a relationship, the loss of a job, the death of loved one. At times it is related to something that we did, something that might have been wrong, something that might have hurt someone. The advent of Jesus is a message of hope to us at those times. Jesus, born of royal blood, was a descendent of those who felt worthless, those who were nobodies, foreigners and scandalmongers. Matthew has declared clearly and with authority that the family tree of Jesus…. The royal family tree includes you and me.

There are cracks in that tree…. But those cracks are the ones through which hope flows. They are the cracks that open history to the joy of the King… born in a manger. AMEN.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org