Begin the Begats: Cracks in the Family
Tree
An Advent Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit
December 9, 2018
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.
There
is a writer’s rule that the first chapter of a book is the most important. If
that opening chapter does not "hook" the reader, he or she will
probably not 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. When I was growing up we used the KJV Bible in
Sunday School. We called this chapter of
Matthew, the "begats". (Isaac
begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah….) Matthew,
to paraphrase a jazz standard, begins with the begats! Matthew’s story of the incarnation, indeed
Christmas, is rooted in the generations and history. There are 42 generations in that family tree,
and it goes through King David to Abraham.
After
reading all these names, a number of questions come to mind:
·
"So
what?"
·
Why
did he begin with this? What was so important about 42 generations and 45
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?
These
are the questions I want to look at today.
I have 3 points:
First, Jesus’ family tree contains cracks
and skeletons. Second, Jesus’ genealogy
contains a message of hope. Third,
Jesus’ genealogy proclaims 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. The “Holy Family”, Jesus’ ancestors were not
wonderfully pure. Matthew must have been
aware of this as he wrote their names. 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. But 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. The Christmas story, the incarnation in
Matthew’s gospel is a fascinating contrast of two kings and two kingdoms: Herod
and his kingdom, Jesus, and the Kingdom of God.
In
stark contrast, Matthew prints Jesus’ genealogy for all to read. Those who read it carefully discover 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 Jesus’ genealogy, proclaiming
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
the inclusion of women was not the only anomaly. In that list of ancestors are also foreigners.
Three of the four women named were not of Hebrew birth. They were outsiders! Neither male, nor Jewish!
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
ethnically 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 covenant,
(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. But she did this to continue the family
line. Her “sin” was crucial to the
continuation of Jesus’ lineage!
·
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": (Matthew
can’t bring himself to name her!) 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 discover some
pretty seamy stories, and people of questionable reputation and character.
Ironically
this same truth is the cornerstone of our world’s 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
is a hope that 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, and the blood that flows through the people of this family
tree is royal blood. But this genealogy
does not end with Jesus. It extends to
throughout history to this very day. Matthew
has declared, unequivocally, that in Jesus Christ, all of us are part of Christ’s
royal family. All of us are loved by God and worthy of love and respect
from others. By grace, we have been
grafted into the family tree of the Messiah! 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. In the course of our married life, Karen and I
have owned 4 dogs. The first 3 were
pedigreed and pure bred and we loved them dearly. Two months ago we brought a “rescue dog” into
our home. No papers, no recognition, no
pedigree… a mongrel. (let me add the
irony of this… we adopted a rescue dog who was a day away from being
euthanized…. But I am coming to realize that he, (Benson) lovingly adopted us
and in his own quirky way, rescued us from a dulling routine.
A
while ago, I read about a woman in 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.
Dog
stories are always touching and they go 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.
·
God
has declared that hope can be found in 42 generations that contain scandal,
skeletons, and cracks.
The
hope that is declared in this Advent season is that all people are God’s own
and deserve to be treated as royalty.
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, aliens,
and foreigners 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, indeed, our own skeletons.
The
advent of Jesus is a gracious message of hope to us during those moments.
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 through which the grace of God enters our
lives. They are the cracks that open our
history to the joy of the King… born in a manger. AMEN.
