Finding God in Messed-Up Lives (Matthew 1.1-17)

Introduction 

We are beginning a new series today which will run through to the last Sunday of the year and we’ve called it “Finding God at Christmas.”

It’s the nativity as told by Matthew - which is a darker and heavier perspective than Luke’s. 

Matthew probably got his source material for chapters 1 and 2 from Joseph because it tells the story from Joseph’s viewpoint.

Luke must have got his facts from Mary because he writes from hers. That explains the differences between the two gospels but when you compare them, like two pieces of a jigsaw they complement each other and fit together perfectly.

Except for one thing - the genealogies.

Why Genealogies Are Important

If I were to ask you the question, “Who are you?” how would you reply?

You’d probably give me a kind of impromptu CV. “Hi, I’m so-and-so, I come from such and such a town, I’m 25 or 75 years old, I’m a teacher, or a retired nurse, or I work with computers.

That’s why employers ask for a CV when they want to employ someone; they want a summary of that person’s personal details, education, previous experience and interests. And that’s how we say who we are in our culture.

But in biblical times, to say who you were you gave your family tree.

So I, in biblical terms, am John, son of Michael, son of Richard, cousin of Count Charles de Lambert, from the Franco-Russian aristocracy inventor of the hydrofoil, hovercraft and pioneer aviator who was friendly with the Wright brothers. That’s who I am! By the way, he died in 1944 without a penny to his name, having blown all his fortune on research.

Two Family Lines

The two family trees (Matthew 1 and Luke 3) are broadly similar but they go off on two different branches after King David. Here's a simplified diagram.

  

Matthew’s genealogy is on the left and Luke’s is on the right. David had several sons, two of whom were Solomon and Nathan. The dotted lines represent several generations and they show two different lines from King David.

Matthew’s and Luke’s family trees stick to those two different branches until they arrive at Jesus’ stepfather Joseph, where each gospel states a different name for Joseph’s father; Matthew says his name was Jacob and Luke says his name was Heli.

This is a problem. And it has led to some people claiming that the Bible can’t be trusted.

And I just want to deal with this issue right away because it can be a distraction. It can undermine our confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible. There are in fact four basic theories as to why they are different but I’m just going to talk you through the one I think is right.

I think the enigma is best explained by what is called the levirate marriage custom which you find in Deuteronomy 25.

For Jews at that time, you see, who you are is all about your family tree. To die without an heir was like having your name blotted out from history. So they had a type of marriage in which a man, if an older relative died without leaving an heir, had to marry the widow so that the dead man’s name could be preserved.

Are you with me so far? A good example of levirate marriage is in the Book of Ruth where, if you know the story, Boaz marries Ruth because - and only because - he was distantly related to her former husband who had died before having children.

This levirate marriage custom seems weird to us but it was common in those days and it explains the question Jesus was once asked by the Sadducees; do you remember? “If a man dies and his six brothers each marry the widow, one after the other, each leaving no heir, who is her husband in heaven?”

The apparent contradiction between Matthew and Luke disappears if Matthew’s family tree includes a Jacob who died before he had children, meaning his family line would end.

There would only be one way to preserve his name - desperately important for a first century Jew - and that would be a levirate marriage. So a close relative would marry Jacob’s widow. It seems that this is what must have happened; a relative called Heli, maybe a cousin or an uncle, married Jacob’s widow as was the custom.

And they had a child and they named him Joseph. This is the family line that Luke records. Luke, remember, was a gentile, so he was unfamiliar with Jewish customs. He was also a family doctor, so he was much more interested in biology than legality. It makes perfect sense that Luke would put Heli as Joseph’s father.

But in Jewish thinking, Jacob would be seen as the father, not Heli. And Matthew was a Jew writing to Jews. So it makes perfect sense that Matthew would put Jacob as Joseph’s father.

Genealogies were preserved in two ways in the ancient world. They were remembered by individuals and families and they were registered by governments for tax purposes (a bit like our civil records office in Somerset House). What was Matthew’s job? He was a taxman of course so he would have had access to the official archives and, under Jewish law, they would record Jacob, not Heli, as Joseph’s legal father. Are you still with me?

In any case, both Jacob and Heli trace their ancestry back to David, so Jesus has a claim to be the son of David, the Messiah, through his adoptive father Joseph, not only legally but also biologically which, as we shall see a bit later, is of crucial, crucial importance.

People usually find the genealogies in the Bible boring and pointless. Some of you are glazing over right now, proving my point! But I want to say that the whole Bible is God’s word and it is all inspired, even these family trees.

Admittedly, they are not hugely entertaining. Reading them is a bit like panning for gold. When you pan for gold, you turn your sieve round and round and, every now and then, something catches your eye; something glints in the sun and stands out.

There are priceless nuggets of truth in this list if we can be patient enough to keep panning the sieve.

I want to say that this list of names is good news for messed up people – because there are loads of messed-up lives in here.

We haven’t time to go through all of them so I’m going to pick out just eight who, like little nuggets of gold, glinted at me when I looked at this passage carefully two weeks ago. I’m going to pick out four men and four women.

Four Messed-Up Women

First of all the women; Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Uriah’s wife Bath Sheba (v6).

Tamar (v3) what can we say about her? She went through two husbands in a few years, and both were rogues who died young, before she disguised herself as a sex worker, deceived her father-in-law, committed adultery with him and ended up with not one love-child, but two.

She was nearly burned to death in a family feud but she blackmailed her way out of it. She was, it seems, utterly dysfunctional, with serial relationships, each one more damaging than the last. And it’s all there in Genesis 38.

Tamar had a messed-up life. But she was an ancestor of Jesus, the friend of sinners.

Rahab (v5) wasn’t even a Jew. She was from the Canaanites, a pagan people who were into child sacrifice and the occult. She was also a prostitute. And a traitor. She betrayed her own people, giving away state secrets and protecting foreign spies. She lived in the city walls, which is where the marginalised and vulnerable people lived.

Rahab had a messed-up life. But she was an ancestor of Jesus, who doesn’t condemn but says, “you’re free to go, sin no more.”

Ruth (v5) was a Moabitess, another “dodgy foreigner” - so she wasn’t a Jew either. Deuteronomy 23 says that Moabites and all their descendants are not allowed even to come near the assembly of the Lord. She was excluded from the Lord’s people.

She was also a young widow so her life will have been shattered – all her dreams gone. She became an economic migrant, living off hand outs and if that wasn’t enough trouble, her mother-in-law followed her wherever she went.

Ruth had a messed-up life. But she was an ancestor of Jesus, who binds up the broken hearted.

Bath Sheba (v6) was a tragic figure whose beauty led to being seduced by the most powerful man in the country while her husband was serving in the armed forces. She ended up pregnant and before her husband could find out he was bumped off so no one would know. There was a big cover up but it was all exposed and she was caught up in a national scandal. To make matters worse, her love-child died in infancy.

Bath Sheba had a messed-up life. But she was an ancestor of Jesus, who will one day say “Look, I make all things new.”

William Barclay in his commentary, listing those four said “If Matthew had ransacked the pages of the Old Testament for improbable candidates he couldn’t have discovered four more incredible ancestors for Jesus Christ.”

Four Messed-Up Men

Then the men; David, Manasseh, Jeconiah and Joseph. Notice I'm steering clear of Salmon (v4). He was a bit fishy as well. Rumour has it he was related to Captain Haddock, Nicola Sturgeon, Magnus Pike and Michael Fish.

David of course (v6) was the man who seduced Bath Sheba and had her husband murdered. He was hot headed and impulsive. He could be loyal and brave but he was stupid with women and he indulged his children. His family lost respect for him and he ended up a slightly pathetic figure; a former great who threw it all away. He had a heart for God but he also sinned terribly.

But David was an ancestor of Jesus, who asks this basic question to people who really mess up: “Do you love me?” David would melt immediately and say “Lord, you know I love you.”

David is mentioned five times in this genealogy, more than anyone else, even Jesus. That’s because if there’s one thing that all Jews know it’s that the Messiah has to be a descendant of David.

Manasseh (v10) was the worst of all the kings of Judah. This is what the Bible says about him: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord… He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed… He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them… He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practised divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger. Manasseh led [the people] astray [and did] more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and… led Judah into sin with his idols… Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end – besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

He was beyond the pale. We’d lock him up as a sadistic serial offender and throw away the key. Manasseh had a messed-up life. But he was an ancestor of Jesus, who came to seek and save the lost.”

Jeconiah (v11) was the last king of Judah. Jeremiah called him “a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants.” Jeconiah was like Saddam Hussein, a sleazy leader living in luxury while his ruined nation collapsed around him.

There’s another thing Jeremiah said about him. He prophesied a curse from God over his life. Listen to this: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule any more in Judah.”

God’s word is final. This means that Jesus could not be King of the Jews if he descended from Jeconiah. That prophecy would disqualify Jesus from claiming the crown if he had been the natural grandson of Jacob, because Jacob was in Jeconiah’s cursed line.

As the slide shows, Jesus' legal descent from David came through Solomon and Jeconiah to Jacob. 

But his biological descent from David, and his human right to David’s throne came through Heli, who was not under Jeconiah’s curse. 

Jeconiah had a messed-up life. But he too was an ancestor of Jesus, who lifts the curses off a thousand generations and proclaims a day of jubilee, a day of release.

And then Joseph (v16). A righteous man who was saving sex for marriage, and finds his fiancée is pregnant. All the village is talking about him and his “damaged goods” girlfriend. The wedding looks like it’s off.

In his culture, the engagement is binding and only dissolvable by divorce. Joseph’s future dreams look to be in tatters. He’s going to be divorced before he’s even married!

Joseph had a messed-up life. But he was the stepfather of Jesus, who gives hope to the hopeless and gives beauty for ashes, wine for water and can transform any situation by his mighty power.

And here’s the thing; had Joseph gone ahead with the divorce when he discovered that Mary was pregnant, Jesus would have had no claim whatever to the throne of David! But he didn’t and Jesus fulfils every prophecy and breaks every curse.

Ending

This list of names tells me it doesn’t matter how bad you’ve been, how low you’ve been, how deeply you’ve messed up.

Because God’s grace is sufficient. It wipes away every tear and it cleanses every stain.

This list of names tells me it doesn’t matter where you’ve come from; it’s where you’re going that counts. Because no family curse, no shameful past can take away what Christ gives you by faith.

This list of names tells me that all that matters is Jesus. His is the last genealogy in the Bible. You won’t find Paul’s, you won’t find Peter’s and you won’t find Mary’s. They’re irrelevant. It doesn’t matter who your ancestors are anymore. Are you in Christ’s family? Matthew 1 is my family tree because I am in Christ. That’s what really counts. Are you a child of God? Are you in Christ?

And finally, this list of names tells me it doesn’t matter where my name is written on earth. You can trace my baptismal record, you can find my entry on the electoral register and spot me somewhere in Somerset House. Who cares? What counts is that my name is written in heaven. Is yours? Do you have the assurance today that your name is written in the Book of Life?

The Bible says “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Have you done that? If you haven’t, do it today!

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 30th November 2014