The holidays are upon us. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are a fun filled time of friends and families, a time when we gather around the table to share the warmth and joy of the family. Christmas is a time when the songs are all happy, when snow envelopes the earth in a warm woolen blanket, when peace on earth and good will toward men seems just a little bit more possible. Doesn't that just make you all warm inside?

Christmas is a time for families, a time to visit with family members you've haven't seen in a year or more ... sometimes for good reason. There are the in-laws and the out-laws. The older members like to have the heat set to just a little lower than the temperature that the ham is roasting at. The toddlers are discovering your ornaments are great for throwing. Then there is Uncle Fred, who, during Christmas dinner, describes his latest surgery while you try to swallow Aunt Martha's candied yams. Your little nephews have ingested enough sugar to go into diabetic shock, but leaping from sofa to chair to coffee table in their hyper-kinetic excitement. While dear Mom means well, you don't want to hear another article she read in the checkout line that says microwaves make you grow facial hair, so she would appreciate it if you not use yours during her visit. You desperately want to tell her its too late.

As we come into the holiday season when families are often on our mind, let’s take a look at one family tree, at a family tree that produced Jesus Christ. What kind of ancestors does Jesus Christ lay claim to? While Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, Christmas is the time we celebrate the incarnation, the time He came to earth, born of Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. But as one who was born, He had a family tree. Let's look at one such tree.

1. A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

 
3. Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,

4. Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,

5. Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,

6. and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,

7. Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa,

8. Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

9. Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

10. Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,

11. and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

13. Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor,

14. Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud,

15. Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,

16. and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

17. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

There will be a quiz on that later. Do you feel blessed? Is your soul charged now for Christmas? No? Understandably, for us such lists of families only provide good experience to practice pronouncing names that are tongue twisters. Are you expecting a child? Here's a place to find that name which will help the child develop his or her own identity!

When we encounter such lists we often proceed with haste to the important information, thinking that the author had to get so many words in to his publisher and found this to be a good way to fill space. But when we take just a moment and look more closely at what is often seen as a very boring passage, we will learn very much. This simple family tree oozes grace. The more you look at it, the more you realize what a gracious and compassionate God we have, a God who works in and through families for His own purposes.

Why the lists? Why waste such precious space? Lineage was important to the Jews for a variety of reasons. In a time without Driver's Licenses and Social Security numbers, the family tree provided the means by which you could determine important matters. Your family tree in ancient Israel determined the area in which you lived. It was necessary in the transference of property. One's pedigree also undergirded status, especially with offices of kings and priests where lineage is important. After the captivity in Babylon the lineage was necessary to reestablish the priesthood. Royal succession was linked with Davidic lineage. Someone as common as Joseph knew his family tree. In Luke 2 Mary and Joseph to return to his ancestral home of Bethlehem, the city of David, for they were part of David's family.

The great Rabbi Hillel was gratified to trace his genealogy back to King David. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing towards the end of the first century AD, begins his autobiography by relating his own pedigree. These documents were kept in the public records by the Sandhedrin. As a matter of fact, Herod the Great was so embarrassed because, as half Jew and half Edomite, his name was not in the official genealogies, that he sought their destruction, so that nobody could claim a purer pedigree than his own! Far from seeing this as a bit of dull antiquated facts, the first readers of the Gospel would be fascinated that Jesus could trace His genealogy back to Abraham. It was important in the first century and even today as it teaches us some valuable lessons about God's grace.

It is important we read this list as Matthew’s first century audience would have read this list. Matthew includes these names with a view toward his over-arching theme for his gospel. Matthew’s readers were most likely Jewish Christians, who, for good reasons, prized their ancestry. Matthew’s audience took great pride in their lineage and the insinuation of any perceived contamination would have been unthinkable.

My grandfather came from a long line of aristocratic southerners who looked down on anyone who was not as "waspy" as they. Bombs went off when his son, my uncle, made the off handed comment that since their family name, "Banks", was also a prevalent African-American name, and since their ancestors were slave owners, perhaps they have black ancestors. That conversation and the ensuing eruption is still a part of the family folklore.

How much more for a Jew. So what a shock it would be to be reminded that leading up to their great King David the four women mentioned in this genealogy were foreigners. We’ll look at their individual stories in a minute, but by way of introduction, we come across Tamar in Genesis 38 where Judah selects her to be the wife of his son Er. Her background is not given, but we find her living with her own father in a Canaanite town later in the story. From all appearances, she is not a descendent of Abraham.

Rahab in verse 5 is well known from Joshua 2,6 when the spies comes to Canaan after the exodus and the forty years of wandering. Two spies are taken in by her, hidden from the Canaanite soldiers. She is an innkeeper, among other occupations. Although she is part of the people God has commanded to remove from the land, she requests asylum and after the destruction of Jericho, becomes a part of Israel.

Ruth’s familiar story is told in the short book which bears her name. She is identified as a Moabite, of the sworn enemies of Israel. Although related by common ancestry to Abraham through Lot, they refused Israel passage during their wanderings in the wilderness and their king, Balak, sought their destruction through the prophet Balaam, which we read of in Numbers. Ruth, through marriage to Kilion, became a part of Israel, too.

The fourth woman is not directly named, but referred to as Uriah’s wife, the mother of Solomon. This is none other than Bathsheba, the woman with whom David had an affair and produced the heir to his throne. Her status as a foreigner is assumed by her marriage to Uriah, whose ethnic background was that of a Hittite, another hated group by the Jews.

Each of these names serve as wonderful reminder of God’s grace in taking in those who are the consummate outsiders. As we look at these names inserted into Jesus’s genealogy, we see a common thread in these foreigners. They stand outside the realm of God’s grace, but God graciously includes them as His people. The loneliness, the separation which they felt is what so many sense in their own lives, especially this time of year.

About halfway through a PBS program on the Library of Congress, Dr. Daniel Boorstin, the Librarian of Congress, brought out a little blue box from a small closet that once held the library's rarities. The label on the box read: CONTENTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S POCKETS ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 14, 1865. Since that was the fateful night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, every viewer's attention was seized. Boorstin then proceeded to remove the items in the small container and display them on camera. There were five things in the box: 1) a handkerchief, embroidered "A. Lincoln", 2) a country boy's pen knife, 3) a spectacles case repaired with string 4) a purse containing a $5 bill--Confederate money(!) and 5) some old and worn newspaper clippings.

"The clippings," said Boorstin, "were concerned with the great deeds of Abraham Lincoln. And one of them actually reports a speech by John Bright which says that Abraham Lincoln is "one of the greatest men of all times." In 1865 that was not a prevalent opinion. The President's critics were fierce and many. There is something touchingly pathetic in the mental picture of this great leader seeking solace and self-assurance from a few old newspaper clippings as he reads them under the flickering flame of a candle all alone in the Oval Office.

It is sad that we often look for solace to our loneliness, our isolation, in all the wrong places.

Each of these four women paint a picture of isolation and loneliness, of being cut off from God, but that God, in His grace and despite their sinfulness, included them into His family. We must never forget God has included us into His people. It should never come as a surprise to us that this theme is repeated again and again throughout the Scriptures. We’ve been looking at this truth in Ephesians where the union of Jew and Gentile produces a new being where the ethic divisions are removed.

It is for this reason that Matthew concludes his gospel with the familiar words of Jesus to His disciples to go, make disciples of all nations. The boundaries of God’s grace are far broader than we can ever imagine. Our eyes must constantly be diverted from the immediate, the familiar and see that God takes those who we normally would never consider and makes them a part of His family.

The inclusion of these names goes further than just that they are outsiders brought into God’s family. There is another facet here which should encourage us. Without batting an eye, Scripture lays out before us the lineage of Jesus, warts and all. Quite often, we like to disinfect and sanitize Jesus to make Him safer, more comfortable. But just as the odors of the cattle stall in Bethlehem reeked of foul odors that first Christmas night, so the stench of human sinfulness is clear. Just as the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1:21, Jesus is so named because "he will save his people from their sins." Let’s take a look at the sins which this family has not hidden in the closet.

Tamar was wife of Er, Judah’s son who found herself a widow after the Lord put Er to death because of his wickedness. The rule of the day dictated that the deceased’s brother was to fulfill his duties and provide offspring. Judah’s second son, Onan, Er’s brother, refused. He too was take by God. This left Sheliah, the third and much younger son to be Tamar’s husband. Since Sheliah was too young and Judah was afraid of what would happen to his son, he sent Tamar back home. The reason given was to wait for Sheliah to grow up, but Judah’s reason was less than honorable. Through the years Tamar realized that Judah, her father-in-law, had no plan to bring her back into the family. She devised a plan. When she heard that Judah was coming through her town, she dressed as a prostitute and waited by the road. Judah, like too many business men today, thought that while he was away from home, he’d enjoy some fun on the side. He hired Tamar, not recognizing who she was, since she wore the veil of a prostitute. To pay for her services Judah promised to send her a young goat, but left her his seal and staff as a pledge of his intentions. Three months later the word got back to Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, was pregnant. Enraged that she would dare commit adultery, he wanted her burned to death. But when she produced the evidence of the father, he repented of his own sin and took her back into his family.

Rahab gets the dubious distinction of going down in Scripture with the unfortunate epitaph as Rahab the Harlot. Her job as the innkeeper in Joshua 2 meant that her entertainment went beyond the good meal and room at the hotel.

Ruth may appear to be the devoted daughter-in-law who leaves her family to join Naomi when we read her story, but like the others, she too would be viewed as a sinner were it not for God’s grace in taking her into His family. She is a Moabitess. Deuteronomy 23:3 informed Israelites that those from Moab were worse than lepers, excluded from God’s covenant for ten generations. The reason was simple. The ancestor Lot, nephew to Abraham, after escaping from the destruction of Sodom, was made drunk by his desperate daughters who became pregnant by their own father. The entire nation was viewed as a by-product of incest. Yet, once again, one from that cursed line is included.

While Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, is not directly mentioned, her exploits are well known. As her husband was off at war, the voyeur David fanaticized while she bathed. He took her into his palace, impregnated her and then murdered her husband to make her his own wife, as if that would conceal their affair.

What is your sin? What is it that would keep God from loving you? If God did not spare His own Son for sinners such as these, and even make them a part of His family tree, there is nothing you can do to alienate His grace from your life. There is no sin so small that it does not deserve God’s wrath, but there is also no sin so big that God’s grace can not be satisfied by the death of His own son.

How often have you wondered if you’ve gone too far; you’ve made God too mad, that He could never love you again? Unfortunately, we often doubt God’s grace and so we go probing again and again into our inner-psyche, vainly imagining that we are made better by constantly doubting God’s love and torturing ourselves with a dangling grace always too far out of reach. The constant self examination and the refusal to rest in God’s grace deadens us.

In l880, James Garfield was elected president of the United States, but after only six months in office, he was shot in the back with a revolver. He never lost consciousness. At the hospital, the doctor probed the wound with his little finger to seek the bullet. He couldn't find it, so he tried a silver-tipped probe. Still he couldn't locate the bullet. They took Garfield back to Washington, D.C. Despite the summer heat, they tried to keep him comfortable. He was growing very weak. Teams of doctors tried to locate the bullet, probing the wound over and over. In desperation they asked Alexander Graham Bell, who was working on a little device called the telephone, to see if he could locate the metal inside the president's body. He came, he sought, and he too failed. The president hung on through July, through August, but in September he finally died - not from the wound, but from infection. The repeated probing, which the physicians thought would help the man, eventually killed him. So it is with people who dwell too long on their sin and refuse to believe the simple truth of the Gospel, that God takes sinners like us and makes us a part of His family.

But that these women were foreigners and fallen are not the only reason they are included in this lineage. There is another aspect which is meant to foreshadow what will be described later in this chapter, that these scandalous women are a part of the lineage picture of what God was going to do with Mary.

They share with Mary something extraordinary or irregular in their union with their husbands – a union which, though it may have been scandalous to outsiders, continued the blessed lineage of the Messiah. Certainly Sarah would serve as an example of God’s miraculous intervention in producing a child. But what we often forget is the horrible stigma on Mary is best illustrated by those who likewise were marked as perpetual outsiders by those who think they know how God should work.

They set the scene for what is to follow. While the circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ were by no means immoral, the question was raised. Joseph knew to whom he was engaged; he knew he could trust her, but when she told him she was pregnant, he had to wonder.

There is another similarity between Mary and these woman: their intention to be faithful despite their infamy.

When Tamar confronted Judah of his breach of faith he pronounced her as righteous. Without minimizing her immoral actions, we see in her a desire to be included in God’s covenantal people. She was willing to bear the stench of her actions in order to be a part of Israel. Rahab is called righteous by James and placed on par with Abraham whose faith produced virtuous deeds. The author of Hebrews includes her in the Hall of Faith as one who lived by faith. Ruth left her family and culture and willingly looked after her widowed mother-in-law in a foreign land, for she wanted the God of Naomi to be her God, too.

God takes the scandalous and uses that for His glory. He takes a teenage girl and places on her the pain and terror of a virginal conception, the ignominy of facing family and friends, the anger of her betrothed. To this tremendous burden, she responds in faith, as Luke records her response: "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said." With these women, a response of faith despite the circumstances describes what it means to be faithful.

Through this brief reminder shines the invincible power of God's covenant. He brought His work to completion and remained free in the choice of His human instruments, even in the face of their sinfulness and abominable conduct. Jesus's family tree is a marvelous example of God working, of God's grace. God's grace is seen in the big picture of the chain of events we encounter each and every day; it is also seen in our own lives.

Perhaps you looks at your own family tree and wonder what God is doing. Such a snake pit of sins, dysfunctional relationships, problems, failures? You wonder, "How can God ever use me? I don't have the spiritual credentials of this person or that. I wasn't raised in a Christian home with nice believing parents who taught me from ground up how to honor and obey God. I carry a lot of baggage."