Matthew 1:1-17

            {Prayer}

            Think back to when you were a child … what did you cherish most about your family?

            As you aged, did you ever dig deeper into your family tree? If you did … what did you find out? Are there any persons, problems, or patterns that surprised you?

            I ask this because at some point in the hustle and bustle of the season, some of us will go home or the kids will come home. Whether it is here or there, home often means family and friends and get-togethers. Home is a place where we come face-to-face with our “delightful” family trees.

            In fact, there might have been a point in your life where you stepped back from a family gathering or a genealogy study and said to yourself, “Man, I sure do have some kind of a family tree.” Maybe you’ve even admitted: “This family tree is a few branches short. The word crazy is a relative term here.” I’ve never heard this but maybe you’ve said, “I’m not stuck after all, I’m simply ancestrally challenged.” Or maybe, “I’m tracing my family history so I’ll know who to blame for this craziness.”

            While I have never probed around in my family tree, there are some stories out there where people have found out that their tree is full of all kinds of interesting things.

            The author of our sermon series tells the story of a friend of his who probed into his family tree. Needless to say, it revealed its share of shocks and surprise. Here’s some of the things his friend found out. There was cohabitation, a shotgun wedding, children and grandchildren out of wedlock, depression, rebellion against parents, amputations, years of incarceration, substance abuse, martial desertion, an affair, suicide, physical and verbal abuse, moonshining, and time in a mental institution. This author’s friend’s idealized family quickly met his real family. There was one word he came up with describe his family tree … dysfunction. Family dysfunction has traits, symptoms, problems, crises and behavioral patterns that are passed down from generation to generation.

            Maybe you’ve gone down that genealogy rabbit hole and have come to a humble conclusion of, “Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have done this.” But also … a light bulb clicks on in your head, “You know, this is why our family gatherings have the unwritten rule: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell. Just smile and nod, pretend and make it through.”

            In our Gospel reading this morning, Matthew starts the New Testament with an interesting glimpse into the life of Jesus before He is born. Matthew opens up with the genealogy of Jesus, a glimpse at His family tree. Like the ending credits to a movie, we are tempted to skip over this long list of names and get on with the “good stuff” like the birth of Jesus.

But the thing is, Matthew’s genealogy is far from a regurgitation of ancient, dry data. The genealogy that opens the New Testament proclaims God’s masterful providence over all salvation history, which reaches its climax and fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

As we peer into Jesus’ genealogy, this isn’t full of things you might think. Matthew doesn’t gloss over the dirty details or leave embarrassing names from the dirty dozens out. So let’s check out a few of these branches in Jesus’ tree.

Verse 2 reads, “Abraham was the father of Isaac.” The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree here. On two different occasions, Abraham lies about the identity of his wife, Sarah, claiming that she is his sister. He does this once to Pharaoh in Egypt and later to Abimelech, king of Gerar. Decades later when his son Isaac travels to Gerar, the men there ask about his wife, Rebekah. Isaac, like his father had done says, “She’s my sister.”

Among other names, verse 3 mentions, “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.” Tamar married Judah’s oldest son, Er. When Er does what is evil in God’s sight, God takes his life. In accordance with Jewish law, Judah then gives Tamar his second oldest son Onan. Onan also does what is evil in God’s sight, so God takes his life too. Judah then refuses to give Tamar his third son. Like an episode right out of a soap opera, in Judah’s shame, guilt, and depression … he sleeps with a woman he thinks is a prostitute. The prostitute turns out to be his daughter-in-law, Tamar, in disguise. As for their one-night stand … it resulted in twins, Perez and Zerah.

As the genealogy progresses, verse 10 draws our attention to “Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon.” Manasseh turns out to be the most evil king in Judah’s entire history. He set up pagan places of worship and altars to Baal. He worshiped the hosts of heaven and burned his own sons as an offering. Manasseh used fortune-telling, sorcery, witchcraft, wizards, and placed a carved idol in God’s house.

These may be some of the lesser known stories, but what about the names we do recognize? We have Jacob who was known as a trickster and a deceiver. You have Rahab’s harlotry. David’s immorality with the wife of Uriah among other things. There’s Solomon’s disloyal heart, Ahaz’s idolatry, and Hezekiah’s pride. It doesn’t take a whole lot of digging to see the amount of “sap” in Jesus’ family tree. There’s a lot of “sticky” situations.

But here’s a question for us to consider this morning … “Why would God enter this family? Why not start fresh? Why not step into this kind of story?”

Here’s the answer … If Jesus was willing to enter that family tree … then there is hope for every one of ours. Jesus doesn’t avoid humanity’s mess. He steps right into it.

Here’s the thing … Matthew doesn’t start off his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus in order to bore us or give us triva. Matthew starts here to proclaim to us that God, at precisely the right time in history, was grafting a completely new branch into humanity’s fallen tree. New life beings with “Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).

Matthew wants us to feel the weight of that. He wants us to see that Christ entered a world full of real sin and real dysfunction … a world just like ours.

Then, merely a few verses after the genealogy, Matthew tells us how God does this grafting. An angel of the Lord comes to a man named Joseph, who is torn up from the news that his fiancée is pregnant. The angel tells him not to leave her because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Instead, Joseph it to take Mary home as his wife for she will give birth to a son, and {he} is to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (1:20-21).

But Jesus didn’t only enter into the broken family tree of humanity two thousand years ago. Today, here this morning, our dear Christ enters in again. Not in a manger, not in a mere memory, but as He promised. Christ enters in by His Word, in forgiveness, and especially in His Supper.

For the same Jesus, whose family tree was full of sinners and scoundrels, gives Himself now to people with tangled branches of their own. Here at this table, Jesus welcomes the ones carrying shame, regret, generational baggage, old wounds, and family patterns they wish they could prune away. Here Jesus feeds the weary, the imperfect, and the disjointed. Jesus feeds people like Abraham, like Tamar, like David … people like you and me.

And as He gives you His very body and blood, He is doing more than forgiving you of your sins. He’s doing that, no doubt, but He is also claiming you again as part of His redeemed family tree. He is nourishing the new life He planted in you in Baptism. He is reminding you that your story no longer ends with dysfunction or death, because you have been grafted into His life, His righteousness, His future.

Here today, Christ enters in … into your present mess, your family aches, your fears about the seasons, your doubts, your longing for something whole and healed. Jesus brings you into His family table, a foretaste of the great banquet that awaits you in the new creation.

Come today, not because your branch is strong or straight, but because the Tree of Life Himself invites you.

Come because the One born from a broken family tree came to restore yours forever. Come because Christ enters in to make you His own. Amen.

The peace of God, that surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.