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| The draggy bit of the gospel Matt 1: 1 – 16 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 21 December, 2003 |
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| A MISSIONARY was reading Matthew’s gospel
to some Chinese. They noticed that he had skipped something. “What is
that bit you didn’t read to us?” they asked. “The genealogy,” he
replied. Can you think of anything more sensible to do, if you want to introduce the gospel to someone, than to skip draggy genealogies? Particularly in the King James version, it’s all those ‘begats” — “David begat, Uzziah begat” and so on. Who wants to hear that? Well those Chinese wanted to hear every word of it. Does that sound weird? Well, I’ll tell you something. I know something about my great grandfathers and even about my great great grandfather. There’s a street in Paddington named after my great great grandfather, Green Street, near Victoria Barracks. He was a soldier, soldier number 1 in the Australian Army. His son–in–law was General Holmes, after whom General Holmes Drive was named. Someone here was surprised that I know so much about my ancestry, as he only knows his family as far back as his grandparents, and is even a bit vague about some of them. Well, I can trace my ancestry back to the end of the 18th Century. But I read of a Chinese girl who easily traced her ancestry back over 1 000 years. Her place in life was defined by her ancestry! So maybe you understand why those Chinese people wanted to hear about Jesus’ ancestry. “If we don’t know his ancestors,” they said, “how will we know who he is? He could be a tramp moving from town to town, stealing from people before he goes on. But, if we know his family, we know who he is, and what to expect from him.” Can you imagine that? We can’t be bothered with genealogies, but they think a genealogy is part of who we are. But, first, let’s think about some of our other attitudes to ancestry. I had a convict ancestor on the First Fleet, an Irish lady. I can’t remember her name. I had another convict ancestor. I remember some of his names. Some people knew him as Mr Leoni, some people called him Mr Lyons. It depended on who wanted to know. He was very short, and one of my great aunts thought a man that short was probably convicted for looking up ladies’ dresses. We knew about these ancestors, but we didn’t talk about them, like we still don’t talk much about one of my great uncles, who was caught exposing himself to young women on a lonely street near Fairfield Station. Anyway, around 1973 or 1974, things started to change. Australians learned to be proud of convict ancestors instead of ashamed. They built Old Sydney Town then, and programs on TV about the Gold Rush and the life in the early days. Don’t we all have good and bad in our ancestry? It’s all part of the picture. Matthew understood that, even when it came to Jesus. So, what does the Gospel say about Jesus? THE UNREMARKABLE ANCESTORS First, he had many ancestors who were unremarkable. Think about these verses: ...Perez and Zerah, whose mother was
Tamar,
Perez, Zerah, Hezron, Ram, Nahshon, Salmon, Obed... who are they? They
don’t play big parts in history. They are just there.Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, MT 1:4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, MT 1:5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, MT 1:6 and Jesse the father of King David. Or we could think of another section, Abiud the father of
Eliakim,
Abiud? Eliakim? Azor or Hazor? Akim? Eliud? Matthan? Jacob? What do you
know about any of them? Bit players at the very best. Their biggest
role was to form part of the chain leading from Abraham to Christ.Eliakim the father of Azor, MT 1:14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, MT 1:15 Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, MT 1:16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, Why is it important to know about the obscure ancestors? The fact is that very few of us have notable ancestors. I don’t imagine that more than a handful of us are descended from royalty, or have noble forebears. Not too many of us stand to inherit a majestic old home or an equally majestic old name. We are ordinary people from ordinary families. We might have the occasional ancestor who did something noteworthy, but we're not like the Wentworths or the Rockefellers or the Wellingtons. Even with my noteworthy ancestors, they were almost as famous for being in the right place at the right time as for anything else they did. In fact, General Holmes was more famous for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which is how he got to be the highest ranking Australian killed in action in World War I. And part of the Christmas story is that Jesus came to his own people, and it was people like you and me, from families like yours and mine. THE REMARKABLE ANCESTORS But Jesus also had a few remarkable ancestors. And many families look back to someone in their ancestry who was a bit out of the ordinary. We find a few like that in Jesus’ genealogy. Of course, we can read, MT 1:1 A
record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of
Abraham:
and
there’s another important bit where it says,MT 1:2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, MT 1:6
and Jesse the father of King David.
and
there are a few more kings on the list if we want to check it out.David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, MT 1:7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, MT 1:8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, MT 1:9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah... Shealtiel the father
of Zerubbabel,
MT 1:13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, MT 1:14 Azor the father of Zadok... We find that Jesus, like all true Israelites, could trace his ancestry back to Abraham through the patriarchs. That had to be true for Jesus. If it were not, how could he link us by adoption to Abraham, the father of all who have faith? And, if it were not so, how could he be in the line from which God’s Messiah, God’s Christ, would come? But we also find that Jesus could trace his ancestry back to David, and through the Royal line following David. He had the authority to rule. He had the right to be King of Israel. He had the power to lead all God’s faithful in his triumph procession. He wasn’t descended through Absalom, who tried to usurp King David’s throne, or through any of David’s many other sons. He was descended through Solomon via good kings and via bad kings. Hezekiah was in there, and so was Manasseh. There were ordinary people in Jesus’ ancestry and there were extraordinary people. He came to his own people, the ordinary and the extraordinary. He is the Messiah for all humanity. THE SINFUL ANCESTORS Jesus even had some quite sinful ancestors. He was not from some specially pure line that never ever sinned. He himself was special; he never sinned, but that was in himself, not something he inherited. Each of us stands or falls individually before God. Jacob the father of
Judah and his brothers,
orMT 1:3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, MT 1:5
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
and
evenBoaz the father of Obed David was the father
of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife
Start with Jacob, who tricked his brother out of his birthright. He tricked his father–in–law out of a lot of sheep. He was generally a rather unpleasant character until God pulled him up and transformed him through faith. Then there’s Judah and Tamar. Tamar was Judah’s daughter–in–law. She was widowed young, without having any children. Judah should have arranged for her to marry one of her brothers–in–law according to Israelite custom, so that she could have children with their father’s name, but Judah mucked around and wouldn’t do it. In the end, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and had sex with Judah so that she could have a child in her dead husband’s name. And, if you want someone to blame there, it’s really Judah, who both refused Tamar’s legal request and was happy to have sex with prostitutes. Maybe you wonder why Rahab is mentioned as the mother of Boaz? When the Israelites invaded Jericho, they had help from within the city. A prostitute helped the spies escape, and later joined herself with the Israelites. And that prostitute was Rahab. Then you come down to David and Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. If you read David’s entire history, you’ll see that he had a thing about married women. His wives — except for Michal, whom he never got on with — were widows. Bathsheba was wife to a Hittite named Uriah, one of David’s loyal soldiers. They were David’s neighbours. Not only did David commit adultery with Bathsheba, but he also arranged for Uriah to stand no chance of surviving on the battlefield. Adultery and murder make a slimy couple! And David and Bathsheba were the parents of Solomon. We could go on and list many, many more — kings who caused Israel to sin, who erected idols and led the Israelites into idolatry, kings who neglected justice and equity, kings who waged war because they wanted to steal from nearby tribes. It’s all in there. It’s important to know that Jesus had sinful and wicked ancestors, because he didn’t come from a sinless or perfect line. There were some horribly dysfunctional families in his ancestry, families like yours and mine. My grandfather Green grew up in a family divided down the middle into Catholic and Protestant. They fought, no holds barred. Those family conflicts had an enormous impact on my father and even on me. And they probably continue impacting on my children. And you have probably had alcoholism, incest, theft, adultery, idolatry and everything else in your own family within a few generations of yourself. These things have a lingering effect for generations and generations. And here’s what Jesus’ genealogy demonstrates: you do not have to live a life determined by what your ancestors did or didn’t do. You can be who you were created to be! CONCLUSIONS The amazing thing about God’s grace is how it does not discriminate. You can come from the top of the tree, or from the last gully pit in the gutter, and it doesn’t matter: Jesus came to his own. All that matters is whether or not his own receive him. I am not saying that conversion means instant holiness. That is, I will not try to convince you that, the moment you believe you will become perfect and without sin. I won’t even tell you that coming to Jesus will immediately wipe out the effects of your past or of your family background. But I will tell you that, when you come to Jesus, when you discover that he receives you just as you are, when you find that he has been where you have been and wasn’t controlled by it, then you will begin to discover liberation through faith in him. I know a woman, she’s in her forties, she comes from a background of sexual, emotional and physical abuse, she has had drug and alcohol issues, she probably has some brain damage from it all, she has lived in a range of abusive relationships and has been quite abusive herself. But, when she came to Christ, things started to change. She isn't always on top of her past, but she is beginning to surmount her origins. She doesn’t yet entirely forgive those who have trespassed against her, but she is beginning to understand that she can be free from its effects. Jesus can change your life, too, because he knows what life is about. Why not come to him today? AMEN |
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| © Peter R. Green 2003. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. | |
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