Matthew 1:1-17
NAUGHTY OR NICE?
The Christmas season is full of surprises.
A woman was preparing her Christmas cookies. She heard a knock at the door. She went
to find a man, clothes tattered, obviously looking to make some money. He asked her
whether there was anything he could do.
She said, “Can you paint?”
“Yes,” he said, “I’m a rather good painter.”
“Well,” she said, “there are two gallons of green paint there and a brush, and there’s a
porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I’ll pay you what the job is
worth.”
He said, “Fine. I’ll be done quickly.”
She went back to her cookie baking until there came another knock at the door. There he
stood, green paint on his clothes. “Did you finish the job?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do a good job?”
“Yes,” he said. “But lady, there’s something I should point out to you. That’s not a
Porsche back there. It’s a Mercedes.”
All sorts of surprises come at Christmas. Presents you didn’t expect to receive, people
you didn’t expect to see, cards you didn’t expect to get. Bills you tried to forget. It’s been
said, “Anyone who doesn’t believe Christmas lasts all year doesn’t have a charge card.”
Well,
today’s passage for the lesson is a surprise—at least to me. It is the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew 1. I thought,
“What a strange passage to use for a lesson!” It truly is a
neglected part of Scripture. But we do find something very interesting
here and that is, we have outlaws for in-laws. The passage illustrates
this: God loves us all and will use anyone who will be used. Let’s look more closely.
1. Messiah for Matthew
What do we know about
Matthew? Who was he? (Allow discussion)
In truth, we know
very little about Matthew the person but we know a lot about Matthew
the tax collector. What we know about his profession speaks
volumes about his person.
Someone read Matt. 9:9. Someone read
Mark 2:13-14. Matthew had two names. How ironic that a
tax collector was named after the priestly tribe of his nation. And a further irony, Matthew means gift of God. The people in
his community would not have found that funny.
Well, what do you know
about the reputation of tax collectors? It was about the same
as it is today, no? Actually, much worse. This work was
considered the most profane and immoral work a man could do. The ancient Roman historian Lucian listed among those destined for
hell the adulterers and tax collectors.
And the Jews despised them
even more than the Romans. They could not testify in court as
a witness because they were assumed to be liars. They could
not attend worship in the temple or synagogue because they were classed
as unclean. They were considered traitors to the Jewish nation. They not only worked for the hated Romans but they could extract as
much money from their neighbors as possible with military support,
making them thieves as well.
Matthew worked in
Matthew’s story should put to rest any fears we
might have that God can use us. We all have insecurities, places
we don’t want others to see. We all have reasons to feel inadequate. And every person called by God has objections, from Moses to Paul
to you and me. But probably no one ever climbed higher mountains
of doubt and fear to follow Jesus than Matthew.
Matthew gave up his
career, which had been difficult to acquire. Once abandoned,
he could not return. With that he lost his wealth which was
certainly great indeed. He risked his security and even his
life. Up until he quit, Matthew was protected by the military. But no more. He was fair game to those he had cheated.
But Matthew
did climb the mountain. He is the first apostle to engage in
personal evangelism. According to Luke, the first thing Matthew
did after becoming an apostle was throw a party at his house. Who was invited? The only people Matthew knew—his fellow publicans
and other outcasts! Someone read Luke 5:32. No other disciple
could have made this possible for Jesus to reach these folks. Of course, Matthew went on to record the gospel story for us. He engaged in global missions. There is evidence that he preached
not only in Judea but in
Michaelangelo found an abandoned piece of marble at the city dump. It had been rejected
by every sculptor who examined it as ruined and useless. But Michelangelo saw obscured
in the marble’s flaws the image and statue of King David. Soon, so did the rest of the
world.
If Jesus was Matthew’s Messiah,
surely he is the Messiah of all. But maybe you are not convinced
yet.
2. Messiah for Many
Let me read Matthew 1:1-17 for you. If
I stumble on the names, then I will ask forgiveness of you scholars. It won’t embarrass me at all.
I want us to zero in on four names in
particular: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “the widow of Uriah”. I read from the Living Bible and these are all listed parenthetically. As you may have recognized, too, they are all women. Their listing
is remarkable because Jewish genealogies never included mothers, tracing
descent only through the fathers.
In fact, early readers of this gospel
would have been surprised to see women on the list at all. And
they were especially shocked at the women Matthew chose to list over the ones he did not. He left out Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel. Instead he mentioned mothers who had, at the very least, questionable
lifestyles and hard lives to boot. Rahab and Ruth were not even
Israelites. Tamar probably was not and Bathsheba, Uriah’s widow
was possibly also a Hittite and if not, her marital statues to a non-Jew
made her a Gentile! Let’s look a little closer at each of these
ladies.
Do you know the story of Tamar? It’s found in Genesis
38. We won’t take the time to read it today. Tamar was
mistreated by the men in the family after her husband died. They would not take care of her as the law required them to do. So she was forced to become deceptive to the point of tricking her
father-in-law into impregnating her so her family line would continue
and keeping the law fulfilled. This is a difficult R-rated story
for our tender ears but in essence, she pretended to be a prostitute
to commit incest.
By her wiles, though, the law was followed
and the covenant kept alive. In time Tamar gave birth to twin
boys: Perez and Zerah. In this way she had her husband, offspring,
and family. And the Messiah’s lineage included the result of her incest.
And
what about Rahab? What was her line of work? Prostitution!! You know her story—hiding the Israeli spies and aiding in the occupation
of the Promised Land. Matthew reminds us by her inclusion in
his roll call that people far from perfect can experience the grace
of God. And they can become the means by which that grace is
extended to others.
Consider Ruth. You know her story. Ruth had a rough life but that life is a tribute to love’s resiliency. Ruth was a Moabite living in
Ruth was also involved
in an inter-racial marriage. I wonder if she faced any prejudice
there (he asked with tongue firmly in cheek)? And yet, again,
here is a woman who became an ancestor of Jesus.
And finally, let us
look briefly at Bathsheba, the “widow of Uriah.” Remember her
story? While David initiated their immoral relationship, she
apparently did nothing to resist his advances. She did nothing
to make things right with her husband or to prevent or protest his
death. David’s sin was hers as well.
But God chose to redeem
her and use her. Through her son, God brought us His Son. God forgives and moves on. Can we?
And except for David, we have
not even mentioned the men on Matthew’s list and their foibles. None of these were perfect—far from it! God did not use people
as stewards of the covenant because they had earned their roles by
righteousness. They all needed God’s grace and many in very
radical ways. But Jesus is the Messiah of many—of us all, in
fact.
3. Messiah for Me (and You)
Along the way Matthew offers us wonderful
principles of faith. We learn that Jesus chose this family, with their
closets full of skeletons, just as he chooses us to be in his family. God can use anyone, no matter their sinful past (Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba),
their difficult heritage (Ruth), and even their moral failures (such
as David and others). He can use people unknown to the rest of history
to do history’s greatest work. He can use us.
I can think of a lot
of reasons why I should be left out any genealogy of faith. I certainly have my shortcomings and difficulties. But the Spirit
is willing and able to write my name and your name in the genealogy
of Jesus’ faithful servants.
The choice is ours.
What will we do? Will we be faithful to show His grace to others? If the people
in Jesus’ genealogy showed up in church today, would we think that
they probably didn’t belong here? A prostitute? An adulterer? An immigrant? A biracial couple?
Philip Yancey tells this story
in his book The Jesus I Never Knew and he repeats in this book, What’s
So Amazing About Grace? (I highly recommend it, by the
way).
Let me read it to you. From p. 11.
You know, women
like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from Him. The
worse a person felt about herself or himself, the more likely they
saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift?
We
need to remember that God is at work in people’s lives in ways that
serve a purpose only God can see. But that makes our job simpler. We are just to share His love that we know with everyone. We
will never meet anyone that does not need Jesus.
Jesus is the Messiah
of all the Matthews, all the many, all of us, and everyone. As we conclude this morning, I want us to come up with a quick list
of ways that we as individuals, as a class, and as a congregation
can express Christ’s inclusive love. (List suggestions on board)
Pray
Matthew
1:1-17
NAUGHTY OR NICE?
1. Messiah for Matthew
Who was Matthew?
What
did he give up?
What did he accomplish?
2. Messiah for Many
Significance
of the Messiah for:
Tamar –
Rahab –
Ruth –
Bathsheba
–
3. Messiah for Me (and You)
Is Jesus your Messiah?
How
does anyone know?
Homework: What will you do this week to give
grace?