1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we continue to observe our Advent Midweek theme on the genealogy of Jesus is taken from Matthew 1:1, 3, 5-6, which says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. . . . Judah [was] the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, . . . and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.” The message is entitled, “Jesus-The Son of Scandal,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Shannon LaNier is a TV news anchor in Houston, the seventh-largest television market in the United States. But he’s also known for being the fifth great-grandson of Madison Hemings, a son of scandal. Like so many family trees, LaNier’s family had a scandal in its past, and this scandal was a skeleton in the closet of one of our nation’s founding fathers.
3. On July 4, 1826, 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, its author, Thomas Jefferson, died after months of failing health. His contributions to the fledgling nation were many. Architecture, agriculture, law, and education were just a few of Jefferson’s diverse interests. He would bear the titles of governor, congressman, secretary of state, vice president, and eventually president. Both the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark’s expedition would happen during his administration. His gravestone only notes his authorship of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and his being the “father of the University of Virginia.” Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers of our nation and left a legacy that remains to this day through the principles embedded within the Declaration of Independence.
4. But in recent years, Thomas Jefferson has also been remembered for scandal. After the death of his wife, Martha, Jefferson began a relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Their relationship would yield four children who lived into adulthood, one of whom was Madison Hemings, Shannon LaNier’s forebear. All of Sally Hemings’s adult children were eventually freed by Jefferson, the last two at his death. The author of the most famous document defending freedom for years kept enslaved those who were his own blood. In classic American form, Thomas Jefferson is the flawed hero, remembered for both his great accomplishments and this scandal.
5. One of the most striking features of Jesus’ genealogy as recorded by St. Matthew is the inclusion of women. New Testament scholar D. A. Carson writes, “Most Jewish genealogies did not include women. More important, the choice of these particular women, instead of such great matriarchs as Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, proves Matthew was giving us something more than merely biological information” (God with Us: Themes from Matthew [Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009], 12).
6. The four women of Matthew’s genealogy show us what kind of God our heavenly Father truly is. The fact that he specifically chose these four women to be part of his Son’s lineage is one thing. Many family trees have similar scandals within them. But this genealogy is unlike any other family tree because it is Holy Scripture. This is God’s special revelation about himself, his Son, and his plan of salvation. By intentionally including these four women, God’s revelation is that no one is beyond the grace of God.
7. Let’s spend a few minutes reviewing the family scandals. Tamar’s husband had been killed by the Lord because of his evil ways. Judah did not keep his promise to Tamar to provide her another husband, so she disguised herself as a prostitute and conceived twins with her own father-in-law, now a widower, Judah. One of those twins would be an ancestor of Christ. Rahab had been a prostitute in Jericho who kept the Israelite spies in safety as they surveyed the city before taking possession of the Promised Land. But Rahab would also become an ancestor of the Savior to come. Ruth was from Moab, a Gentile who became grafted into the messianic line. Even David’s illicit relationship with Bathsheba would lead to a second son, Solomon, and David’s own King and Lord. What the world looks on and sees as scandal was actually God at work in bringing about his perfect plan of the salvation of his people. Now that’s a family tree: incest, prostitution, adultery, and murder. This family has it all for a Soap Opera on daytime TV!!!
8. Thomas Jefferson’s descendants have been plunged into controversy over the revelation that Sally Hemings’s children were fathered by the former president. When the family gathers together, who is welcome? Who is legitimate? Who should be considered illegitimate? Those questions plague more than just the Jefferson family. Every person must wonder whether she or he is worthy to be called a child of God and part of his family. But the women included in the genealogy say more about our merciful God than they do about the women themselves. As the great poet and New Testament scholar Martin Franzmann wrote, “They are firmly enmeshed in the history of God’s chosen people, and their presence speaks eloquently of the fact that this history is not the story of man’s glory but of God’s grace” (Follow Me: Discipleship according to Matthew [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961], 11).
9. Scandal is not simply something that we can find within the deeds of our ancestors. Our own actions have estranged us from God. We are all prodigal sons and daughters who have rejected our father and our family of faith. We have sold our birthright for our greedy appetite for sin. We have not hungered and thirsted for righteousness. Instead, we have sought to fill ourselves with the temporary pleasures of what this world offers. For we, too, were once enemies of Christ. Our gods were our stomachs, and we did not serve the true God but our own sinful appetites. We were no better than Judah or Tamar, Rahab or Ruth, Bathsheba or David, for we share in their humanity and their sin.
10. But we received the Spirit of adoption as sons so that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. As St. Paul wrote to Titus, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared”—the goodness and loving kindness that caused Jesus to go to the cross—“he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4–7). For what God the Father said of Jesus when Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, he ultimately declares to all his children in the waters of Holy Baptism. Baptized into Jesus’ death, “you are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11).
11. Family reunions are often tied to an occasion for celebration and food. By the grace of God, we have been invited to the great banquet. For we are the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind on account of our sin. But see what kind of love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. Therefore, by his grace, God has even welcomed us to the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom, which has no end. At this family reunion, there are people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.
12. But it is a family reunion unlike any other when you consider who is a part of this family. Liars, cheats, thieves, adulterers, murderers, and meddlers. Con artists and addicts. The arrogant and the ignorant. Hardheaded and hard-nosed. The greedy and needy. College students paralyzed by fear of the future and grown adults haunted by the ghosts of the past. This family takes all kinds. All kinds of people with all their warts and bruises and scandals and skeletons and other things from their pasts. We are all one family in Christ, united through Jesus’ death and resurrection as we look forward to this blessed reunion in heaven with those who have gone before us. This is the inheritance to which we can look forward. It is never earned, but only given by the grace of God.
13. Studying family genealogy can be a fascinating endeavor for people. But learning about Jesus’ tree is not just a moving experience. It is life! For we have been adopted into this family and made heirs of the glorious inheritance that is eternal life. Jesus’ family tree is our family tree, for ultimately, our family tree is the tree of Calvary on which he died for all his family. And The Scandals of Jesus’ Family Tree Show Us That We, Too, Are Children of God by His Grace and Therefore Heirs of Heaven.
14. During this Advent season, what a blessing it is to remember that, like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, we are all part of this family by God’s grace. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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