How far back can you trace your family tree? Have you had any good or perhaps embarrassing surprises? Matthew begins his gospel by going back 42 generations in the family tree of Jesus!
In the first Century the family tree, the genealogy was a way of saying to the world “This is who I am.” It was the equivalent of today’s CV. The purpose was to impress onlookers with the respectability of your roots. And as we trace Jesus’ family tree, there are certainly impressive people – like King David, and Abraham. This is important as Matthew is showing us that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the OT promises.
But are there any surprises? Often people would have taken out the bits that didn’t make them look so good. But Matthew deliberately brings out the bits that other 1st Century Jewish men might have been ashamed of.
Matthew lists 5 women, now we might not think that strange, but when Matthew was writing his gospel a woman was virtually never named in such list. What’s more, 3 of them (Tamar, Rahab and Ruth) were foreign women, and 2 of them had embarrassing backgrounds. They would have been considered as unclean and yet there they are listed in Jesus’ family tree.
Why does Matthew include all these women? It’s as if God is saying, Jesus is not ashamed to be linked to these people! Jesus Christ brings in people that were excluded, but it’s not just foreign women that can be brought in by Jesus. Matthew also shows us that even the best, deeply religious men need Jesus. King David was about the best Israel had, a man after God’s own heart, a courageous man. Here’s a man you would want to be related to. Except Matthew reminds us of something painful. For everyone else, Matthew simply tells us they were the father of…but for David, he tells us he was the “father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah” (v6). Matthew is forcing us to remember to account of David and Bathsheba, where David stole Uriah’s wife, and arranged for Uriah to be killed. The best Israel had was a tragic moral failure.
At the start of His gospel, Matthew is showing us the kind of people Jesus came for. He tells us in 1:21 that Jesus will “save his people from their sins.”
Here is the king we all need, for all have turned away from God and gone our own way. And the most wonderful thing is that if we turn to Jesus we can know Him as Immanuel – God with us. God with us in the hard times and the good times. Here is something more important than a good family tree, to know that you are loved no matter what your past or pedigree, to know that you’re accepted not because of your performance, but because of Jesus.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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