Reverend Jonathan Waits
Sermon: He Gets It (Matthew 1:1-17)
Date: December 10, 2023
You’ve perhaps heard the old adage that someone doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. The idea, of course, is that until you have established some sort of a relational credibility with another person, trying to teach them anything of much significance probably isn’t going to work very well. I think there’s even more to this old adage than that, though. You see, given where our culture is today, people generally don’t merely want you to care about them. They want to know that you are authentic in your caring. They want to know that you can in some way empathize with their situation. Otherwise, you are just coming in as a white knight whom they aren’t going to trust. No, if you want to really be able to help someone today in a way that is impactful and sustainable, they’ve got to know you understand their situation in a meaningful way. Until you have that, they might deign to use you, but you won’t be doing anything of lasting significance for them. Once you can demonstrate your authenticity, though, you’re in.
This morning finds us in the second part of our Advent series, Broken to Mended. For these three weeks (next week the choir will present their cantata which you won’t want to miss), we are talking about why Jesus came and what that means for us. The big idea that we are going to uncover a little bit more fully today is that Jesus came to fix what is broken in us and in our world. Last week we talked about the fact that Jesus came to save sinners. That is a great and encouraging truth. No doubt about that. Yet consider what we were just talking about.
The idea that Jesus came to help us is great, but does He really know anything about our situations that would render His help at all authentic in any way? Of course, Jesus’ authenticity doesn’t matter in absolute terms. We are drowning in and are going to die without His help. When someone comes to throw you a life preserver while you are drowning, whether or not they have any personal experience with drowning is utterly irrelevant to the efficacy of the life preserver. Unfortunately, seeing reality without our cultural blinders in the way is really hard. For many folks, Jesus’ apparent lack of familiarity with our situation renders His help undesirable. Even for we who have professed to follow Him faithfully, when we are in the depths of our own struggles with sin or experiencing the effects of generational sin on our lives today, it can sometimes lead us to wonder whether or not He really gets us. To perhaps put all of this another way, while it’s a nice thought that Jesus came to save sinners, what does He really know about sinners? How can He really help us out of our sin if He never sinned in the first place? Well, while it is absolutely true that Jesus never sinned, He’s actually a whole lot more acquainted with brokenness than you might expect.
So then, how do we know Jesus knew anything about brokenness? Where in His life did He experience such a thing? Well, He experienced plenty of it Himself including a scandalous upbringing and the eventual rejection of His own family. But there’s more. Jesus’ whole family tree is riddled with brokenness. And there’s no better place to see this than in what appears to be another one of the many boring lists of names we find sprinkled throughout the Scriptures. If you have a copy of the Scriptures handy, find your way with me to the very beginning of the apostle Matthew’s reflections on the life and ministry of Jesus.
When we turn the page on the Old Testament documents, there are some things we hope to leave behind. Long lists of names we can’t pronounce and whose stories we don’t know is one of those. Then, when we turn past the title page of the New Testament, the first thing that greets us is a long list of names we mostly can’t pronounce and whose stories we don’t know. Figures, right? But this list matters. It matters for us generally because this is the beginning of Jesus’ story, but it matters in particular for us right now because some of the stories from Jesus’ background speak to the depths of brokenness out of which His story is born. Let’s take a look at some of these stories for a few minutes.
Matthew starts with an introduction so we know what is going on. “An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” From here, He goes on to start listing names and who their son was. One thing worth noting here is that if you happen to be reading through Luke’s Gospel, you’ll come across another genealogy of Jesus. That’s not such a big deal in and of itself. The trouble is that the two genealogies aren’t the same. This doesn’t mean one is right and the other wrong, though. The reason for the difference is that Luke was giving us Jesus’ literal genealogy, while Matthew here is giving us what is sometimes called Jesus’ royal genealogy. That is, Matthew was showing his audience how Jesus was right in the line of kings dating back to David, and the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to bless the world through Abraham’s descendants. The first audiences who read these two differing accounts would have had zero problems with this because they would have understood the reason for the differences. We should take our cue from them.
That all being said, let’s get to these names. “Abraham fathered Isaac.” That’s one of the stories you may know. Yet as famous and revered a story as it is, it comes with some baggage. Abraham’s journey from when God promised he and Sarah would have Isaac until they were actually holding him in their arms was long and painful. Abraham and Sarah doubted God and tried to hurry up His process causing no small amount of trouble for a number of different people, including themselves.
“Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers.” There are plenty of sketchy stories about Isaac and Jacob. Isaac made some of the same mistakes his dad did and he started a legacy of showing favoritism for one child over another which got passed down a generation causing even more trouble. And then Jacob was just a scoundrel whose family was an absolute disaster. The one bright spot was Joseph, but he doesn’t get mentioned here. Instead, we see the name Judah, the patriarch of the tribe that bears his name. How his own family got started, though, was its own scandal.
Verse 3 tells us that “Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” The original audience sitting around and listening to Matthew’s Gospel being read would have sat up and taken notice here. In fact, there might have been some audible gasps in the room. Women generally weren’t mentioned in genealogies. Of all the women who might have been mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy to make Him look good, Tamar was not one of those. She was originally the wife of one of Judah’s sons. He was a deadbeat husband whom God struck dead for his sinfulness. Then, according to the custom of the day, she married his younger brother and the same thing happened. If you were Tamar, you would probably have been wondering if you were cursed by now. Judah broke custom and refused to let her marry his third son, and basically cut her off from any sort of family support which was an awful thing to do. She decided to take matters into her own hands and wound up tricking Judah into fathering her twins Perez and Zerah. And you thought your family had issues.
The next several names are ones whose stories we don’t know. “Perez fathered Hezron, Herzon fathered Aram, Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon.” Just as we are starting to doze off from the droning list without any particularly notable people, though, things suddenly get really exciting really quickly. You see, “Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab.” Rahab wasn’t even an Israelite. She was from Jericho. She was from one of the people groups who were so sinful that God used Israel to bring devastating judgment on them as part of His giving them the Promised Land. What’s more, her occupation there was not one discussed among polite company. What’s even more than that is that she was yet another woman…in Jesus’ genealogy.
The scandal doesn’t stop there, though. “Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth.” We get another woman listed here almost immediately. And this is one whose name is perhaps familiar. After all, she has an entire story in the Old Testament named after her. It is a beautiful story and she is one of the true bright spots in that exceedingly dark part of Israel’s history. But she was yet another non-Israelite…in the genealogy of the Messiah. Ruth was from Moab. God had told Moses that people from Moab weren’t going to be able to take part in any of the blessings He planned for them. Yet here she was, taking up prominent real estate in the lineage of the Son of God. It is a good thing we are able to quickly learn that “Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered King David,” so things can settle down a bit.
David, of course, was the main figure in Jesus’ genealogy. Everyone knew the Messiah would be the son of David. The trouble is, even the great David was not without his brokenness. “David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife.” That is, he had a kid with somebody else’s wife. What’s more, this kid got included in Jesus’ genealogy. Now, as we said before, Solomon wasn’t in Jesus’ genetic lineage, but to have the name of the holy and righteous Son of God intentionally associated with people like this is pretty shocking.
From here, Matthew continues his list down through the annals of the kings of Judah up to the Babylonian exile and then through various minor tribal leaders from then to the appearance of Joseph. Reading a list of names like this isn’t terribly exciting, though, so how about we sing it? No takers? Well, how about we let a pro do it? Check this out. I think he put that better than I could have done.
And as if all of that weren’t enough, Matthew takes us out of this scandal-ridden family history of Jesus and drops us right into the story of His birth where he layers on scandal on top of more scandal. Just listen to how this opens in v. 18: “The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.” It feels a bit like we’re in an old Lifetime movie. So. Much. Drama. Jesus would have spent all His years growing up living under the shadow of suspicion owing to the the very much suspect nature of His birth in the eyes of the surrounding culture. Perhaps that’s part of the reason Joseph and Mary were willing to stay away from their hometown for so long after He was born. They were hoping the story of His mysterious (and not in a good way) origins had been mostly forgotten by then.
So, what’s the point of all of this? The point is that Jesus’ life was not the pain-free joy-ride we are sometimes tempted to think that it was. It was hard. It was steeped in brokenness. He endured mistrust and doubt and suspicion from the people around Him. Now, was the brokenness He faced exactly like yours? No, and as we have talked about before, one person’s brokenness does not necessarily allow them to perfectly understand the travails of another person. The point isn’t that Jesus has walked precisely in your shoes. It’s that Jesus has walked a path of brokenness just like perhaps you have. And because of that, He understands what life in the midst of the brokenness of the world is like. Jesus understands your brokenness better than you imagine.
Friends, this is really good news. Because Jesus understands us and our situations so well, He can provide for us the kind of hope and help we need to face whatever it is that lies before us. That little baby who seemed so utterly helpless and powerless went through that so that He can be for you what you most need Him to be even if you don’t fully realize what that is in a given moment. Jesus understands your brokenness better than you imagine. He understands its ins and outs. He understands just what exactly your needs are while you are struggling through it. He’s been there. And because He’s been there, He can be the intercessor we need before the Father from whom all blessings flow.
This is actually an idea the writer of Hebrews captured really well in his letter. In Hebrews 3, the author introduces the idea of Jesus’ being not only the apostle of our faith—that is, the one who started it in the first place—but also our great high priest. In other words, He not only opened the door to this new way of relating to God through Him, He stands constantly before the Father enabling us to relate to Him as those apart from Christ have never experienced. This declaration prompts the author to take a minute to remind us of the importance of not turning away from Jesus into unbelief. Because Jesus is our great high priest, the one who stands before God to represent our interests to Him, if we turn away from Him, there isn’t anyone else left who can—much less will—represent our interests to God. And don’t try to rely on the silly notion that we will represent ourselves in this particular court. That will never work. Coming out of this warning at the end of Hebrews 4, the author comes back to this idea of Jesus’ being our great high priest. Listen to what He says here.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession.” In other words, because we have Jesus there standing between us and God, constantly making a case on our behalf, let us indeed stick with Him. But then, just in case there’s any doubt about Jesus’ ability to do this so effectively, he offers a defense of Him. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.” Got all that? It’s just as we have been saying this whole time. Jesus understands your brokenness better than you imagine. He experienced all the same sorts of temptation that we do. He has experienced the temptation to jealousy and anger and bitterness and unforgiveness and selfishness and distraction and dishonesty and all the rest. He knows. He’s been there. And, far from His never succumbing to temptation or being finally bowled completely over by brokenness meaning that He doesn’t really understand what it’s like to go through that, it means He understands even better how to resist it, how to withstand it, how to maintain the path of righteousness even in spite of it. Jesus understands your brokenness better than you imagine. “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”
Do you see how this works? This is amazing. Jesus understands your brokenness better than you imagine. Therefore, you can go to God with confidence, with boldness. How many times have you wished you could go to God while you were struggling through some particular facet of the brokenness of this world—whether brokenness you caused by your sin, or brokenness to which you were a victim because of the sin of someone else—but felt like you weren’t worthy to appear before Him. Well, you weren’t. But in Christ, you are. With Jesus’ standing there, interceding on our behalf, we can go to God to receive the mercy and grace we need whenever our situation requires them. We don’t have to go with fear and trepidation. On our own, that would absolutely be the case. But we are not on our own. We have Jesus. He is with us. He is for us. He goes before us. He is covering us. He is all around us, doing what we can’t at every point in the process. We go to God with confidence not in ourselves, but in Jesus. God will receive us in Him. And because He understands our situations, whatever they happen to be, He can make sure we get from God what we need to face it. Jesus understands our brokenness better than we imagine.
So then, make this personal. Call to mind for a moment that point of lingering brokenness you have in your life right now. Maybe you are suffering because of what someone else did and you need compassion. Perhaps the mess you are facing is one that you caused all by yourself. Whatever it is, you need God’s help. You can’t overcome it or claw your way out of it on your own. You can go to Jesus and find all the help you need. He came to Earth for precisely that reason, willing to lay down even His own life so that you can get to God and be made whole from whatever it is that is keeping you apart from Him. Jesus understands your brokenness better than you imagine. This Advent season, go to Him. Go to the child who came for you. Let Him be your great high priest so that you can have what you need to stand in Him. He gets it. Receive Him and live.