Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we're starting a brand new
teaching series called Broken Branches, where
we're looking at Jesus' family tree and some
of the surprising characters who show up there.
But why does Matthew start with a genealogy?
And what does it have to tell us about who Jesus
is and why he came? That's what Rob is going
to unpack for us in today's sermon. Today's scripture
reading is taken from the Gospel of Matthew chapter
9 verses 9 to 13. As Jesus went on from there,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax
collector's booth. Follow me, he told him. And
Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus
was having dinner at Matthew's house, Many tax
collectors and sinners came and ate with him
and with his disciples. When the Pharisees saw
this, they asked his disciples, Why does your
teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
On hearing this, Jesus said, It is not the healthy
who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn
what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
For I have not come to call the righteous but
the sinners. This is the word of the Lord. One
of the things that we often take for granted
is that we don't have one or two or three, but
we actually have four different accounts of Jesus's
life. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And in many
ways, these accounts are very similar, but in
other ways, they are actually very different.
And Christmas is one of the ways in which these
stories are very different. For example, I don't
know if you knew this, but in Mark's gospel and
in John's gospel, there's actually nothing. said
at all about Jesus as a child or being born or
the Christmas story. It's just not there. Those
stories begin when Jesus is like 30 years old
and he's beginning his ministry. In Luke's gospel,
there is definitely a story. The Christmas story
is told, although it should be noted that Luke
actually begins his gospel telling the story,
not of the birth of Jesus, but the birth of John
the Baptist. And then we come to the gospel of
Matthew. Now, Matthew is very interesting, very
unique, because he doesn't start his story or
his Christmas story even with a story at all.
He starts instead with a long list of names.
It's a family tree, if you will. And if you were
to say, let's say you're one of those people
and you're like, you know what, I've decided
I am going to read the Bible. I'm going to read
the New Testament. You sit down and you talk.
Turn to the beginning of the New Testament, Matthew
1, 1, and you start reading. The first few verses
are going to turn you right off. You'll be like,
what is this? It's just a whole lot of names,
hard to pronounce names of people. I don't even
know who half these people are. put it down and
never pick it up again. But last Sunday, we actually
asked you guys to try your very best to read
through these 17 verses of names found in Matthew
1 .1. And here's how you did. So we're seeing
how well our Trinity members do when it comes
to reading through the genealogy of Jesus. You
ready to go, Crystal? Yes. Okay, we have Abraham
was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of
Jacob. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez, Zerah, whose mother
was Tamar. Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron,
the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the
father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of
Obed, who was the mother of Ruth. Obed was the
father of Jesse. And Jesse was the father of
King David. David was the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been Uriah's wife. Solomon,
the father of Rehoboam? Rehoboam, the father
of Abijah. Abijah, the father of Asa. Asa, the
father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat, the father
of Jehoram. Jehoram, the father of Uzziah. Now
you do this. Oh, I haven't got a clue. I can
tell you it's the father of somebody. Uzziah,
father of Jotham. Jotham, the father of Azah.
Also the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah, the father
of Manasseh. Manasseh, the father of Amon. Amon,
the father of Josiah. And Josiah, the father
of Jeconiah, his brothers at the time of the
exile to Babylon. Jeconiah was the father of
Shealtiel. Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel, the father of... And Mary was the
mother of Jesus Christ, who is called the Messiah.
Praise God. Merry Christmas. Praise God. Merry
Christmas. What a way to start the Christmas
story. And anyways, over the next few weeks of
Advent, we are going to be looking at this family
tree of Jesus as a way of getting ready for Christmas.
And today I want to start by talking about what
Matthew included in his genealogy, or who Matthew
included in his genealogy. I've given you these
little sermon notes so you can follow along,
maybe learn something this morning. tree begins,
and we're not going to read it all through this
morning, but it begins this way. This is the
genealogy of Jesus. The Messiah, the son of David.
That's important. The son of Abraham. Abraham
was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of
Jacob. And Jacob, the father of Judah and his
brothers. Isn't this fascinating? You know, some
people are fascinated with this stuff. Most of
us are not fascinated with this. So why did Matthew
decide, oh, this is the way to start the Christmas
story. This is the way to start the story of
Jesus. Well, you have to understand a couple
things. One, you have to understand that Matthew
was writing. to a primarily Jewish audience,
and two, He was writing to communicate something
very important. He was writing to communicate
that Jesus was connected to David. Because here's
one of the very first questions that any Jewish
person is going to ask. If Matthew's trying to
make the case that Jesus is the son of God. And
Jesus is the Messiah. And Jesus is the anointed
one. He's the promised Messiah. They're going
to say, wait, wait. Don't say another word, Matthew.
Until you have proved to me that he is connected
in his lineage to David. Because the Bible tells
us. that it will be a descendant of David that
will sit on the throne, that the Messiah will
be descended from King David. And now, because
Matthew knew that this is where his audience
was going to be coming from, he starts the story,
the big story, Matthew's gospel. He starts by
answering this very big question about who Jesus
is ultimately related to. So that's kind of why
he starts this way. Matthew does something really
really strange in all of this. In his genealogy
he includes a bunch of people that you would
actually expect him to leave out. First he includes
women. That alone is strange. Most genealogies
around that time trace the genealogies through
the men. It was a patriarchal culture. Women
weren't mentioned. But not only does Matthew
mention women, four women in particular, but
he chooses to mention four who have the most,
shall we say, kind of questionable character
or history that goes with them. And along with
those four women, he mentions about a bunch of
other kind of questionable characters as well.
All of whom, You would definitely leave out if
your goal was trying to prove that Jesus was
from divine and holy lineage. Because you see,
here's how it worked in ancient times. In ancient
times, history was written by paid historians.
So if you were a ruler or a king or a governor
and you wanted to write some history of your
reign, what you would do is you would hire someone
and you would get that person and you'd say,
sit down and write my history. But of course,
I want you to make me look as good as possible
in this history. And that's what the historian
would do. The historian would sit down and they
would say, well, listen, let's talk all about
history. all your amazing military victories.
But when it comes to your military defeats, well,
you know what? We won't include that bit. Or
let's talk about all your fantastic children
who went on to do great and wonderful things.
But as for those other children who were kind
of ne 'er -do -wells or, you know, didn't amount
to much or actually did some pretty horrible
things, we're going to leave them out of the
genealogy altogether. And that is why when you
read ancient history sometimes, not that I'm
a pro at this, but I've heard that there are
huge gaps sometimes. in ancient histories because
this is exactly what's happened. The historians
have pulled out the stuff that the person who's
paying for the history didn't want to be included
so that they could look as good as possible.
But Matthew's genealogy, he seems to go out of
his way to mention those people that he should
have just left out. You know, the people who
he didn't need to mention. Why did he do this?
Was it a mistake? Did Matthew just make a mistake?
No, no, no, no. He meant to do it this way. In
fact, as one commentator says, Matthew's genealogy
was intentionally irregular. If you were trying
to connect the man Jesus to the man David through
the lineage of men, then why, for example, would
you break protocol and start introducing the
names of all these women? Four women in particular.
Two of these women you definitely should not
have mentioned if you want to prove that Jesus
is like, you know, this holy Messiah. And three
of these four women weren't even Jewish. So by
including them, you know, Matthew doesn't, he's
kind of saying, hey, the Messiah doesn't even
have a pure Jewish bloodline. And that would
not help his case. So, for example, let's take
a look. We read here that it says that Judah
was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother
was Tamar. Now, next week. You better come next
week. I don't care if it's like five feet of
snow. You better come next week. Because we are
going to talk about Tamar. And I got to tell
you, this is one of the spiciest and grossest.
the diciest stories in all the Bible. I don't
know if you know the story, but once you hear
it, you're never going to forget it. We're going
to have to, there's parts of the story that I
don't even sure we can read out loud in church.
And in fact, we're going to have to definitely
make sure we dismiss the kids down to church
school before we read it because it's very dicey
and it's very iffy. But here is the point. There
was no need to mention Tamar at all. Just stick
with the guys, stick with the plan, stick with
the storyline. And then he goes on. He says,
you know, Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron,
the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the
father of my favorite, Salmon. Yeah, or Salmon,
I guess. Salmon, the father of Boaz, whose mother
was, say that one with me. All right. Now, listen,
why again are you introducing this one woman
into the genealogy and especially this one? She's
not Jewish again. And in fact, this woman goes
by a bit of a nickname. She's Rahab the prostitute.
Rahab the harlot. Why are you mentioning this?
You know, when you get to heaven and you see
Rahab, you're going to walk up and you'll be
like, hey, Rahab, you're the... You're the woman
in the Old Testament. You're the one that Matthew
mentioned in his genealogy. Why is he bringing
this up? He does not need to. Keep on going.
Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.
Now, Ruth is a lovely story. Ruth is a great
story. How many people here have read the book
of Ruth? It's a great story. Nothing wrong with
the story of Ruth, except for this. Ruth was
not Jewish. And so again, if you're trying to
connect Jesus, and you're trying to connect Jesus
to David, that's your goal. Why all these off
-ramps? Why all this sideways energy? Why all
these distractions? And then we read that Obed
is the father of Jesse. Jesse, the father of
King David. Good. Stop right there, Matthew.
You've gone far enough. You can end it right
there. Good, good, good. But no, not Matthew.
No. He goes on. He says, well, listen, let me
go on a little bit. He says, David is the father
of Solomon. And then look at how he writes this.
Whose mother had been Uriah's wife. Why? Why
do you have to go and mention her? Right? You
could have. totally could have just left it,
right? David was a father of Solomon and keep
moving down the male line. But no, no. Matthew
wants to throw in this little bit of intrigue.
He doesn't even mention her by name. But of course,
everyone knows who he's talking about. Who was
the mother of Solomon? Who had been Uriah's wife?
You don't even need to be like a church person
to know the story of David and Bathsheba. You
know, David slept with the wife of one of his
soldiers. And when she got pregnant, he went
to have that soldier killed to try to cover everything
up. This was literally the worst moment of David's
life. And Matthew says, yeah. I'm going to put
that in. In fact, I'm going to emphasize it.
I'm not even going to say Bathsheba. I'm going
to focus on the fact that it was another man's
wife. Why do you have to bring that up? Why not
just stick with the men's names? Or you know
what? Okay, fine. If you're going to mention
women, then mention some of the lovely, amazing,
heroic women. Where's Sarah in this list? Not
there. What about Rebecca? Not there. None of
them are there. There were women who did incredible
things that you could honor by including them
in the genealogy, but he throws in Tamar, and
oh, I know who I'm going to put, Rahab, and Ruth,
and Solomon's mother, who was Uriah's wife. Right?
So why? Did he do that? He did it because Matthew
is trying to make a point in this whole gospel
that Jesus didn't just come for sinners. He actually
came from sinners. Or as one commentator puts
it, the Messiah did not spring from a flawless
lineage. Jesus enters the human story with all
its failures so that he might redeem it from
within. And I think that because Matthew spent
three years of his life walking around and listening
to Jesus and watching him and seeing him interact
with people, I think that after those three years,
he kind of got to know what Jesus was all about.
And so he goes ahead and he includes all these
embarrassing stories of all these kind of broken
people with baggage and shady characters because
Matthew actually knows. They are the point of
the story that he is about to tell in his gospel.
In other words, the broken branches of Jesus's
family tree are not the exception. They are the
point of it all. These names are not like an
embarrassment that we should try to sweep under
the rug and hide. These names are the gospel.
By reading these names, we are proclaiming the
gospel, proclaiming that God brings hope and
salvation and healing both to and through broken
people. And Matthew wanted to tell this story,
I think, more than anybody else. And actually,
Matthew was perhaps qualified to tell this story
more than anybody else, because let me tell you
something that Matthew knew about himself. This
is what Matthew knew. Matthew knew that these
people, these people like Rahab and Tamar or
Judah, he was a bit of a tool. And then there's
Bathsheba and David and all these seedy characters.
These were his people. These were Matthew's kind
of people. Let me show you a little bit about
Matthew's story to explain what I mean. And I'm
going to begin. with the most embarrassing moment
of Matthew's entire life. And that was the moment
when Matthew first met Jesus. When Matthew first
met Jesus, he was sitting at a tax collector's
booth and he was collecting taxes. And now, why
is that so embarrassing? Why is that so outrageous?
Well, let me explain to you. You see, in those
days, Rome sold the rights. to collect taxes
to various people throughout their empire. So
if you wanted a job and you wanted to collect
taxes, you would go to Rome. They would say,
sure, you can do it. You go collect taxes for
this area, and we want you to collect this many
taxes of this many kinds. And as long as Rome
got what Rome asked for, Rome was happy, and
tax collectors could kind of keep everything
else. And that is why tax collectors were extraordinarily
rich, because they overtaxed people so that they
could make money. for the job that they were
doing. And there were so many taxes that were
out there. There were poll taxes. There were
income taxes. There were bridge taxes. There
were taxes on fruit. There were taxes on meat,
taxes on fish. There was port taxes. Everywhere
you went, there was a tax in the Roman Empire.
And if the Romans... sent in their tax collectors
to collect taxes from a people group, they actually
learned something. They said that, you know,
they learned that those people didn't really
like those tax collectors very much. And pretty
soon they'd be keying their cars and TPing their
house. And they would be like, you know, stealing
their donkeys or whatever the case may be. And
so Rome came up with another idea. They said,
listen, let's send, let's actually ask Jewish
people to collect the taxes from the Jewish people.
And so that's exactly what they did. It was literally
the worst, most embarrassing job you could ever
have, was to be a Jewish person and also be a
tax collector, collecting taxes from your countrymen.
It was betraying your nation. It was betraying
your faith. It was betraying your God. It was
betraying your neighbor. You were a total traitor.
You were a complete outcast. Any Jewish man collecting...
taxes from fellow Jews was the lowest of the
low. In fact, do you know in the Bible how they
often put together tax collectors and sinners?
Tax collectors and sinners. It's like they don't
even want to put tax collectors lumped in with
sinners because tax collectors were their own
low, low, low type of sinners out there. They
had their own category. Now, all this means is
that Matthew was one of those broken people,
like we read about in the genealogy. He was one
of those broken branches because he was a tax
collector. And so all those scandalous names
in the family tree of Jesus, Matthew knew how
they felt because he was an embarrassment. He
was ostracized. He would have been ostracized
from religious life. He wouldn't have been allowed
to even go to the synagogue. He would have been
considered ceremonially unclean. And the only
friends he would have had would have been other
tax collectors and sinners. And so there Matthew
is. That's his life. He's sitting in this booth.
And then when one day... Jesus kind of comes
strolling up, and he's got his disciples, you
know, Peter, James, John, and Andrew with him.
They're walking up, and maybe they're coming
up to pay taxes themselves. I mean, Capernaum
was a port city. Maybe they were coming to pay
a port tax or something like that. I don't know.
But then Matthew sees him. Now, Matthew has probably
seen or heard of Jesus before, but maybe this
is the very first time he actually lays eyes
on him. And as they walk up, I can imagine Jesus'
disciples are probably trying to think, oh, what's
the way that we should greet Matthew? Matthew,
today, should we sneer? Should we laugh? Should
we, you know, flip him the bird? Should we just
whisper about him? What should we do? Throw dust
in his face? Whatever, right? Because he's horrible,
horrible, lowest of the low, the worst of the
worst. Give him the side eye. Give him a mean
side eye. But Jesus has another idea. Look what
Jesus does. Jesus says to Matthew, follow me.
To which his disciples who were with him were
probably like. What did you just say, Jesus?
Jesus, you can't be serious. Jesus, did we hear
you correctly? You want the tax collector to
follow you? And Matthew, guess what he does?
He says, yeah. And he follows him. And he left
that tax booth. Now, did he just leave it that
day and never go back to it again? I don't know.
Probably not. Probably what he did is he put
one of his assistants in charge, let them take
care of it for the rest of the day. And off he
went. And he followed. And I can just imagine
that as Matthew is writing this story in his
gospel, he is just thinking and remembering those
other disciples and what they were thinking and
what they were saying and what they were feeling.
It just probably brought a smile to his face.
And then I think this part is kind of hilarious
because once Matthew starts following Jesus,
his next question is probably like, so where
are we going? And Jesus' answer to Matthew is,
well, I was kind of thinking we could go to...
your place. And at this point, the other disciples
must be losing their mind. They're probably like,
Jesus, you have got to be joking me. It's embarrassing
enough just to be seen out walking around town
with this guy. And now you want us to actually
go to his house and sit down at his table with
him and eat with him. Are you trying to destroy
this movement before it's even gotten off the
ground? But Jesus says, no, Matthew, we're going
to go to your house. And apparently, he must
say, and invite some of your friends. Invite
some of your other tax collector and sinner -like
friends. And we're all going to have a meal together.
And so Jesus and his disciples, they all go to
Matthew's house. And all these tax collectors
and sinners show up. Because those are the only
people that would hang out with a tax collector
in Matthew. And they all have this party. And
of course, it's probably a pretty good party.
Because tax collectors are kind of rich. So they
probably can throw really good parties. caused
quite a stir, as you can imagine, because then
the religious officials that were hanging around,
they see what's going on in there and their mind
is kind of blown. They don't understand. So they're
waving for one of the disciples to come out because
they got some questions for this disciple. And
they're like, listen, you gotta tell us what's
going on here with this guy. Because we hear
Jesus and there's parts of what Jesus says that
we actually like, you know, his talk about the
kingdom of God. We're very intrigued by that.
But then we see that he's in there. And we see
that he's hanging out with them. And we are so
confused. We do not understand that. Anyways,
they take the message back to Jesus. And then
Jesus sends out his reply. Jesus says, it's not
the healthy who need a doctor, but it's the sick.
Now, if I was Matthew, how does this sound when
I hear Jesus say it? You know, you would think
that maybe he would say, oh, you're saying I'm
sick? You're saying I'm not healthy? Or his other
friends could have taken great offense to what
Jesus said. But apparently, they didn't. And
I think it's because, do you know what people
who are far from God know? They know that they
are far from God. And actually, some of us here
today, We know. Yeah, we know. We're far from
God. Now, if someone were to come along to you
and say, you're spiritually sick or you're far
from God, we might take great offense and we
might flip the bird at them or something like
that because we're so upset. But when we got
home and when we cooled down and when we thought
about it, you know what? We might find ourselves
saying, you know what? It's true. I am kind of
far from God. Spiritually speaking, I know it's
a metaphor. Spiritually speaking. I am sick,
and I am in need of help. That is apparently
how Matthew received these words, and how Matthew's
friends received these words. And then Jesus
actually took it another step further, and he
adds, for I've come not to call the righteous,
but sinners, right? That word, sinners. Even
that, though, didn't appear to be offensive to
Matthew and his friends, because again, they
knew. They knew. Yeah, that kind of sums it up.
He knew that he was one of those broken branches,
one of those sick people, one of those sinners.
And what Jesus was saying was actually true.
But Matthew would later come to know and understand
that this is exactly why Jesus came. Jesus came
for those who knew that they were sick, not for
those who thought they were healthy. As one commentator
would put it, the distinction Jesus draws here
is not between righteous people on the one hand
and unrighteous people on the other hand, but
between those who admit their need and those
who deny it. And it seems really odd, but actually,
Those who are so confident in their own righteousness
and those who say, I don't need anything, are
the ones who actually exclude themselves from
the healing that Jesus can offer them. So the
question is, what does any of this have to do
with Christmas? Well, according to Matthew, it
has everything to do with Christmas because Matthew
would go on from that moment and he would spend
years following Jesus, listening to Jesus. He
would see Jesus, his popularity rising and falling.
He would see Jesus get arrested and executed.
He would see the empty tomb. You know, he would
encounter the risen Jesus after all of this.
And he says, after all that, he said, I got to
sit down and I got to write this story out. And
so he goes and he quickly, you know, he starts
writing this out. And he says, and the way I'm
going to start this, because I know what I'm
going to say. He says, the way I'm going to start
this before I get to the angels and before I
get to the innkeepers of the shepherds, I want
to begin with a genealogy that is full of sinners
and misfits and broken people. Because that...
is the point of this story. That was the point
of Jesus. And that is the point of Christmas.
This is why Jesus came. He did not come for the
healthy. He came for the sick. And Matthew understood
that maybe better than any of the other gospel
writers. And he understood what the story of
Christmas was all about. The story of Christmas
is the story of Jesus drawing near to those who
had drawn away from him. It's the story of God
moving in toward those who had moved away from
him. Or years later, Karl Barth would say the
incarnation or Christmas is God's decisive movement
towards us, not our movement toward him. It is
God drawing near to the far off. And Matthew
highlights all of those problems and all those
misfits in the genealogy because those people
reflected why Jesus came in the first place.
Matthew and his friends thought. Much the same
as many of us think. We think that in order to
approach God, you have to approach God based
on what you do or what you haven't done. You
have to do good things and you have to avoid
doing bad things. And if you do good things and
avoid doing bad things, then God will accept
you. But if that's how it works, then Matthew
had no way to God. And I have no way to God.
And frankly, you have no way to God either. But
thanks be to God that is not. how it works and
Matthew picked up in his time with Jesus and
walking with Jesus and learning from Jesus he
came to understand that the rules have changed
and that he as a tax collector he as a sinner
he as an outsider he as someone who has failed
in every way possible he could actually approach
God but it was not going to be on the basis of
anything he had done it was going to be because
of what Jesus had done for him those sinners
in that genealogy that's the point god did not
come for people who can stand on their own righteousness
but he came for those who stand on what jesus
has done on their behalf and i bet that as I
just bet, I can picture Matthew writing that
genealogy. He was probably laughing. He was probably
giggling and chuckling and smiling as he says,
oh, you know what? I'm going to mention Tamar
by name. I'm going to mention her. And I'm going
to, you know, allude to Judah's screw -ups. And
I'm going to even mention, you know, David's
big sin and Bathsheba. I'm not going to mention
Bathsheba by name, but I'm going to call her,
you know, Uriah's wife, the one who was Uriah's
wife. And I'm going to mention Rahab, the prostitute,
and Manasseh, the worst king that we ever met.
had. I'm going to include them, he said, because
they're the point. They're the point of the story
I'm going to tell. They're the point of Christmas.
And just to wrap up, when Matthew finally gets
through this genealogy and he finally gets down
to telling us about Mary and Joseph and stuff
like that, do you know what the first words on
the mouth of the angel are? The first words are,
Mary will give birth to a son and you're going
to call him Jesus. Why? Because he will save
his people from their sins. That's what the name
Jesus means. That's the point of Christmas. Jesus
came to save his people. Matthew knew all about
that. And so for the next week, next two weeks,
next three weeks, we're going to approach Christmas
the very same way. We're going to take a look
at some of those broken branches, those shady
characters in Jesus' family tree. And although
sitting here this morning, you might not see
it, but I'll tell you, in that long list of broken,
messy names, God is preaching a gospel to us
that we don't need. We don't need a helper. We
don't need an example to follow. We don't need
a life coach. What we need is a Savior, and the
good news is that Jesus came to save broken branches
like me, like you, like Matthew, and the rest
of us. So thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for
tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville.
on November 30th, 2025.