Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we're continuing our sermon
series called Broken Branches, where we dive
into Jesus' family tree and see some of the unlikely
characters who show up there. And today we're
diving into the story of a guy named Judah. Judah
was a liar. He sold his brother into slavery.
He's just an overall disaster. But why would
God pick him? to be the great, great, great,
great, great, great, great grandfather of Jesus.
That's what Rob's going to unpack for us in today's
sermon. Our reading today is from Genesis chapter
37, verses 1 to 4 and 12 to 28. Jacob lived in
the land where his father had stayed, the land
of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob's family
line. Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending
the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah
and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and
he brought their father a bad report about them.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his
other sons, because he had been born to him in
his old age, and he made an ornate robe for him.
When his brothers saw that their father loved
him more than any of them, They hated him and
could not speak a kind word to him. Now his brothers
had gone to graze their father's flocks near
Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, As you know,
your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.
Come, I am going to send you to them. Very well,
he replied. So he said to him, Go and see if
all is well with your brothers and with the flocks,
and bring word back to me. Then he sent him off
from the valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived
at Shechem, a man found him wandering around
in the fields and asked him, What are you looking
for? He replied, I'm looking for my brothers.
Can you tell me where they are grazing their
flocks? They have moved on from here, the man
answered. I heard them say, Let's go to Dothan.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them
near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance,
and before he reached them, they plotted to kill
him. Here comes the dreamer, they said to each
other. Come now, let's kill him and throw him
into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious
animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes
of his dreams. When Reuben heard this, he tried
to rescue him from their hands. Let's not take
his life, he said. Don't shed any blood. Throw
him into this cistern here in the wilderness,
but don't lay a hand on him. Reuben said this
to rescue him from them and take him back to
his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers,
they stripped him of his robe, the ornate robe
he was wearing, and they took him and threw him
into the cistern. The cistern was empty. There
was no water in it. As they sat down to their
meal, they looked up. and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites
coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded
with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on
their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said
to his brothers, What will we gain if we kill
our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's
sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands
on him. After all, he is our brother, our own
flesh and blood. His brothers agreed. So when
the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers
pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold
him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites
who took him to Egypt. The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Every fall. our family makes
this trip up to the Big R Apple Farm up in Brampton,
where we go to pick apples. It's lovely. We really
enjoy it. And the thing about the Big R Apple
Farm is it's a pick -your -own apple farm. So
what they do is you pay 20 bucks or something
like that, and they give you a bag. And then
you have to go through all the apple trees, and
you fill the bag. And when the bag is full, you're
done. Like, you can't sneak any more out than
what you can fit in the bag. And so you don't
actually just pick apples. You actually become
like an apple inspector because you want to make
sure you get the best apples in your bag, right?
None with scabs on them or none that have bruises
on them or none that have like, you know, a bumblebee
that's like made their nest inside the apple.
No, you want the perfect apple. And sometimes
you're like, you think you've got the perfect
apple, but then you turn it around, you realize
you were betrayed because on the other side of
the apple, there's some marks. And of course,
underneath, all these apple trees there are there
are bushels and bushels and bushels of apples
that have fallen to the ground and in various
states of decomposition now of course you would
never pick up one of the ones off the ground
and put them in your bag you only want the very
best apples our dog holly who comes with us when
we go She, for some reason, loves apples. And
so she thinks she's gone to a five -star buffet
whenever we're walking around. She spends half
her time eating and eating the apples. Now, we,
though, again, would never put anything but the
very best in our bag. We're in week number two
of this teaching series we're calling Broken
Branches. And we're looking at a tree. We're
not looking at an apple tree. We're actually
looking at a family tree. We're looking at Jesus's
family tree as we get ready for Christmas. And
you might say, that's an interesting thing to
do. Why are we doing that? Well, here's the answer.
It's because the gospel writer Matthew, when
he goes ahead to write his story, the Christmas
story, he doesn't begin with the angels and he
doesn't begin with the shepherds or he doesn't
begin with a star in the sky. Instead, he begins
with a long list. list of names, a family tree,
a genealogy that traces Jesus's lineage all the
way back through David, all the way back to Abraham.
Now, the thing is, though, that when you read
through this family tree, you see something quite
startling. What you see is that this family tree
of Jesus is full of broken branches and bad apples.
In fact, as Matthew works his way through this
genealogy, it's almost like he intentionally
wants to point out all the screw -ups in the
family tree. So for example, well, one example,
I'm not saying that these are necessarily screw
-ups, but one thing he does that he doesn't need
to do is he includes the names of women. Now,
ancient genealogies never included the names
of women. So why is Matthew doing that? And then
actually some of the people that he includes
in his family tree aren't even Jewish. And that's
not helpful if you're trying to prove that Jesus
is the Jewish Messiah. And many of the people
in Jesus family tree are kind of, you know, sketchy
characters. And that's not helpful if your point
is to prove that Jesus is the divine son of God,
the holy one from above. So why does he want
us to see this? You know, in fact, there's time.
You know, Matthew actually stops and pauses for
a long time when he looks at the story of like
David and Bathsheba as if we need to see that
again, as if we needed to be reminded of that
again. But it turns out that Matthew's purpose
is to show us all of the crazy characters and
as we're going to see today, some of the creepy
characters that made up Jesus's lineage. The
point being, That not everyone who was related
to Jesus was especially holy or especially righteous
or even especially good at all. So why would
Matthew do that? Because for Matthew, these people
are not just part of the story. They are the
point of the story. You see, most religions run
on this simple premise that if you do good things,
then God likes you. You do bad things, God smites
you. But Matthew was a former tax collector.
He himself was a bad apple. So he had come to
know firsthand that God does not accept you because
of who you are or because of what you've done,
but because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has
done. And Jesus came not just for sinners, we
learned last week, but Jesus came from sinners.
And so all those messy people that make up the
broken branches of Jesus' family tree, they aren't
just sinners. The story, they are the point of
the story. And today's text is going to prove
that again and again. Here's how Matthew begins
the Christmas story. This is the genealogy of
Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, and the
son of Abraham. And again. Matthew is writing
to a primarily Jewish audience, and so it's really
important that he connects Jesus to David, the
king, and he connects Jesus to Abraham to prove
that Jesus was, you know, really, really Jewish.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the
father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah,
and he could have and should have just kept on
going down the line, but Matthew decides to add
one little tidbit here to remind us of a deeper
story. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers.
Now, if I were to ask you to turn to the person
beside you and tell them everything you know
about the life of Judah, it would probably be
a pretty short conversation. But... Matthew's
reminding us, oh yeah, Judah was one of a bunch
of brothers. In fact, Judah was one of 12 brothers.
And these 12 brothers, that's right, they became
the 12 patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel,
right? And that raises an interesting question
because then if... Then God actually had a choice
of which of those 12 brothers he was going to
place in the lineage of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
I wonder how God made that choice. Because, you
know, God could have chosen Reuben, as we heard
in our reading. Reuben was the oldest of the
brothers. And Reuben seemed to have, you know,
maybe a good heart. You saw him trying to rescue
his younger brother Joseph in the story. But
no, he didn't choose Reuben. Or, actually, God
could have chosen Judah's most famous brother
of all. And, of course, who is Judah's most famous
brother? Joseph. That's right. There's several
chapters in the book of Genesis devoted to Joseph.
And Joseph is an amazing person, an amazing guy.
Because if you know the story of Joseph, and
if you know the story of Judah, And if you were
God and you had to choose one of these two brothers
to bring God's son into the world, it would be
like the choice between these two apples. It
is an easy, easy, easy choice. Ten times out
of ten, you would choose Joseph over Judah. Because
Joseph was amazing. Joseph was a man of great
faith. He was a man of great character. And he
is actually a lot like Jesus. Joseph was persecuted
and went through a whole lot of suffering. And
get this, Joseph becomes a savior. That's right.
He becomes a savior of his own family, becomes
a savior of Egypt and the surrounding world during
a famine that happens later in the story. That
makes Joseph the perfect. person to be the descendant
of Jesus. He's the perfect picture of Jesus.
If ever there was a boy that you should pick
through whom the Messiah was going to come into
the world, Joseph is perfect. Perfect. But when
God looks down, when God looks down and makes
his choice, he says, you know what? I think I'm
going to pick Judah. Now, I would never have
picked Judah. And you would never have picked
Judah. Because Judah is a broken branch and a
bad apple in the family tree of Jesus. But God
picked him. And so we got to look at this story.
And today, that's essentially what we're going
to do. We're going to look at two things. We're
going to look at first, the fall of Judah. How
this bad apple became so bad and literally fell
right out of the tree. And then we're going to
look at God's choice of Judah. Why God picked
him up. and said, this is my guy, right? So I've
given you some sermon notes so you can follow
along. We're going to do a lot of storytelling
today, so I hope we all learn a great deal. Let's
start, first of all, with the fall of Judah.
I mean, there were a lot of reasons why Judah
was a bad choice and a bad apple, but the first
sign that we see that we're dealing with a ne
'er -do -well is that, well, this, he sold his
own brother into slavery. So let's just back
up again. So Judah's story really begins in Genesis
37. And even in that story, the story is really
about Joseph. Judah is kind of just like a footnote
in that story. But you know the story that Joseph
was Jacob's favored son. He was given this multicolored
coat. He looks like Donny Osmond. He's this golden
child. Everyone thinks he's the greatest. But
Judah and his brothers, they can't stand the
guy. They can't stand him. And so one day, Joseph
is going out to the fields to check on his brothers.
And the brothers grab him and they strip him
of that ridiculous coat and they throw him in
a cistern. They throw him in a well, a dry well.
And then it's weird. It says they sat down to
have lunch. I find that like so strange, you
know, like, hey, pass the hummus while Joseph
is down there in the well screaming for his life,
right? But anyways, while they're eating there,
this caravan of Ishmaelites comes by and they're
headed to Egypt. And this is where Judah speaks
for the very first time. And this is what Judah
says. He says, guys, guys, listen, as he's chewing
on a chicken bone, he says, guys, what do we
gain if we kill our brother? You know, after
all, there's no real profit in, you know, seeing
him die. But, but rather than murder him, what
if we sell him? That way we can at least make
a few bucks. There you go. There he is. The great
Judah. let's not kill him. After all, he is our
brother, right? Let's just sell him, right? He's
so compassionate. Let's just sell him. And so
they do. They sell Joseph. They chain him wrist
to wrist with a bunch of these other slaves and
they watch him disappear over the horizon. As
far as they're concerned, they're never going
to see him again. And then they take that beautiful
Cody hat and they dip it in animal blood and
they go home to their father and they shatter
him. With the news, dad, so sorry, but this is
all we found left of Joseph. He must have been
eaten by a wild animal. This is all that's left
of him. And they keep that secret for 20 years.
20 years of watching their father's grief. 20
years of sitting at tables with an empty chair.
20 years of birthdays going by remembering with
great grief the death of Joseph. But Judah knew
the truth. And Judah knew that actually he could
have stopped the whole thing from happening because
they seemed to listen to him. He seemed to have
some influence. But he put profit ahead of pity.
So there you go. Meet Judah. The bad apple that
for some reason God said, here's my man. But
that's only the beginning. The next part of the
story, we see that Judah kind of falls right
out of the tree and, you know, he kind of goes
on to marry a foreign wife. Let me explain why
this is important. But in the next chapter, it
opens with this little line that says, at that
time, Judah went down from his brothers. Judah
met a daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua,
and he married her. Now, most commentators will
say that those words there went down. That is
not just geography. That is theology. That is
morality, right? This is Judah literally and
spiritually. He is going down. He is distancing
himself from God's family. And he ends up doing
the very thing that the patriarch said that you
should never ever do, boys. Don't marry into
the local Canaanite population. Because when
you marry into those other cultures, you know
what ends up happening. You start drifting into
their gods, their customs, their worldview. And
that's exactly what happens with Judah. He goes
down and he marries this Canaanite woman and
he starts a family with her that is shaped more
by Canaanite values and teachings than by God's
promises. So this is a tale of decline, spiritual
decline. This bad apple's fallen out the tree,
and now it's even starting to roll downhill.
But it's not over yet. No, we're just getting
started. Next, this bad apple starts to rot from
the inside out when we see how he neglects his
own daughter -in -law. Now, I know I'm moving
fast, but here's the story, okay? Judah goes
on, he has three sons by this foreign wife. And
when his oldest son, whose name is Ur, comes
of age, Judah decides to marry him off to a local
girl by the name of Tamar. But the text then
says that Ur... the husband, did evil in the
sight of the Lord, and so he died. And we don't
know what he did, but he died. And that left
Tamar in a very vulnerable position because she
just lost her husband. But there were rules in
Israel about how to deal with situations like
this. And the idea was that Judah should give
his second son, whose name was Onan, to Tamar
to sleep with Tamar so that he could provide
Tamar with a child, provide her with a family,
thereby provide her with a future, and provide
her with security. That was just kind of the
rule and the culture of that day. So Onan says,
okay, sure, I will sleep with her, but I'm not
going to give her a child. And if you want to
read all the gross and gory details of that story,
you're going to have to do that on your own.
That's found in Genesis 38. So anyways, God looks
down and sees what Onan is doing to Tamar. and
it just says that God killed him too, right?
That's the end of Onan, right? So suddenly you've
got Tamar, a widow who's already endured two
tragedies, and she's totally, totally vulnerable.
And now again, Judah has a responsibility. He's
got one more son. And so Judah... promises Tamar.
He says, hey, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry,
don't worry. See, my younger son here, when he
grows of age, then I will give him to you and
it'll all work out. You know, I'll make sure
he provides a family for you all in due course.
But then the narrator drops this telling little
line saying that, oh, you know, Judah thought,
though, on the inside, Judah thought, oh, maybe
my other son. He's going to die too. Maybe Tamar
is cursed or something like this. And just like
his brothers, he's going to die. In other words,
Judah decides to stall. And he actually will
never give Tamar another husband. And so Tamar,
she waits and she waits and she waits. But...
consistent with Judah's character. He has no
intention. He forgets all about her. And I got
to tell you, these were not big cities that they
lived in those times. There would have been plenty
of times over the years when Judah and Tamar
would have crossed paths. But again, Judah does
what many bad apples do, and that is he just
avoids his responsibility. He moves on with his
life. And Tamar is... Abandoned. Left in limbo.
This is a betrayal. It's not like as the kind
of betrayal that happened to Joseph. That was
really dramatic and sudden. But this is like
the slow rot. The slow rot of letting someone
suffer because you don't want to do the right
thing because it feels inconvenient to you. But
next, this bad apple. really hits rock bottom.
And it is icky, I got to tell you. This is one
of the strangest, most awkward stories in the
Bible. This is one of those, did the Bible really
say that moments in Scripture? Basically, here's
what happens. Judah, one day, years later, is
heading out of town with a friend to go and shear
sheep. It's kind of like a middle -aged guy's
road trip. kind of a thing. He's heading out
to shear some sheep. And Tamar at this point
has realized that he is not going to keep his
promise to her. So she decides she's going to
take matters into her own hands. She covers her
face and she disguises herself as a prostitute,
a temple prostitute, like a Canaanite temple
prostitute. And she goes down and she sits at
the town gate. Now, when Judah comes walking
by, he doesn't recognize her. And just let that
sink in for a little bit. This is your own daughter
-in -law, the one who you are supposed to be
taking care of, and you don't recognize her,
right? This woman you're supposed to care for,
you don't even know what she looks like anymore,
right? And then we read that when Judah saw her,
he thought she was a prostitute, for she had
covered her face, not realizing that she was
his daughter -in -law. And he went over to her
by the roadside and said, come now, let me sleep
with you. So Judah basically strikes up a conversation,
quickly decides he'd like to hire her for her
services. And yes, the ick factor is now rising
rapidly in this story. And Tamar then says, well,
what will you give me if I sleep with you? And
so they negotiate the price. The fee is going
to be a goat. I guess that was the going rate
3 ,000 years ago. A goat. But you see, Judah
actually hasn't brought a goat with him. I mean,
who carries a spare goat for moments like this
when you want a proposition of prostitute, right?
So Tamar says, okay, fine. If you don't have
the goat, no problem. I just need some collateral.
She says, so until you send me the goat, I want
your seal, I want your cord, and I want your
staff. Translation is, I want your signature,
I want your ID. And I want your driver's license,
right? Everything that proves who you are. And
Judah hands them over. Why? I guess because sin
makes smart people do stupid things. And they
sleep together and it's dark and apparently Judah
can't see her. And then she leaves and then he
goes home. When he gets home, he finds a servant
and he says to the servant, hey, I met this temple
prostitute down by the gate. I need you to go
and take her a goat. I don't want to talk about
it. You don't need the details. Just go and take
her a goat. And so the servant does. He takes
a goat down to the gate. He says, where's the
temple prostitute that hangs out down here? And
the people there are like, what are you talking
about? There is no temple prostitute here. Well,
this is now kind of embarrassing because she's
got all of Judah's ID, but Judah, he kind of
just shrugs it off and he says, well, let's just
forget about it then. He moves on with his life.
So this is Judah, everybody. This is the great,
great, great, great grandfather of Jesus who
propositioned his own daughter -in -law, mistook
her for a prostitute, paid with his own ID. Like
this, This is not just a bad apple. This is one
of those worm -infested ones that's sitting there
half -baked in the sun, right? And that brings
us to the last part I want to tell you about,
the fall of Judah. And this is the part where
Judah burns with self -righteousness. This is
where Judah, the bad apple, tries to hide all
of his own bruises by pretending to be so, so
perfect. Here's how it goes. Three months later.
Three months later, someone comes running to
Judah and says, hey, Judah, Judah, Judah, guess
what? Your daughter -in -law, Tamar, she's pregnant.
And she's been sleeping around, I guess. She's
a sinner, Judah. And Judah, the guy who sold
his own brother, abandoned Tamar, hired a prostitute
on the side of the road and is carrying... a
secret darker than anything Tamar ever could.
Judah explodes with moral outrage. Oh my gosh,
she needs to be burned to death. Burn her alive.
Right? The hypocrisy meter now here like breaks
the scale because here you have a man who is
hiding so many of his own sins. trying to be
like the moral policeman here and by the way
that's actually not that unusual is it we we've
seen that right people who make a whole lot of
noise about certain moral issues turn out to
be the very ones who are struggling with those
issues themselves it's like this mask of self
-righteousness we put that on to cover the shame
that we don't want anyone else to see so Before
I tell you the rest of the story, let's just
take a look at this summary for a moment. Let
me introduce you again to the great, great, great
grandfather of Jesus. The guy who sold his own
brother, then kept it a secret, right? And then
who married a foreign wife, who neglected his
daughter -in -law, who then slept with Tamar,
thinking she was a temple prostitute, and then
wanted to kill her because of her sin. Merry
Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Isn't
this great? And now I would not have picked this
guy. And you would not have picked this guy.
But for some reason, God chose him to be the
one in the family tree of Jesus. Why? Well, we
begin to see why just a few verses later. When
Judah finally experiences this moment, finally
this moment of realization, and confession and
repentance. And let me tell you how it all happens.
Tamar is dragged out to face her judgment. But
as she comes out, she sends this little message
ahead to Judah. This messenger goes and the messenger
runs up to Judah. And he says, hey, look, Tamar
gave me this seal. And she gave me this cord.
And she gave me this staff. And she says, Judah,
before you burn me to death, I wanted to show
you these because I'm pregnant by the man who
gave me these things. And the servant's like,
does this make sense? any sense to you, Judah?
And he holds up Judah's wallet and Judah's passport
and Judah's driver's license. And of course,
Judah suddenly, that self -righteous mask just
falls right off his face. And his eyes finally
open up. And he says what I think is the most
important line that he ever says in the entire
Bible. He says, She is more righteous than I.
Judah finally speaks the truth. He finally recognizes
his sin. He finally stops pretending. It's like
this bad apple finally cracks open just enough
for the light of God to get in, for the grace
of God to get inside. She is more righteous than
I. This is called confession. By the way, and
Judah is the first person in the entire Bible,
as far as I can see, who actually admits he was
wrong. But that's where every redemption story
begins. In a moment when a person sees their
own sin clearly and they come clean. And this
is Judah's turning point. And it seems that this
was the moment. When Judah would acquire the
strength to do what I think was probably the
hardest thing he ever had to do in his life.
And that was the moment when Judah finally moved
from self -righteousness to self -sacrifice.
One more story. One more story. Fast forward
20 years. Joseph, oh, he's not dead. Guess what?
He's the prime minister of Egypt. And now there
is a great famine in the land, and the brothers
have to go to Egypt begging for food, begging
Joseph for food. Now, Joseph tests them. He tests
Judah especially. He wants to see what these
brothers of his have become. Then Joseph decides
to send them on their way back home, but he announces
that Benjamin, the youngest of the brothers,
no, no, he has to stay behind as a slave. Now,
at one time, what would Judah have done in this
situation? The old Judah would have said, oh,
great, you know, one less brat to worry about,
one less mouth to feed in a famine. But this
new Judah is transformed, and he does something
astonishing. He steps forward. And he says, please,
let the boy go. Take me instead. This man who
once sold his own brother as a slave is now willing
to become a slave to save another brother. And
you can almost hear heaven whispering at this
moment, this is the Judah that I can use. This
is not the Judah of Genesis 37. This is not the
Judah of Genesis 38. This is a man who has been
softened and changed by God's grace. And this
is why God chose Judah. Not because he's the
best apple on the tree. But because Judah represents
the whole point of the gospel, that even bad
apples can bear good fruit, that God brings salvation
through broken people. to broken people because
broken people are the ones who know best that
they need God's grace. And yes, God could have
chosen Joseph. He was a savior and he saved his
family's life and he saved Pharaoh and he saved
the Egyptians. He's the picture of a savior.
But God looks down and says, you know what? You
know what? I think I'm going to skip over the
savior and I'm going to choose the liar and the
cheat instead. I'm going to skip right past that
shiny apple and I'm going to choose the bruised
one and the battered one. I'm going to bring
my son into the world through a Judah, not a
Joseph. And do you know why Matthew felt that
it was so necessary to include just this little
snippet in the story? It's because on that day,
Judah was like a picture of you. He was a picture
of me. picture of a person who deserved one thing,
but he got another thing. It's a picture of God's
grace. And that's the point of Christmas. Judah's
only hope, your only hope, my only hope is not
in what we do, but it's in what that has been
done for us. Judah's story reminds us that no
apple falls so far from the tree that God cannot
reach it and use it. And that's why Matthew starts
the Christmas story with a messy family tree.
Before he even gets to the baby Jesus, he wants
us to see how it's always worked. God chooses
the broken. He chooses the flawed. He chooses
people who have secrets. He chooses people with
a past. That's maybe your story. It's my story.
You're the point of Christmas. I am the point
of Christmas. Jesus brings grace to people who
don't deserve it. I would say that is both the
miracle of Christmas and that is the true message
of Christmas. That Jesus came from a family of
sinners in order to save a world full of sinners.
And there's no branch so broken. There's no apple
so bruised. That God cannot use them in his story
of redemption. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks
for listening to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week's sermon was recorded at Trinity
Church Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on
December 7th, 2025.