Have you experienced the tension of the family tree at Christmas? One of the things I both love and hate about the Christmas season is the gift of family! Please catch my drift, it’s not that I hate family at all; it’s that I hate some of the drama and the disfunction and the negative emotions and experiences that come with being part of a family.

For as much as I love being with my family (and my friends that are like family), spending time together, laughing, reliving family stories, playing games, opening gifts, eating food, etc., the Christmas season does reintroduce painful memories of loss, insecurity, and brokenness that I long to see healed and restored.

I’m fairly certain that all of us experience some of these things at certain levels; you may experience the simultaneous joy of being with your loved ones as you celebrate the birth of Jesus while at the same time experiencing the pain of remembering a loved one who died or the desire to reconcile with a loved one who is estranged from you.

There are parts of my family tree that look really sketchy and there are other parts of my family tree that look really out of place. There are times when I find great comfort being with some of my family members and there are also times when I am extremely uncomfortable with some of my family members.

I’m sure we could all work through some memories where this complex emotional overload hits it peak during the Christmas season; we all have stories of absolute peace contrasted with stories of utter chaos and no control. I’m sure we can all wax eloquent about the mind-boggling feelings of the security we feel around some family members while simultaneously feeling an absolute sense of fear around others.

On the other hand, there are some folks who love the peace of not having much in the way of family and friends during the Christmas season who will still also feel the loneliness of not having family and friends. Have you felt some of this lately? Can you feel the tension in the air of some of these things that you love about this season while simultaneously groaning inside with some of the things that you hate about this season?

Why would God put you and I into this complex mess? I mean, I realize that the system is broken; the human race is a mess because of sin; I get that! But why does God not step in; why doesn’t he fix the mess? I know we all have our ways of explaining things away, but these are just some of the really honest questions I ask in this season.

And then I read something like the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. I read through the seemingly boring list of mostly unintelligible names that feel like someone else’s far removed family tree in a dingy basement somewhere. It just feels like a cold list of names – a picture of a family tree – that I don’t immediately relate to, and I begin to wonder, “Why does this family tree matter? What purpose does this family tree serve? What am I supposed to do with this family tree?” Look at the text with me…

MATTHEW 1:1 – 17

1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. 2Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15and Eliud the father of Eleazor, and Eleazor the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

As I was studying this text this week, I came across a really solid and thought-provoking outline on Jesus’ family tree from Douglas Sean O’Donnell in the “Preaching the Word Commentary” that I think is helpful. O’Donnell’s basic argument is that Matthew wants to establish Jesus as the Savior/King of the Kingdom of Heaven; Jesus has the right family line, he came at the right time, and he came according to the right design.2

#1: THE RIGHT LINE, THE RIGHT TIME, AND THE RIGHT DESIGN OF JESUS’ FAMILY TREE3

When Matthew ties Jesus’ family line to David and Abraham (vv. 1, 2, 6), he’s teaching us that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and to David; God promised to make Abraham’s descendants a blessing to the entire world (Gen. 12:1 – 3) and he also promised to establish the throne of David for all of eternity through one of his descendants (2 Sam. 7:12 – 13), and furthermore, Jesus also came from the right bloodline within the right tribe – the tribe of Judah (v.3).4 So Jesus came from the right line!

Matthew also wants us to see that Jesus came at the right time in human history to fulfill God’s redemptive plan according to the generational timeline (v. 17), which oddly correlates to the numerical value of David’s name in the Hebrew; David’s name numerically is the number 14 and Matthew mentions three sets of 14 generations leading to Jesus; like the letter “N”, one 14 year generation heads upward to King David (v. 6), the next 14 year generation heads downward to Babylonian captivity (v. 11), and the last 14 year generation heads upward again and ends with Jesus our Redeeming King arriving on the scene (v. 16).5 So Jesus came from the right line, at the right time to be our Redeeming King!

Lastly, Matthew wants us to see that the design of Jesus’ family tree is the right design; it is designed with the right people in the tree; there are five women in the tree: Tamar (v. 3), Rahab (v. 5), Ruth (v. 5), Bathsheba (v. 6), and Mary (v. 16)which leads us to remember that while God bestows dignity upon male and female alike, he also loves bringing something pure out of something very dirty; this is especially highlighted by the fact that at least three of the women mentioned here were especially sexually sinful (Tamar, Gen. 38; Rahab, Josh. 2, Heb. 11, James 2; Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11); finally, the men are no better, Abraham is a liar, Judah sold his brother into slavery, David is an adulterer and a murderer, Solomon had more wives than you can imagine and he built shrines to foreign gods, and Hezekiah was proud of his good deeds; ultimately, Jesus comes from a family tree that is full of criminals and vagabonds!6 The design of Jesus’ family tree is meant to remind us that Jesus came to redeem sinners just like you and me!

#2: WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH JESUS’ FAMILY TREE IN THIS SEASON?

As I mentioned earlier, the Christmas season can be a time of both great joy and great pain; great comfort and great fear. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior King this year, we look out into the world and see a lot of unrest and brokenness; things that make our hearts grieve and long for healing and wholeness in the midst of the brokenness.

Things were not much different in Matthew’s time. The religious landscape was full of division (Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes), the political atmosphere was explosive (Roman rulers), and the social brokenness was heart breaking (poverty, piles of babies, and crucifixion).

But in the background of all the brokenness, God the Father had been quietly working out his carefully crafted plan to bring his Son, the Redeeming King into this world in a most humiliating way; he would arrive as a naked baby (instead of arriving with pomp and circumstance), he would be born to a poor virgin (who would believe that story?), and his first bed would be a feeding trough in a little out of the way barn on some muddy backroad (instead of the Hilton Hotel).

Into the mess of human depravity, Jesus condescends from his eternal heavenly throne so that he can be our redeeming king. Into this mess, Jesus becomes the seed that will crush the serpent’s head, he becomes the descendant of Abraham who will bless the nations through his life, death, and resurrection, and he will establish the throne of David for eternity.

So, what are we to do with Jesus’ family tree in this season?

Let me answer that question with a couple more questions.

  • Where do you feel like an outsider right now; like you just don’t fit in?
  • What is it that causes you to grieve; like you are waiting on God’s timing for something to be restored?
  • What is it in your life that makes you feel too filthy and too broken and too worthless to be loved by God?

Go back and think about those questions again.

CONCLUSION…

In the midst of the insanity of this broken world, Jesus came from the right bloodline, he came at the right time, and he came according to the divine design to be the redeeming king who would call outsiders his brothers and sisters, who would restore prodigals to the heavenly Father, who would cleanse the filthy stains of our sin and restore value and dignity to rebels, criminals, and prostitutes just like you and me!

What a family tree!! Can you imagine the family reunion in Heaven; how surprised we might be to see crazy uncle whoever there right alongside our beloved grandma? Can you imagine meeting David (adulterer/murderer) and Bathsheba, Tamar (seducer of her father in law) and Jacob (the liar), Rahab (the hooker), Solomon (polygamist/idolater), Abraham (cowardly wife sellout)…. And the list goes on and on!

What a family reunion! And don’t forget about Jesus! Jesus, the eternal Redeemer King who came into this broken world through the right bloodline, at the right time, according to the right divine design so that he could be crucified and die horribly as an innocent man for the criminals in his family tree…

Jesus came and died so that he could run out of the grave on the third day, establishing his authority over Satan, Sin and Death once and for all; so that he could resume his rightful place on the throne next to the right hand of God the Father from where he has promised to return to bring his family home and vanquish his enemies forever!

So, no matter how much of an outsider I am… no matter what earthly brokenness I long for God to restore in my family… no matter how jacked up my family tree is…

I can behold Jesus’ family tree and I can take comfort that in Christ I have an eternal Father who loved me since before the foundations of the earth were laid and he sent his Son to die in my place, to be victorious over my enemies, and to give me the promise of heaven.

My name is in Jesus’ family tree right alongside other criminals, sexual perverts, murderers, liars, cowards, rebels, and runaways! Amen!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth: Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013), 29 – 38.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid., 30.

5 Ibid., 32.

6 Ibid., 35 – 37.