A Bad Apple | Broken Branches

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

Genesis 37:1–4

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.