A Mixed Bag | Broken Branches

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

Matthew 9:9–13

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.