Kethuvim

I recently did a teaching on Jesus' family tree at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew.  It's a completely inane and boring section of Scripture ("So and so the son of so and so, etc.) if I'm honest.  It isn't exactly a cliffhanger.  However, Jews, who wrote Bible, never put anything in there by accident, or just for the heck of it.  There is something in the middle of this genealogy that is astounding.  Tradition tells us that Jesus never sinned; this means that he was perfect.  To be honest, one would expect that someone who is perfect (who also happens to be the Messiah) to come from a fairly pure line of people.  Not so with Jesus.  

Rahab - Prostitute

Ruth - Slept with Boaz before they were married and while he was hammered 

Solomon - 300 wives, 700 concubines (not exactly as pure as the driven snow)  

Those are just a few of the highlights.  I think there are numerous implications to all of this, one of which is this; if you sin, and you're a total mess of a person (which we all do/and are), then you're just part of Jesus' family.

If you look at Jesus' life, the people he spent the most time with, and was seemingly drawn to, were the outcasts, the messiest people in his society.  There's a story of Jesus eating at the home of a tax collector (read: most hated people on the planet).  To eat at someone's home was to say to them that you accepted them as an equal and a friend.  The religious leaders come by and they ask a disciple of Jesus, "Why does your rabbi eat with tax collectors and sinners" (some things never change do they)?  The text says that Jesus hears them and says this, "It isn't the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I came, not to call the righteous, but sinners."  

Their question was essentially, "Why is he eating with those people?"  His response is this, "I'm here because of those people, you don't even need me, because you don't think you need any help."  The reality is that we are all a mess.  Every single one of is "sick," we all need a little bit of help.  In other words, we're all part of Jesus' family.  

The people that Jesus had the hardest time dealing with were the people who claimed (or at least looked like) they had it all together.  Jesus came to offer help.  He offered a way of life that was full of God, a way that would lead to wholeness and peace.  If we don't ever admit that we're a bunch of screw-ups, then there is no room for him.  

Let's stop putting on the mask that everything is fine, even when it isn't.  We're all in this together, we're all part of the family.  Does your family have "one."  Jesus' has billions.