12.21.2025 Sunday Sermon by 
Rev. Jeungbok Lee
Text: Matthew 1:1–16
Title: Grace Contained in the Genealogy

Matthew 1:1–16
The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.
David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz 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 and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

When Christmas approaches, we usually think of the angels’ praise, the manger, and the shepherds found in Luke chapter 2. However, Matthew begins his account of Jesus’ birth by first presenting Jesus’ genealogy. To be honest, genealogies are difficult to read and difficult to explain.
Nevertheless, Matthew intentionally begins the joyful news of Christmas with a genealogy. To Matthew, the genealogy was not merely a list of names, but a theological tool to convey the deeper meaning of Christmas. Through this genealogy, Matthew sought to tell us who Jesus truly is in real history.
As I have come to realize this as well, I would like to convey the meaning of Christmas more deeply through the genealogy, and I hope that all of you will be filled with the joy of Christmas as a result.

1. God is the One who keeps His promises.
Matthew 1:1, “The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

 

1.1) The meaning contained in the word “genealogy”
The word “genealogy” means “the book of origin,” that is, a record of lineage. This expression declares “the beginning of a new creation.” The genealogy in Matthew chapter 1 is like a proclamation announcing the new history of God’s salvation that begins in Jesus Christ.
Just as Moses wrote Genesis to tell the Israelites who came out of Egypt where their origin began, Matthew tells us the origin of God’s new people that began through Jesus Christ.

If Genesis tells us about humanity that began with Adam and the beginning of sin, Matthew shows us the beginning of a new humanity and salvation that begins with Jesus Christ. If Genesis shows a story that starts with Adam and ends in death, Matthew shows the history of eternal life and salvation that begins with Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is the last Adam who came to begin a new age and a new humanity.

1.2) The promise contained in “the son of Abraham”
The expression “the son of Abraham” shows that the promise God made to Abraham, the father of faith, has been fulfilled.
The promise in Genesis 12:3, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you,” and the promise in Genesis 22:18, “Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,” were fulfilled through Jesus Christ, who came as the descendant of Abraham.
Just as Abraham received the promise by faith, we also receive the promised Jesus Christ by faith and come to share in Abraham’s promise. The day that commemorates the fulfillment of this promise is Christmas.

1.3) The promise contained in “the son of David”
The expression “the son of David” signifies the fulfillment of the promise God made to David: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”
Even though the kings descended from David became corrupt and apostate, and Israel was destroyed and the temple was torn down, God’s promise was not canceled. Christmas is not an event that happened suddenly one day, but the fruit of God’s faithfulness prepared over thousands of years. Therefore, Christmas is evidence that “God does not forget His promises.”

2. The grace God gives through Christmas is not for pure and morally upright people.
This is one of the great benefits we gain from Jesus’ genealogy. In particular, the four women included in the genealogy are powerful evidence that God’s grace is unconditional love.
Jewish genealogies usually do not record women, Gentiles, or people with problematic backgrounds. Rather, genealogies are often embellished. A representative example in our own country is Yongbieocheonga. Although it is difficult to regard Yongbieocheonga as a genealogy, it was an effort by a new dynasty to secure its authority and legitimacy by portraying Yi Seong-gye’s four ancestors as kings and praising their achievements.
However, Matthew’s genealogy, which introduces Jesus the Messiah who came as the King of a new age, is different. It records women who were sinners, Gentiles, and socially marginalized.
The reason these people are recorded honestly is to show that no human sin or defilement can contaminate the holiness of Jesus, and that God became man and came into this world precisely to save such sinners.

3. Let us examine how God’s grace worked through the four women in the genealogy and the people around them.

 

3.1) Tamar
Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. Because Judah’s sons were wicked and were put to death by God at an early age, Tamar had neither husband nor children. Judah blamed Tamar for the deaths of his two sons and sent her back to her parents’ home, forcing her to live as a widow. But Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and had relations with her father-in-law Judah, and she bore Perez and Zerah. From a human perspective, it is a very complicated and painful story. Yet God continued the Messianic line through this broken family.

3.2) Rahab
Rahab was a Gentile prostitute living in the city of Jericho. However, she believed in the God of Israel and, by faith, hid the spies. God did not look at her past, but at her faith, and granted her the grace of salvation. Though she was a Gentile prostitute, she became a woman included in the lineage of the Messiah.
This is the message of salvation proclaimed at Christmas.

3.3) Ruth
Ruth was a Moabite woman and a widow. Though she was someone who could only be excluded from the Israelite community, she served her mother-in-law and trusted in God, and thus came to belong to the house of David, through which God’s salvation continued.

Deuteronomy 23:3
“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD forever.”

The Law excludes sinners, but God’s grace grants salvation without conditions and makes them God’s people.

3.4) Bathsheba
Matthew does not introduce Bathsheba as David’s wife, but calls her the wife of Uriah. This expression clearly exposes David’s sin.
Uriah was a loyal soldier of David, one of the thirty-seven mighty men who stood by David and risked their lives to protect him when he was in difficulty (2 Samuel 23:39). Even after David became king, Uriah continued to fight faithfully for David and for Israel. But David saw Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, desired her, and slept with her. To cover up his sin of adultery, David sent Uriah to the battlefield and had him killed. We praise David as a great king, but in reality, he was a sinner who committed adultery and killed a loyal servant to hide that adultery. Yet David’s sin could not stop God’s work of salvation.
God restored the repentant David and continued the history of salvation through Solomon, who was born to Bathsheba.
Through this, we can clearly see that God’s grace is greater than sin.

3.5) Application
In this way, Christmas is not God coming into a perfect world, but God entering into real history entangled with wounds, sin, and failure, in order to renew it.
Therefore, we must not simply skip over Matthew’s genealogy as a difficult passage, but understand it with a clear historical perspective. Only then will it help us understand the richness and the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s grace.
However, if we seek joy in buying things during the Christmas season instead of the joy that Christmas gives, we will not be able to escape material temptation. As a result, we will continually seek joy in other things. Then the temporary joy found in other things will replace the true joy that Christmas gives. Yet material satisfaction cannot sustain true joy in the heart. A heart from which satisfaction has disappeared will try to find joy elsewhere, and this will trap us in a vicious cycle of repetition. The more this happens, the more the joy of Christmas will fade away.
Therefore, I urge you to gain true joy from the meaning of Christmas given through Matthew’s genealogy and to enjoy that joy.

4. In conclusion,
The genealogy in Matthew is not a passage that can be read or ignored without consequence.
“The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham and the son of David,” is God’s Christmas invitation sent to us. It is a gracious invitation that says, “Even your shameful and filthy sins are invited into my work of salvation.”
The saving grace God bestowed upon the four women is evidence that God’s invitation is true. The fact that Judah and David, despite their immoral sins, were included in God’s genealogy of salvation is evidence of how astonishingly great God’s invitation is. That is why Christmas is God’s invitation that brings joy to all sinners and the marginalized.
Moreover, Christmas is an irreplaceable and satisfying joy. Christmas is not news announcing an event in which we go up to God to obtain something, but the good news—the gospel—that God has come down to the darkest place of humanity. Christmas is the day when God fulfills the promise He made thousands of years ago, and the joyful day when He came to save a sinner like me.

 

Therefore, as believers, we must not only understand how important the grace contained in the genealogy of Jesus Christ is as evidence, but also be filled with joy through that genealogy. Then we can enjoy the true joy of Christmas, not the temptations of the world.
This Christmas, I pray that you will be filled with the joy that comes through the genealogy of Matthew chapter 1, and that this joy will overflow even to the neighbors around you.

Let us pray. (End)