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The Unedited Genealogy of Jesus

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah…” — Matthew 1:1

We are accustomed to telling our stories selectively. We polish the edges, omit the failures, and highlight the moments that make us appear respectable. Scripture itself records that genealogies were often written this way—compressed, edited, and curated. Yet when Matthew opens his Gospel, he does something startling. He edits, yes—but not the way we would expect. He leaves the shame in.

The family line of Jesus Christ is not a showcase of uninterrupted virtue. It is a record of sinners, scandals, and severe moral collapse. Judah and Tamar. Rahab the prostitute. Ruth the outsider. David and “the wife of Uriah.” Kings who shed innocent blood and led God’s people into darkness. Matthew does not blur these names into obscurity; he underlines them. He insists that we see the Messiah standing at the end of a long, broken line.

This is not carelessness—it is purposeful. God is telling us something essential about the heart of redemption.

If Jesus were ashamed of broken people, He would have edited them out of His own family tree. But He did not. The people we would hide are the very people God highlights. The people we would disqualify are the people God deliberately includes. From the beginning, the incarnation declares that Jesus did not come from sanitized humanity, but from real humanity—and therefore He has come for it.

Here is the first truth we must face: anyone can belong to His family. Not because sin does not matter, but because grace matters more. The genealogy preaches before Jesus ever speaks. It announces that doubt, failure, addiction, and disgrace do not place you beyond reach—they place you precisely within the kind of reach Christ came to extend. The bloodline of Jesus says to the least and the lost, “There is room.”

But Matthew presses us further. This family tree also reveals that God redeems what we assume is ruined. David’s greatest failure is not erased; it is transformed. From a union marked by adultery and death comes Solomon—and through Solomon, the promises of God move forward. Redemption does not deny the damage of sin, but it refuses to let sin have the final word.

God takes what we are most ashamed of and makes it the very place where His life breaks through. What we call disqualifying, He calls redeemable. What we bury, He resurrects.

Do not ask whether Jesus can handle your past. Look at His genealogy. Do not wonder if your worst mistake is too far gone. Look at the cross, where the Son of God was hung on a tree, covered in the full weight of human shame, so that shame would no longer own us.

The question is not whether He can redeem—it is whether you will hand Him what needs redeeming. Bring it into the light. Invite Him into the place you avoid. He is not embarrassed by your story. He entered history precisely to transform it.

Let Him.

In his sermon, Larry explores the central idea that God communicates His most important truths not primarily through words, but through pictures, signs, and especially people. Beginning with the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words,” Larry explains that some realities are simply too deep to express with language alone. This is why God filled Scripture with vivid symbols—trees, rainbows, the Passover, the Red Sea, the tabernacle, baptism, bread, and wine—because these images convey what words often cannot.

He then shows that God’s favorite picture—His clearest sign—has always been people themselves. The lives of biblical figures communicated divine messages more powerfully than their speeches. Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea lived out symbolic actions that illustrated God’s heart: Isaiah naming his sons “Destruction is coming” and “The remnant will return”; Jeremiah burying and retrieving a ruined loincloth; Hosea marrying an unfaithful woman to embody God’s relentless love; Ezekiel being commanded not to mourn his wife to display the depth of coming national sorrow.

These people’s lives were the message.

Larry emphasizes that Jesus is the ultimate sign and picture of God. Jesus’ life, not only His teachings, reveals what God is like—His compassion, His priorities, His character. Jesus embodied the fullness of the Old Testament and made the invisible God visible, fulfilling humanity’s original calling to be God’s image-bearers. Our first vocation was not gardening, Larry notes, but image-bearing—making visible the invisible qualities of God in everyday life.

Christians today carry that same calling. People around us cannot see God’s patience, forgiveness, mercy, or truthfulness—but they can see those qualities expressed through the lives of God’s people. December, Larry points out, is a uniquely open-hearted season. In conversations, stores, gatherings, and family events, believers have an opportunity not to push opinions on politics or morality but to embody God’s goodness, becoming His “light and salt” in the world.

Larry applies this especially to parenting and grandparenting. The most powerful influence we have on the next generation isn’t nagging, lecturing, or pushing principles—it’s showing a superior, joyful life, one that demonstrates God’s character rather than merely describing it. Children and grandchildren learn less from what we say and more from what we consistently live. To illustrate this, Larry recalls his father’s transformation and the unforgettable picture of obedience he displayed when God called him to reconcile with someone he deeply disliked.

That image shaped Larry more than any speech his father ever gave.

Ultimately, Larry calls believers to embrace their identity as God’s image-bearers, empowered by grace to make the invisible God visible wherever they go.

1. Visibility of God: What invisible qualities of God (grace, truth, patience, forgiveness, courage, generosity) do you feel called to “make visible” this month?

2. December Opportunities: Where is God sending you this month—stores, workplaces, gatherings—where you could intentionally embody His character?

3. Influence Through Example: Think of someone in your life who watched your actions more than your words (a child, coworker, friend). What picture are you currently painting for them?

4. Obedience Promptings: When was the last time God nudged you to do something uncomfortable? What might obedience look like now, even if you don’t want to do it?

5. Life as a Symbol: If someone could only see your life—not hear your beliefs—what would they conclude about what God is like?