Matthew 1:1-3
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram….
How much do you know about Tamar, the first woman mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy?
I’m guessing it’s not much. There are actually three Tamars in Scripture, and each of them faced significant challenges. But I am talking about the one in Genesis, the one Matthew mentions here as the mother of Perez and Zerah. If you do know enough about her to have an impression of her, it’s probably not favorable. Artists throughout history have portrayed Tamar as something of a seductress because she disguises herself in order to become pregnant by her father-in-law, Judah.
But that’s not the whole story, and tarrying for a few moments to give attention to the more complex elements of Tamar’s narrative may help us understand Matthew’s reason for including her as part of the list of Jesus’ ancestors.
Tamar is originally married to Judah’s eldest son, Er. But because of Er’s wickedness, the Lord puts him to death. Then Judah gives Tamar to his second son, Onan. This all seems rather odd and unfair to us, but it was a practice called “levirate marriage” meant to insure that when a man dies both he and his widow will not lose their inheritance, as the child of this union will be treated as the heir of the deceased brother. Onan, however, doesn’t want to have a child who will ultimately displace him as chief heir of Judah’s wealth, and so he refuses to cooperate. For this disobedience, he, too, is put to death. Judah has a third son, Shelah, but he is reluctant to give him in marriage to Tamar, fearing that he might also die (because he believes Tamar is cursed?), so he instructs Tamar to stay in his household as a widow on the pretense that Shelah is not yet old enough for marriage.
But over time – we don’t know how much – Judah never does give his son to Tamar, which means that she is increasingly at risk, as she has no claim to a future with this family. So after Judah’s wife dies and after the period of mourning is over, Tamar hears that Judah is traveling to another town called Timnah. She goes there first and disguises herself with a scarf hoping to find some way to secure her place in the family and thereby her future.
Judah presumes she is a local prostitute and goes into her, giving her his staff, family seal, and cord as a pledge that when he returns home he will bring to her a goat in payment for her services. (Yes, this really is all in the Bible; you can find it at Genesis 38.) But when he later returns to make payment, he cannot find her and, indeed, no one in the town knows about her.
Three months later, word reaches Judah that his daughter-in-law has been “playing the whore” (yes, that’s just the way it’s put in the Bible – Gen. 38:24) and is now pregnant. Judah proposes that she be burned to death. But she then produces the staff, seal, and cord, and Judah confesses both that the child she is carrying is his and that he has treated her unfairly by not giving her to his third son. Six months later, Tamar bears twins, Perez and Zerah, who become Judah’s heirs…and Jesus’ ancestors.
So back to our opening question: why does Matthew include this detail? If this were our family tree, we’d likely not just skip over the details for fear of embarrassing the family over such a story, but stop mentioning this particular great-great-great…grandmother at all given that there’s no particular need to. Yet Matthew does. Perhaps, Matthew wants to remind us, that no one is excluded from the reign and redemption of this child. Not even Judah. And so Tamar is there not because she engaged in outrageous behavior but because she was mistreated and her presence reminds us that not even a scoundrel like Judah is excluded from redemption.
Maybe. Or maybe Tamar is there on her own account, to pay homage to a woman who was mistreated but refused to be a victim; to recognize a woman who, when the odds were definitely not in her favor, was resourceful enough to find a way into this family; to remember one woman who represents so many people who are not blessed by the world but are blessed by the child who will grow up and call blessed all those the world names as cursed.
Maybe. And maybe Tamar is there because she deserves to be, because her story is part of Jesus’ story, and his story will also be simultaneously difficult and wonderful and will be large enough and grand enough to catch up all the other stories of the world into his. Judah’s story. Tamar’s story. And ours.
Prayer: Dear God, remind us again and always no one is beyond your recognition or care and that you sent your Son to name us – all of us! – your beloved children. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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