Mothers of Jesus: Tamar
For Meditation
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and we are starting a new sermon series based on the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew 1 called “The Mothers of Jesus.” Many people have noted the interesting fact that Matthew doesn’t stick to the traditional cultural norm of naming the male ancestors only. He also includes the names of five female ancestors of Jesus—four of his great, great grandmothers, and his mother, Mary.
Our friend Becca Payne wrote that “there’s perhaps no experience that is more embodied than motherhood. It is blood and sweat and tears. It’s emotional. It’s physical. It’s vulnerable. There is something about motherhood that presses our faces to the glass, forcing us to acknowledge our physical, embodied reality, and all of our waiting.” And the inclusion of these mothers in the genealogy of Jesus is a reminder that he took on all of the vulnerability of a fully-embodied, material and human reality. He came into the world through a birth canal. His mother taught him to eat and walk and held him when he cried. He had a family history. He had a mother and grandmothers and great-grandmothers who had their own stories, who had born the weight of the world in their own ways. What’s even more interesting is that Matthew didn’t include the commonly-revered female “matriarchs” of the Hebrew people, like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel. The women that he included each have quite messy stories, and their inclusion was sure to raise a few eyebrows.
We’ll start our series this week with Tamar, mother of the twins Perez and Zerah by Judah. Tamar was a racial outsider, a social outsider, and a moral outsider. She was so deep in the muck and the mire of humanity that she was driven to do something really unexpected and unconventional. But God chose her to play an important role in his story of redemption! We’ll see that this is a theme for each of these Mothers of Jesus: the inclusion of these women in the genealogy of Jesus is a powerful message that the Bible is a book about how God uses broken people—people up to their necks in the mire of their embodied humanity—to accomplish His purpose of restoration in this world in the most surprising ways.
In preparation for worship this week, consider some surprising ways that God has shown up in your life, or in the lives of your family members.
Parents of young children, please note that our text for the week, found in Genesis 38:11-19, 24-30 is rated PG-13. We encourage you to read the text ahead of time to determine if it is appropriate for your children.
Matthew 1:1–3a
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.
Genesis 38:11–19, 24–30
11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
12 After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.
“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.
18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”
“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.
24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”
Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” 29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.