Those are not the kind of people you’d want to be associated with. You may even try to hide them from your family’s history. So it’s a little surprising to open up to the early pages of the New Testament and discover that Jesus’ family tree is far from perfect. In fact, you may realize that God not only chose some sordid characters to be in the line of the Messiah, He deliberately showcases them.

Enter Judah

One of these characters is a man named Judah. If you look at his story in the Old Testament, you’ll quickly discover that his legacy is anything but stellar. He was a deceiver, a sellout, and an unfaithful husband and father. In fact, if you could choose anyone from the house of Jacob to bear the seed of the Messiah, it would be Judah’s brother Joseph, whose life bore the marks of faithfulness to God.

Yet God didn’t. He chose Judah. Why? Because Jesus didn’t come for the righteous; He came for sinners. Working through unsavory characters like Judah highlights the fact of God’s grace toward sinners—and that’s a message we all need to hear.

Bottom Line

A scarlet thread of grace runs through the people in Jesus’ family tree. That thread calls sinners into the loving embrace of His grace.