Judah, one of the brothers who sold Joseph off into Egypt, is right in the story behind Christmas. His life and his family are a mess filled with evil and deceit. What is Judah doing in this story? How do we make sense of this?
You probably wouldn’t pick a genealogy to start a story and grab people’s attention. Beyond that you would never choose to name the names included in Matthew’s Gospel. Why does Matthew include all of this baggage, all these odd or sketchy characters? Because Matthew understands that they are essential to us understanding who Jesus is and who He came to save.
