Think of your favorite family story. The ones you love to tell. They brag about your family, show how awesome, smart or funny they are. You might have super awesome sentimental stories to share or some wild story about forgotten and found love.

Then you have the other stories.

The ones you don't talk about. When you heard about them, your parents told you to not talk about it. Sometimes, we were there for the story and the reason we don't talk about it is even more intense for us. We might want to talk about it, or we are terrified it will come to light.

In Matthew, we find out about 4 such stories in the family line of Jesus. You can read the whole chapter, but these couple of verses form the backbone of our conversation in worship this week.

This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar). Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab).

We are going to talk about the story of Tamar and the story of Rahab. And both of them are the ones families don't talk about. You can read more about Tamar in Genesis 38 and Rahab in Joshua 2. In both of these stories, we meet a woman who has been cast aside, judged and forsaken.

But the good news is this; at every twist and turn, Jesus goes to the side of the broken, abused, and neglected.

We will look at what happens when people are sinned against, and when people are trapped in sinful situations. But throughout the family line of Jesus, in spite of (and even through) these stories, we don't talk about…we find a larger story of love, value, justice, and redemption. And scripture doesn't hide this stories. It brings them out in front and redeems them.