A Christmas Scandal - Hope Lake Country Church

A Christmas Scandal Episode 3

December 10, 2023 • Jason Ewart

While everyone’s family has their share of issues, the family tree of Jesus is filled with some particularly shady characters. The first we come across is Judah. While Judah would eventually become a respected name in Jewish culture, his past contained a very dark secret. By contrast, his brother, Joseph, was a very good and vitreous man. Yet, despite Joseph’s “goodness,” God chose Judah—sin and all—to become the ancestor of Jesus. Why? Because in the story of Judah, we discover that God makes his grace available to people who have never even made themselves available to God.

A Christmas Scandal Episode 2

December 3, 2023 • Jason Ewart

While everyone’s family has their share of issues, the family tree of Jesus is filled with some particularly shady characters. The first we come across is Judah. While Judah would eventually become a respected name in Jewish culture, his past contained a very dark secret. By contrast, his brother, Joseph, was a very good and vitreous man. Yet, despite Joseph’s “goodness,” God chose Judah—sin and all—to become the ancestor of Jesus. Why? Because in the story of Judah, we discover that God makes his grace available to people who have never even made themselves available to God

A Christmas Scandal Episode 1

November 26, 2023

Luke begins his gospel with the famous story of Christmas. His story includes the angels, the shepherds, the wonder and awe of the well-known Christmas story. Matthew, by contrast, begins the Christmas story with…wait for it… a genealogy. What many of us pass over as dull and tedious was anything but dull when Matthew’s original audience read his story because they knew the backstories of all the people in Jesus’ family tree. In fact, Matthew seems to go out of his way to allude to the scandalous lives of the people who made up the family tree of Jesus. Matthew didn’t include them despite his gospel story. Matthew included them because they were the point of the gospel story.