4. It was Christ's mission in the world to seek and save such kind of
genealogy are all noted in scripture for their immoral behavior, as in Matthew 1:3: Tamar, who committed adultery with Judah, her father-in-law, as recounted in Genesis 28; Rahab, mentioned in verse
5, who was a prostitute in Jericho; Ruth, also mentioned in verse 5, a Gentile and a Moabitess, whose genealogy traced back to Lot's son through incest with his own daughter; Bathsheba, mentioned in verse 6, who committed adultery with David. God chose these repentant sinners, from whom Christ was to come, so that the worst of sinners might not be afraid to come to Him.
But was David, whose son is called our Saviour, much better? It is true that he was a man after God's own heart, but he was also notorious for his acts of murder and adultery, with more aggravating circumstances than are usually found in such crimes. As recounted in 2 Samuel 11, Uriah, a godly man who had a sense of the condition of the church and nation, was the victim of David's sinful actions. David not only defiled the bed of a man who was a member of the same church and nation, but he also polluted his own soul with drunkenness and plotted Uriah's death in a sly and treacherous manner, drawing up secret instructions for Joab so that Uriah could be killed. He then made Uriah the carrier of the commission for his own death, all while treating him kindly in his palace. After all this,
David showed no remorse when he heard of Uriah's death, but instead shifted the blame to providence. The fact that Christ's lineage was tainted in this way is evidence that repentant sinners, no matter how polluted they were, were welcome to come to Christ. Just as God chose those from whose loins Christ was to come, He would also choose those in whose hearts He would reside.
4. It was Christ's mission in the world to seek and save such kind of people. The first thing he did, while in the manger, was to take some of the Magi, who were astrologers and idolaters, out of the devil's service and bring them into his own, as recorded in Matthew 2:1.
When he fled from Herod's cruelty, he chose Egypt, the most idolatrous country in the world, for his sanctuary, a place where the people worshiped oxen, crocodiles, cats, garlic, and all kinds of idols,
to show that he often comes to dwell in the darkest souls. The first people he took care to preach to were the sailors, who are usually the most uncivilized and immoral sort of people, as they pick up vices as well as commodities from the nations they trade with, as stated in Matthew 4:13. The inhabitants of those seacoasts are said to sit in darkness, in darkness of sin and ignorance, just as the Egyptians were not able to move around in that thick darkness sent as a plague upon them. And the country, because of the vices of its inhabitants, is called the region and shadow of death, a title that properly belongs to hell itself. The purpose of his coming was to call sinners to repentance. He usually delighted in choosing people who had no merit, such as Matthew, a tax collector, Zacchaeus, an extortionist, and many others like them.
He chose his followers from the devil's crowd, and he was more of a Savior among this sort of people than among all other types of people, for his entire purpose was to get clients out of hell itself. Who was that woman that he went out of his way to convert? She was a harlot, as noted in John 4:18, an idolater, as the Samaritans had a mixed religion, and, because of that, were despised by the Jews. She continued in her adultery at the very time Christ spoke to her, yet he made her a monument of his grace, and not only that, but the first preacher of the gospel to her neighbors, saying, "Is not this the Christ?" in verse 29, and an instrument to lead them to him, saying,
"Come, see a man which told me all things," etc. Was anyone more defiled than Mary Magdalene? Seven demons had possessed her, and Christ cast them all out of her. "Now, when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene," Mark
16:9, out of whom he cast seven demons. This lustful devil he turned into a weeping saint.
What was the Canaanite woman who had such a powerful faith given to her? She was from a cursed family, hated by God, driven out of the pleasant land, a dog, not a child; she came as a dog, but returned as a child. Christ made this crab in the wilderness bring forth fruit, even the best that heaven could offer, namely, the fruit of faith; and larger