Even Family Relationships Can Be Restored

Families are a social structure that God has given us for love, growth and protection. Next to our relationship with Jesus Christ, the relationships with our family members are perhaps the most important ones we have.

 

We tend to be ourselves with our family. There is no need to put on the veneer of respectability that we might to other people. Our families know our strengths and our faults. Yet our families love us and we them.

 

But being ourselves means that we might bruise a relationship.

 

Perhaps you said something you later regretted.  Maybe you were a bit too nosy. You may have even eaten the last vanilla cream donut in the dozen.

 

Perhaps you angered somebody and there was an argument. With the help of God, you probably were able to patch things up.

But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes things are just too vicious to fix easily.

 

Today’s reading is Genesis 38:12-30. Judah had a messed up family. Two of his sons were put to death because they did not find favor in the eyes of the Lord. Judah had a widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar, whom he was to have his third son marry, as Mosaic Law dictated.

 

Judah discouraged – rather, he sabotaged – the marriage.

 

But it gets worse. Judah’s later actions had him directly violate another family provision in the Mosaic Law. Judah raised a sinful family, and Judah himself was guilty of severe sin. His family was really messed up.

 

In spite of our sins, Jesus has the power to restore us. Because of our faith in him, our sins, no matter how egregious, are forgiven. This is great news.

 

Jesus restores our relationship with God. But what about the family members we sinned against? He can’t restore our relationship with them, can he?

 

The story continues. Judah’s and Tamar’s child, Perez, is a direct ancestor of Jesus. That makes sinful Judah a direct ancestor of Jesus.

 

Jesus’ family tree not only consists of Judah, but it consists of other less-than-righteous people. In fact, Jesus’ ancestors, like us, are sinners. Jesus knows what it is like to have sinners in the family. He knows how to restore relationships.

 

With his help, even family relationships can be restored.