Tamar

When we delve into the history of Jesus’s lineage, we quickly discover that Jesus’s family had a few skeletons in their closet – a few people whose lives and stories were more fit for an episode of “Desperate Housewives” or daytime television’s “Maury” than for sacred scripture. The story of Tamar – the first of four women included in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus – is a story that borders on R-rated, and yet explores the theme of God’s care for people in impossible situations.