Jesus may have been immaculately conceived. However, as the gospels make clear, much of his origins is as jolting as any contemporary church scandal. For example, in giving us the origins of Jesus, the gospels point to as many sinners, liars, and schemers in his genetic and historical lineage as they do to saints, honest people, and men and women of faith. Beyond these less-than-saintly characters in Jesus’ lineage, we see that some of the institutions that shaped the Jewish faith were also less than saintly. Institutionalized religion back then suffered from many of the same problems it has today, including the corrupt use of power. Indeed, Israel itself (perhaps justifying the deed by referring to what Jacob had done to Esau) seized the land of Canaan from those who had a prior claim to it, claiming ownership by divine privilege. We see, too, that the lineage that gave us Jesus built itself up not just on the great and the talented but equally on the poor and insignificant. In the list of names that make up the ancestors of Jesus, we see some that are famous but also others who cannot claim specialness or significance. Jesus’ human blood, scripture tells us, was produced equally by the great and the small, the talented and the talentless. Renowned biblical scholar Fr. Raymond Brown tells us that God writes straight with crooked lines, that we shouldn’t accept an overly idealized Christ, and that our own lives, even if they are marked by weakness and insignificance, are important too in continuing the story of the incarnation. The God who wrote the beginnings with crooked lines also writes the sequence with crooked lines; some of those lines are our own lives and witness. A God who did not hesitate to use the scheming as well as the noble, the impure, and the pure men to whom the world harkened and women upon whom the world frowned – this God continues to work through the same mélange. If it is a challenge to recognize in the last part of Matthew’s genealogy that totally unknown people were part of the story of Jesus Christ, it may be a greater challenge to recognize that the unknown characters of today are an essential part of the sequence. Christianity isn’t just for the pure, the talented, the good, the humble, and the honest. The story of Jesus Christ was also written and keeps being written by the impure, by sinners, by calculating schemers, by the proud, by the dishonest, and by those without worldly talents. Nobody is so bad, so insignificant, so devoid of talent, or so outside the circle of faith that he or she is outside the story of Christ.