He
has no recorded words in the Bible. He
is not thought of as Jesus’ real father.
He is completely off the scene by the time Jesus’ ministry begins. He is not mentioned by later New Testament
writers, either in the book of Acts, in Paul’s writings, or in the other
epistles. Joseph is a silent
witness. And yet, this silent witness is
a portrait of faithful, God-honoring living in the most trying of times. His shadow falls over the story of Jesus’
birth and we can learn a lot about what it means to be a God-follower from Joseph,
the adoptive father of Jesus.
When I have taught the Bible to
teens and elementary-aged kids, experiences where I had a limited amount of
time, I zeroed in on two words – actions and attitudes. I figured that if I could get students to
focus on what they did and how they carried themselves as they did it, then
they could consciously strive to live as Jesus lived. Actions and attitudes: you don’t need to
memorize passages of scripture or recite creedal formulas. You don’t need to speak in public or to
persuade people with your erudite arguments.
You simply do things that help and encourage others – actions; and, you
do what you do in a way that shows love and conveys compassion – attitudes.
Though silent, Joseph, through his
actions and his attitude, says a lot.
What jumps out from Matthew’s
storytelling? “The birth of Jesus the
Messiah took place in this way. When his
mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph but before they lived together, she was
found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (1:18). What stands out as Matthew weaves this
tale?
He assumes the listener already
knows the story. He’s not so much
telling us something we haven’t heard before as he is giving his own
commentary, his own slant on it. I say
this because he lays out something remarkable in a concise, unassuming
way. She was pregnant from the Holy Spirit? That doesn’t happen every day. Yet in Matthew’s prose, it sounds
unremarkable. It is as if this miracle
pregnancy is but a prelude to something more significant that Matthew wants us
to know.
Premarital pregnancy was an absolute
scandal in which no one would believe the excuse, “Well, God did it!” Yeah
right, Mary! Please! God did
it? Try another one! The law for the
Jews was clear. Deuteronomy 22:23: “If a
man is caught lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the
man who lay with the woman as well as the woman.” As Joseph’s betrothed, Mary was seen as his
wife in the eyes of the community. Even
though their relationship had not been consummated, they were viewed as
married. The law of Deuteronomy 22
applied and was final.
Why such an extreme penalty? The end of Deuteronomy 22:23 – the last
phrase of the verse – gives the reason.
Both man and woman shall die; “thus you shall purge evil from
Israel.” We minimize sexual trysts. She was
just having fun. Or, we romanticize
them. She was forced into a marriage she didn’t want. When she cheated on her husband, she was with
the man she truly loved. Either way,
the unplanned pregnancy is easily ended with a quick trip to the abortion
clinic. In our cultural ethos, to make a
fuss about adultery and abortion is silly and those who do are prudes, too old
fashioned to keep up with the ways things are today.
This casual dismissal of fidelity
and of life is a sign on our culture’s sexual deviance. Abortion was not an option or even a
consideration in the first century. And
adultery and sexual misconduct wasn’t an offense or a violation. It was much worse. It was considered evil and was to be purged
from the community of God’s people.
Matthew writes with this
understanding in mind, an understanding his readers would immediately
grasp. Before she was married, Mary was
already pregnant. That’s a big deal, a
matter of life or death not just for her but for the entire community. Yet Matthew passes over it so quickly, it is
clear he find something else in the story even more significant. That more
significant truth comes in the very next verse.
“Her husband Joseph, being a
righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to
dismiss her quietly” (1:19). Because his
words weren’t recorded, we don’t know what kind of cursing, ranting, and
railing Joseph. His wife-to-be had
cheated on him, or so he thought. He
surely wronged. Maybe heartbroken
too? He could have had her stoned and
gotten universal agreement in the community.
She would be set apart. Every
adult person in the village would surround her.
And they’d fire stones at her until she was dead. Joseph could have done that.
But, Matthew tells us he was a
‘righteous man.’ What sign indicated his
moral fiber? It was his willingness to discount the law in Deuteronomy and
instead put her away quietly. Even though
Joseph never heard Jesus preach a sermon, he realized that love was behind the
law of God and there were cases where loving dictated not heeding the letter of
the law. How do we know Joseph was
righteous? We know because he was
willing to protect Mary from what he believed were the consequences of her
actions.
He had nothing to gain. In a culture stooped in poverty, a man’s
riches came in the number of children he sired.
Now here was Joseph planning to gently break things off with the woman
he believed had forsaken him for someone else.
We should point out, Mary was not unfaithful. But from where Joseph stood, that’s what it
looked like. With nothing to gain, he
let compassion for her be what drove his actions. His attitude was one of love.
It was to this man – a man hurt, but
resolved to care for Mary – to this man the angel appeared. Joseph already lived his faith when the angel
laid out the entire plan. Mary was
pregnant by the Holy Spirit and the child, a son, was to be name “Jesus,” which
means ‘salvation.’ His birth fulfilled
the words of the prophet Isaiah. His
coming fit within the story of God’s salvation of the world through the people
of Israel.
After’s Joseph’s big moment – what
to do when I find out my fiancé is pregnant – things moved very quickly through
the narrative. After compassion drove
this man to care for Mary, he had so many dreams we wouldn’t blame him if he
was afraid to go to sleep at night.
First, once settled in Bethlehem, he and Mary had visitors – strange,
wealthy astronomers who believed the birth was foretold in the stars. These exotic men gave gifts which instantly
made Mary and Joseph rich.
However, before he could even design
the deluxe carpenter shot he dreamed about, he was warned in a dream that Herod
was going to kill every child in Bethlehem.
So, Joseph took Mary and baby Jesus and their newly acquired wealth to
the land of Israel’s ancient enemies – Egypt. We don’t know how long they were
there. More importantly, upon arrival,
Joseph didn’t know how long he would be there.
But, one night, the angel appeared in his dreams once again to tell him
to go home. Joseph, as he had every
other time, obeyed. However, fear drove
him to settle in Nazareth instead of Bethlehem.
Herod was dead, yes, but his insane son Archelaus was on the throne and
he was just as dangerous.
Then we flip to Matthew chapter 3,
27 years have passed, and Joseph is never mentioned again. I suppose that if we had his words, we’d see
how much is like any of us – a flawed human being who cursed a blue streak when
he hammered his thumb instead of the nail, drowned in his own doubt of the word
of God, and yelled in impatience at preteen Jesus. Imagine the way you sometimes blunder. Joseph surely made some of the same mistakes. That’s why I find it so encouraging to focus
on his attitudes and his actions.
You and I can put love and
compassion as a top priority the way Joseph did. You and I let our hearts be governed by love
and mercy and that love and mercy can embolden us to follow God’s lead even
when doing so seems insane. Joseph had
never heard the gospel from Jesus, yet he understood it because he was intent
on being true to God. Whatever limits we
have in our knowledge, we can set ourselves to obey the Lord, have attitudes of
love, and those attitudes can drive us to be witnesses testifying to God’s
goodness as we live our daily lives.
Joseph didn’t know he was going to
be the adoptive father of the son of God who would grow up to be the Savior of
the world. He didn’t know he was going
to meet Magi from Persia, the wise men, and be hunted by a crazed, murderous
king. He thought he was a simple
carpenter from an insignificant village marrying a simple girl from the same
village.
We don’t know what will come about
in our lives in the next few hours or in the week to come. It might be a Christmas week like many
Christmas’s of the past. Or something
completely unexpected may pop up – something that changes us. Either way, we go forth with an attitude of
love and committed to actions that point the world to Jesus. As with Joseph, in our lives, God takes it
from there.
AMEN
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