Scripture
Readings
There was a woman who finally gave up on her husband
as a gift giver. Without fail, if he didn’t give her a household appliance, he
would give her a power tool, or at least something that had a motor in it.
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| November 2013: Around Washtucna & the Palouse |
I’m not much better than that, as a gift giver. My
problem, as a gift giver, is that I am always tempted to give the people I love
gifts that I think they really should like, if only they knew better. That
means that I give them books. I am tempted to give gifts to them that are
really for me, and not for them.
Joseph had a choice to make, as a gift giver. His
gift was himself. That was a “given”. The problem was for him to decide what
kind of man, what kind of person, he would be for Mary, and for God. Would he
be the gift Mary needed and God wanted, or would he insist on being the kind of
gift that came easiest to him.
Mary was pregnant, and Joseph had nothing to do with
it, and Joseph didn’t know what to think. It must be said that Joseph may have
hardly known Mary at all, even though they lived in the same small town. Except
for within the home and the extended family, boys and girls, men and women had
very little contact with each other. It was not allowed.
Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man.
Now, by “man”, Matthew means that Joseph was probably at least sixteen years
old.
There is an ancient tradition that Joseph was an old
man. That is why traditional Christian art and the Christmas carols show us an
old Joseph. I believe that the traditional thought was that, if Joseph was an
old man, and a widower with children from his first wife, he wouldn’t be so
tempted to be a complete husband to Mary in every possible way.
The Bible doesn’t tell us his age. The Bible doesn’t
tell us that there was anything out of the ordinary about their marriage, after
Jesus was born.
In that time and place, men were usually betrothed or
engaged between the ages of sixteen and twenty. Girls like Mary were sometimes
betrothed as early as the age of twelve; usually before they were sixteen.
A simple reading of Matthew would give us no reason
to suppose anything but what was normal for marriage in their time and place.
We would simply assume that both Joseph and Mary were young. We have no reason
not to assume that they what we would consider kids. And here they were, trying
to decide what kind of gift they were supposed to be to each other.
The other thing about Joseph being a righteous man
(or a righteous boy) is that (even in the Bible) being righteous has nothing to
do with being superior. It has nothing to do with thinking we are any better
than anyone else. Being righteous means doing the right thing, in the right
way, for the right reason.
It means, above all, obeying the commandments of God.
It means following God’s rules, not by calculation but as a matter of the
heart. Being righteous means living in a way that shows that you have the right
motives and that your heart is in the right place.
Since Mary was pregnant, and since pregnancy always
came about in a certain way, and since Joseph had nothing to do with this,
Joseph may have thought that the right thing to do was for him to very, very,
very quietly divorce Mary. But that would be a tricky thing to pull of without
endangering Mary, because there was one other option.
In their culture, engagement or betrothal could only
be ended by divorce or by death. Those were the only two right things to do.
Such a pregnancy could only reasonably happen because Joseph lost control or
because Mary as unfaithful. Both were bad, but there was nothing worse than
unfaithfulness. In the case of Joseph’s innocence, Mary could be brought for
judgment before the town elders and condemned to death by stoning.
There was something else involved in doing what was
right and Joseph may have thought of it. There was a line from the prophet
Isaiah, saying that the Messiah, when he arrived, would not break a bruised
reed or snuff out a smoldering wick.
Joseph knew that something deep in the heart was
important if one were to be truly righteous; truly right in the way you lived
in this world and related to the people around you. The words of Isaiah tell us
that there is a special kind of righteousness that is made of gentleness and
kindness. True righteousness needs to be strong, but strength can be gentle and
kind.
Gentleness and kindness are rare qualities, even in
the best of times. And so Joseph may have thought that the right thing to do
was to divorce Mary quietly, kindly and gently: and then, perhaps, send her off
to live with distant relatives who would not be so concerned with their own
honor (in this situation) that they would be a danger to Mary, for honor’s
sake. In this way (perhaps) she would not suffer so much for what she must have
done.
Would this choice make Joseph make the kind of
person, that Mary needed him to be, and that God expected him to be?
There was something even more serious than this. Mary
claimed that this child within her was more miraculous than any other baby in
the world. This baby was a miracle of the Holy Spirit: the work of God. This
baby was the very real presence of God, in this world of ours.
Even if Joseph believed this: who else would believe
it? People would believe the worst and act accordingly.
In the Old Testament, the Lord told the prophet
Isaiah this about what kind of Savior his people were to expect: “A bruised
reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In
faithfulness he will bring forth justice…” (Isaiah 42:3) This is what the
Messiah would be like. This would be the essential nature, the core
personality, of the king of the
There is a good reason why we can believe that this
was the kind of Messiah that Joseph hoped for. There is a reason why this may
have been the kind of kingdom
of God
She was in danger of being stoned to death for
something she had not done. If she was not killed, she would live a life of
shame. She might never marry, because no good man would marry her. She and her
child would always be followed by whispers, and gossip, and accusations, and
insults, and mistreatment.
Mary and her child were in danger of being bruised
reeds and smoldering wicks. In the village culture of Galilee
they would be outsiders and outcasts all their lives.
God sent a message to Joseph and told him not to be
afraid to join them in their fate. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to
take Mary home as your wife.” (Matthew 1:20)
If Joseph listened to God, he would be joining Mary
and the child in their shame. He would be claiming responsibility for this
child. He would be claiming this child as his own: and so Joseph would be
advertising his personal irresponsibility for the rest of his life. That is
what everyone would think, and they would treat him accordingly.
To be the man that Mary needed and God wanted, Joseph
would have to face his fear of dishonor and rejection by his community and his
family. Joseph was young, and everything in his world taught him to be afraid
to take Mary home as his wife, and to take her shame upon himself.
Joseph made the choice as if he were not afraid. This
is what true courage does. Courage chooses to take a frightening action as
though you are not afraid.
It was through courage that Joseph became a part of
Mary’s world, and a part Jesus’ world, and a part of our world. Without courage
the good news of Christmas would have been a different story. Joseph identified
himself with Mary’s shame, and bore it himself, for as long as he lived.
Joseph gave Jesus one of the greatest gifts that any
father can give his child. Think of what the boy Jesus saw in Joseph. Joseph
really lay down his life for Mary and Jesus.
Our reading in Matthew tells us two other things
about Jesus. One is that Jesus fulfills a prophecy about God working through a
child whose name or title is “Immanuel” (which means God with us). (Matthew
1:23) Jesus is “Immanuel”: God simply being with us: God simply being himself.
The other thing is that Jesus’ name had a special
meaning for him (even though it was a common name in his time and place). Jesus
is a Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “the Lord saves”.
Matthew puts it this way, “for he will save his people from their sins.”
(Matthew 1:21)
Joseph served his wife, served his son, served
others, and served God by being with them, with all his heart. His deepest gift
to them was his willingness to simply be there with them: just to be himself
and not go away. But first Joseph needed to receive God’s gift of courage.
This is what God has done for us in Jesus. Whether he
is in the manger, or in the carpenter shop, or on the cross, Jesus is “God with
us”. He gives himself for us and this is our salvation. He gives us all that he
is, just as he is, in himself.
And even though Mary had not sinned the way everyone
thought, Joseph quietly identified with her. Joseph did the work that a
radical, and outrageous, and almost unforgiveable forgiveness would require,
even though he knew that she had done nothing wrong.
In the manger, and in the carpenter shop, and on the
cross, God, in Christ, identifies with our sins, and bears them for us. In a
later story about the night before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed to his Father that he would not be required to drink from
the cup of the cross. He prayed to escape from the horrible thing that the
cross was. Then he prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:29-44)
Jesus agonized over the cross until he literally
sweated blood. God came down to our world, in Jesus, to make the gift of
courage a part of our salvation. The righteousness of Joseph, that does the
right thing, in the right way, from the heart, requires this courage. This is
our salvation.
Christmas is about the gospel. It is the good news
about the God who is always with us; who bears our sins in Jesus and does not
go away. Joseph is an invitation for us to bear the role of Jesus in this
world.
In Joseph, and in Jesus, we are called to see the
people and the situations that are the bruised reeds and the smoldering wicks
of this world. In Jesus, and in Joseph, we are called to be there, to simply be
present, and to do our humble quiet work for them, even when the world
misunderstands us. This will require a courage that only the presence of God
can give.
The Lord’s Supper is the Table of Jesus where he
feeds us with himself. His giving himself to us enables us to have the grace
and the courage to give ourselves to others (and to the world for his sake) so
that his will may be done.
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