Joseph / Based on Matthew 1:18-25 / Written for December 18, 2016

Joseph / Based on Matthew 1:18-25 / Written for December 18, 2016

Matthew 1:18-25

1:18 Now 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.

1:19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

1:20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

1:21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

1:22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

1:23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,

1:25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Here we are, just a week before Christmas.  Our scripture today gives us a view of the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s side.  We often think of Mary and how this event would have been experienced through her eyes, but Matthew gives us a chance to pause and examine the man who would adopt the Son of God and raise him as his own.

The three ideas I am pulling from this scripture passage are:

Trust during the unexpected

Choose love over law

Claim Jesus

Trust during the unexpected

1:18 Now 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.

I think we can agree that this was quite unexpected.  Joseph was set to marry this nice, righteous, young woman and then she turns up pregnant.  The human response could of easily been “why me?” which is more of a statement of “poor me” than it is a real question.  The verses do not show Joseph thinking in that way.  Instead it shows him taking steps to do the next best thing he can.

Joseph’s response to this unexpected event is to decide to do the most loving thing he can think of, but then God gives him another option.  His dream told him to risk trusting God was in this situation.  He had to trust Mary had not been unfaithful, and risk his own reputation in the community.  By taking her as his wife he would appear to be admitting he had sex before completing the wedding vows.  The words, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife” were appropriate given what he was facing.  It would have been scary.

Joseph’s final response was total trust.  1:24 “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife”.  He didn’t need a day to think about it.

Love over law

1:19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

Joseph was called “a righteous man” which means he knew the scripture.  To be engaged was equal to marriage except you didn’t live together yet.  That meant if Mary was pregnant by someone else she had committed adultery. 

Here’s the law per Deuteronomy 22:  If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.  If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.

Joseph was planning to claim that final scenario happened to Mary.  That was choosing love over law.  He took what little wiggle room he had to spared her life as well as her reputation.

I sometimes wonder if Joseph had a lot of influence over Jesus as he was growing up.  Jesus was in trouble often for choosing love over law.  It may have been first taught by seeing Joseph’s example.

Claiming Jesus

1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,

1:25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Matthew doesn’t give the birth of Jesus a lot of explanation.  The key words out of this verse is that Joseph named him.  That indicated Joseph claimed him as his own.  The beginning verses of Matthew contain the genealogy of Jesus.  It traces back from Abraham to Joseph.   Joseph accepting the role of Father is what this genealogy depended on.

The name Jesus is the Latin version of the Hebrew name Joshua which translates as “Jehovah saves”.  It was Joshua that led the Israelites into the promised land.  Jesus would carry on that responsibility as savior and lead us into the promise of life with God.

What can we learn from the example of Joseph?

We can work toward trust in the face of unexpected circumstances.   This isn’t easy.  When I first started studying scripture my pastor taught that “why” wasn’t a meaningful question to ask.  “Why” was most often associated with whining.  Why did this happen to me?  Or questioning the authority of the person causing the situation.  “Why did you do this?  A better question is “What do I do now?”

There are times when it is good to look at a negative situation and determine the cause and attempt to modify the circumstance.  However, there are many times we are given a path where trust in an unknown master plan is our better option.

I have a motto for my tougher days that is “do the next right thing.”  We don’t know where our path will lead far into the future, so taking the next right step is sometimes as far as we can go.  We can trust the wisdom of Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” and work toward discerning that next right thing.

We can follow Joseph’s lead, as well as the teachings of Jesus, and choose Love over Law.  You may say, “We don’t have religious laws like that in our post-resurrection time.”  Let me use another quote to give you a little different perspective.  Anne Lamott said, “It's better to be kind than to be right.”  I knew a person that held up a line in a fast food restaurant and made an employee feel like a failure because she shorted him 25 cents when she gave him his change.  This was a person that was on the upper end of the income bracket, but he was “right” about the amount of change he deserved even though the emotional cost to the cashier was far more negative than him missing a quarter.  William James put it this way, “the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”

There are times when a situation needs to be set right.  There are other times when the emotional cost to the people involved is more important than correcting a misstep.  In that case it is far wiser and kinder to lead with love and forgiveness and let the misstep be overlooked.  Your life and the lives of those around you can experience more peace if you don’t feel the need to correct every wrong.  To be righteous and know right from wrong is a good thing, but if that slides into being self-righteous, which is believing you are morally superior, it is a negative one.

Next week is Christmas.  I am asking you to claim that baby in the manager as your own just as Joseph did.  We are to name him Jesus / “Jehovah saves” and Emmanuel / “God with us” and know that we are the “us”.   Soon in this service we will say in the Apostle’s Creed that we believe in Jesus “who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.”  To believe means we accept it is true.  Joseph believed that what the dream explained was true.  He took it one step past belief and acted in faith by claiming Jesus as his own.  Faith can be defined as “complete trust or confidence.”  It is the difference between calling Jesus a savior and claiming him as my savior.  Claim him as your own this Christmas.

I wish you all a blessed Christmas season!

Amen

A poem/dialog to offer reflection on the impact a carpenter could of had on his son Jesus.

Lessons from the Workbench

(Conversation between an angel and Joseph after Jesus birth)

98/12/16 – djs

What guidance can I give the Son of God?

I am a simple man with a simple trade

There is little I can do to prepare him for his life

Joseph, why do you doubt the Master’s choice?

You were chosen you know

I’m tired – it’s time for a break

A man can’t put in quality work if he doesn’t take time to rejuvenate

Mistakes can be made if you don’t step back from your work now and then

The importance of rest

A good lesson to pass on to your son

You’ve separated some wood pieces apart from the others

This pile is wood I can’t use – it’s too weak

It looks fine on the top but see how the inside has been rotting away

Could of fooled some, but you can’t judge wood by its outsides only

The importance of examining what’s inside

A good lesson to pass on to your son

And these planks here – why are they set apart?

They may not look like much because they appear a little rough and dark

Their beauty will be brought out after some sanding and a little stain

Yes the grain is beautiful on those pieces if you take the time to look and work with them

The importance of recognizing potential

A good lesson to pass on to your son

Are these little pieces ones you’re discarding?

Goodness no – those will be used for backing and shims

It takes a lot of little pieces to create a large project

A house can’t be built with just a brass knocker you know

The importance of respecting the part each one contributes

A good lesson to pass on to your son

I think I understand what you’re getting at

I can share with him the simple things of my trade

Like how important it is to have a solid foundation before building higher

Yes Joseph

            Sometimes the simplest lessons are the best