Finally. Advent is almost over. Almost done with the doom and the gloom. We light our fourth candle today, and the centre white candle is beckoning, waiting for us to once again greet our Saviour’s birth. Tomorrow night we will watch the two seasons collide as Advent draws to its close and Christmas begins. Tomorrow we will rejoice once again in the birth of Jesus our Saviour.
Today we have one last reflection on Advent. And we get to do this from Joseph’s angle. Joseph doesn’t get a lot of ink in the Scriptures. We hear about him here, in Luke 1 & 2, and then he pretty much disappears. There are a number of theories as to why this is. The most probable is that by the time Jesus was carrying out his public ministry, Joseph had already died. People didn’t live as long then as now; to make it to 70 was amazing and 80 rare. Joseph, given the custom of the times, would probably have been around 30 when he married. It is likely he passed away in his mid-50s like so many men of that day did.
What we do know of Joseph paints a picture of a man who was honest, hardworking, and who wanted to do the right thing. Hear again our Gospel for today:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25 ESV)
Joseph, like every pious Jewish man, believed in the sanctity of marriage and the importance of the marital commitment. He wanted to do rightly by his wife-to-be. She suddenly discovered she was pregnant. You and I know the content of the story, from Luke 1, how the angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced the good tidings to her, how Mary, receiving this word from the Lord, humbly received this responsibility which God had given her. Our Old Testament reading points toward these events, where Isaiah prophesies, both immediately that there would be a virgin then who would become a mother in the normal way and then all these things would happen, but also, as Matthew notes, the greater reality of the virgin conceiving without any father around to make it so–a true virgin conception. We know this.
Joseph didn’t. As our Gospel begins, all he knew was that Mary was very much with child. As a Jewish man, and one who wanted to do things the right way, it left him in a bit of a bind. The law of God, the law that Joseph, as a pious man wanted to keep, stated, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” (Leviticus 20:10). In Deuteronomy 22 it is further explained that the death should be by stoning. Like it or not, that was the law of God’s people at that time. Mary was engaged, betrothed to Joseph which made her, legally speaking, his wife, if not in full union yet. Now, Joseph hadn’t caught Mary in adultery, and he didn’t know who the father was, but having a child in the womb is pretty clear-cut evidence that something happened, usually about 10 times out of 10. In order for a child to be conceived, anyone who knows a little bit about the birds and the bees knows that certain other conditions usually have to have occurred.
But Joseph loved his wife-to-be, his betrothed. He didn’t want the scandal and the shame on him. He didn’t want death or expulsion for Mary. (The death penalty which was prescribed by the law was not as easy to carry out with the long arm of the Romans everywhere.) So he figured out an option C. Maybe he could have a quiet divorce proceeding and send Mary away somewhere until this all blew over. Joseph was going to do the wrong thing for all the right reasons, as one Bible scholar put it.
Then God steps in. One thing that we see a lot in the Gospels is this exact dimension. Then God steps in. I have noted before, and it always bears repeating, that the Bible is not intended to give us every precise detail of world history. Instead it is a retelling of the important moments of the family history of the people of God. Where it tells us history it is accurate and precise, but it doesn’t cover every detail of everything or everywhere. And one thing which the Bible especially focusses on is telling us where God steps in.
God stepped in to stop Joseph from carrying on with the divorce proceedings. He sends his angel, and, like his namesake, Joseph sees what he is to do in a vision. (You might remember that Joseph of the coat of many colours had visions of his family bowing down and serving him, and was particularly noted in Egypt for the ability God had given him of interpreting dreams.)
God reminds Joseph first of who he is. Again, thinking of the more familiar story of Luke’s gospel you might remember that Joseph has to go report to Bethlehem for the sake of the census. Bethlehem had pretty much only one major historical event until that point–that the greatest king Israel had ever had, David, the one to whom God had promised reign forever, came from Bethlehem. It was not a big town. Think the size of Plum Coulee and you’re about there. Everyone in Bethlehem was pretty much from David’s family in one way or another. And it just so happened that, as Matthew has meticulously detailed for us in his genealogy, Joseph was in a direct line of succession from King David. Sure, he was a carpenter working in the backwaters of Galilee, but he was still a descendant of the king.
Having reminded Joseph of who he was, God then encourages him to act in a kingly way and show mercy to Mary by taking her as his wife. He can do this in all honesty and integrity because this is not your typical pregnancy. The child which Mary bears is the Son of the Most High. The child which Mary bears was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This is no mere man in Mary’s womb, but God in flesh. And by Joseph taking Mary as his own, the baby would have the inherited right to be the new King of Israel, even if only covertly.
This is no mere baby’s birth we celebrate these coming weeks, until Epiphany, but the birth of the Son of God. Not that I mean to lessen the importance of any birth. My own daughter’s birth has been utterly transformative in my own life. But do we truly grasp how marvellous the birth of our Lord is? Do we too make the sacrifices and swallow our pride to care about Jesus, like Joseph did?
Consider His names: Jesus means He would be the new Joshua. The names Jesus and Joshua are identical in the Bible’s original languages. Like Joshua, He came to conquer the enemies of God’s people and lead them into the promised land. Unlike the Joshua of old, Jesus would not be fighting flesh-and-blood enemies but the powers of evil and darkness. Jesus was coming to triumph and give freedom to those who were captive to sin. Jesus was coming to be the great saviour of Israel–and not just of Israel, but all humankind. Jesus was coming for you and for me, to set us free.
For that is His other name, as we hear in Matthew’s Gospel for today. Emmanuel. Jesus is God with us. Not against us, not even just alongside us, but with us. In Jesus, God has come to be with His people, to suffer with and for them, to get dirty and fouled up in sin so that He could put an end to its crippling power once and for all.
And this requires a response of faith. Joseph responded to the good news he heard from God with faith. He took Mary, and, by the sounds of things, publicly accepted her as his wife. Typically, in such an instance with a betrothed couple, the wedding date would be bumped up in order that the parents were married before the child was born. Joseph accepted gladly the responsibility God had given him, of being the one to give proper kingly status to God’s Son, the one to be the earthly foster father of Heaven’s own child.
So it is for us. God comes to us through His Word, through the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation which He showers freely and lavishly upon us through them require a response in our lives. To receive God’s gifts and then to live as though you had never been at church is to make God out to be a liar and to bring God’s judgment upon yourself. What responsibilities has God given you in your life? Are you carrying them out faithfully and to the best of your abilities, or just trudging along grudgingly? It makes a difference.
For the greatest gift of all, salvation and eternal life, is come in Christ our Lord. Come and rejoice by receiving the body and blood of your Lord for the forgiveness and strength He gives! Come and rejoice with us tomorrow and Tuesday, come and sing again with us the news of our Saviour’s birth! Come and rejoice; then go and live your rejoicing by always being ready to give answer of the hope that you have in Christ Jesus. Unlike Joseph, who went forward only knowing what the angel of God had told him, we already have the full story. We already know what Jesus came to do. And we look forward to His coming again at the end of this world, as well as the celebration of His first arrival that Christmas.
Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.
Last updated December 2007 by the webmaster.