Joseph & Jesus
Readings: Matthew 1. 18-25
We’re a few days from Christmas, and normally, as I mentioned at the start of the service, we focus on Mary today, but this year, as we are following Matthew’s Gospel, we focus instead on Joseph.
In many ways Joseph is often overlooked at Christmas and actually the rest of the year for that matter. He appears here, and we catch a few brief glimpses elsewhere as Jesus grows up, but by the time Jesus begins his ministry Joseph is nowhere to be seen, he seems to have died. But the glimpses we see of him enable us to see why he too is chosen to raise Jesus, to become Jesus’ adoptive Father. For here we have a man who is devout and righteous, but also merciful. Which we see most clearly when we hear how he responds to the news that Mary is pregnant.
Now being engaged in this culture was rather different from our own day. Whilst it still marked an intermediate stage between singleness and marriage it was taken much more seriously. There were important ceremonies that were carried out to mark the betrothal, and, whilst husband and wife did not yet live together, and therefore did not sleep together, until around a year later when they married, it was treated as binding as marriage. So if you wanted to break off the engagement you had to actually get divorced. And so sleeping with someone else was treated in the same way as if they were married, it was adultery.
And so when Joseph hears Mary is pregnant he is faced with some choices. If s\an affair has taken place there are a number of options under the law. Either the two of them, both she and the man, are to be put to death or the man is to be put to death, or he has to divorce her. It all sounds rather harsh and a bit extreme to our modern ears but it was much more normal in that culture, a reminder of how seriously they treated marriage and sex. So Joseph would have been perfectly within his rights to make a scene. And even if he chose to just divorce her you’d probably make a bit of a fuss about it, divorcing her publicly as a warning to others.
But whilst Joseph does what the law requires, he is righteous, he also chooses mercy, choosing to divorce her quietly for her perceived unfaithfulness. He’s clearly thought hard about this, he’s not rushing to decisions in the heat of the moment. I wonder how you’d feel in his position? Hearing the person you are marrying has had an affair, or at least that’s what you’re told. Whilst he would have been perhaps upset or angry or heartbroken, he thinks first of Mary, and chooses mercy over the full measure of judgement. His actions are marked by compassion and care.
And here in this choice we see the pattern that will mark Jesus’ ministry, mercy before judgement. Righteousness but overflowing with grace. Compassion for sinners, longing to draw them back. Jesus is in good hands with Joseph and Mary.
And we hear don’t we how once Joseph had made up his mind an angel of the Lord appears and puts a halt to his plans. All is well, the angel says, what is conceived is from the Holy Spirit. Mary has been faithful Joseph, do not fear, she has not been sleeping with anyone else. It’s a wonderful bit of news, but also one that requires a choice. In obeying God and taking Mary as his wife we again we see Joseph’s character. In his obedience to God he will have to have courage, boldness even, because he will have to stand up against his entire community to do this, they will expect judgement for her perceived unfaithfulness, he will not allow that to happen.
But the angel also gives him another instruction, he is also to take this child as his own. In the action of naming him he becomes Joseph’s child, grafted fully into Joseph’s line with all that that entails. And so this is what Joseph does at the end of our passage, Mary gives birth and it is Joseph who names him, gives him the name he has been told Jesus.
And if you open your Bible’s to the beginning over Matthew, you’ll spot that the hiccup at the end of Matthew’s genealogy is resolved at the end of the chapter. Have you ever noticed? As his Gospel begins Matthew gives us the family tree of Jesus, tracing his line from Abraham through King David, all the way down to Joseph. And it runs really neatly; Solomon the faither of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, etc. There’s few extra bits of detail thrown in from time to time, but broadly speaking that’s how the genealogy runs.
That is, until we reach the end, ‘and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah’. It all kind of breaks down a bit, the line doesn’t quite work. Until we reach the end of the chapter where Joseph takes Jesus as his own, adopts him as his own child, and in naming him grafts him into David’s line. Now Jesus fully is the descendant of David.
And just as Jesus has been adopted into our human family, adopted into David’s line, the King of Israel, so he has come so that we can be adopted into God’s family, adopted children of the King of the Universe. Because that’s what his names point us to this morning.
Whilst Matthew seems to just be relaying events, he’s layered up so much history and theology that this passage is rich with meaning. Did you spot that within 7 verses we had 3 different names for Jesus? Messiah, Jesus and Emmanuel.
The Messiah, or in Greek the Christ, literally means the anointed one. Here in Jesus is the long promised Saviour, anointed by God to restore and redeem his people. And having been given this title, Matthew then gives us his names, the names that unfold the mystery of that title. He does not want us to misunderstand as so many did during Jesus’ ministry, assuming he was an earthly king, come to win a human victory and save the people from the Romans.
So when the angel tells Joseph to give the child the name Jesus the angel gives the explanation of why. Jesus means ‘the Lord saves’ but saves from what? Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua, and we know about Joshua in the Old Testament. He led God’s people into the promised land after Moses had died, leading them to victory over the nations that dwelt there as a judgement for their sin and evil.
Jesus is the new Joshua. But Jesus isn’t here to win that sort of victory, he’s not that sort of saviour. This child has come not to save from human powers, but from sin itself. Come not to win an outward victory that restores his people to a physical state or place, but rather to win a much deeper victory to restore and redeem their very souls, to cleanse them from all their sin. And when I say they, I of course include us in that, because as Jesus’ ministry unfolds it becomes clear that Jesus is here for the whole world.
Jesus is the new Joshua, leading his people through the wilderness of this world and to the promised land, a land of abundance, a land where all is as it should be, the new creation. The new Joshua who defeats the forces of sin and evil forever, setting his people free.
And then the final name he is given, one we sing often at this time of year; Emmanuel. God with us. Matthew doesn’t seem too worried that the names in the prophecy and the name given by the angel don’t match. They both provide the same emphasis that this is the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour. Here in this child is God come to be with us. Here Matthew tells us in implicit terms what John at the beginning of his Gospel makes explicit ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’. But Emmanuel is probably a better name to focus on later this week at Christmas itself.
For now, as we leave Joseph there with the infant Jesus and his new bride, we see a man who is marked by faithfulness and mercy, righteousness and compassion. And as we see his character, we catch a glimpse of all that Jesus will grow up to be and more. For in Jesus God has come to us as Saviour and King, come to win us the victory so that we can become children of God.
Amen.