Last week I was sat with a friend at a church Christmas lunch and my friend passed comment that we never hear enough about Joseph. And that “Joseph was a good man”. And I agree, Joseph was a good man. In fact that is something of an understatement.
All we know about Joseph is contained in Matthew chapter 1:16 through to chapter 2:23 And in Luke 1: 26 – 2:52. And in Matthew 13:55 Jesus is referred to as “the carpenter’s son” and therefore we assume Joseph was a carpenter.
Traditionally, Joseph is portrayed as being older than Mary. Perhaps quite a bit older. Certainly there is a belief in the Orthodox Church that he was a widower and had children with his first wife who was called Salome. But the point is we simply do not know. We do not know how long Joseph lived in his role as Jesus’ earthly father – he is last mentioned in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus is 12 years old.
We simply don’t know enough about Joseph.
So to the story we know so well. Mary comes to Joseph and tells him she’s pregnant. It is something straight out of a soap opera today. But the story is more complicated than an EastEnders plot.
Joseph and Mary are engaged to be married. And at the time this was a binding arrangement between people. In essence it meant that they were considered to be husband and wife even though they weren’t married. Therefore, unfaithfulness when engaged was considered to be adultery. And under Jewish religious laws adultery meant divorce or death.
We’re told that Joseph is “a righteous man”. This means he was “right with God” he followed God’s wishes. As Joseph was Jewish he also would have followed the Jewish laws which meant he was righteous. And as I’ve said those laws dictated either death or public divorce as a punishment for adultery. Joseph was clearly in love with Mary and didn’t wish to see her die so he had it in his mind to quietly divorce her.
Up to now Joseph is acting righteously. He is doing what Jewish law, God’s law, says he must do. But actually he is doing more than that. He is acting in a way that shows he is concerned for Mary’s dignity and welfare. He is acting through love.
Another way of thinking of “righteous” is by thinking of righteous meaning “just” or “committed to justice.” And Joseph fits that description perfectly. He is following the law as set down in the Jewish scriptures but he is also following what we might think of as a Christian way of thinking – the way of love. And really by following the way of love, an attitude that Jesus would demonstrate in his later life, Joseph was prepared to bend, if not go against the Jewish laws in order to follow the way of love.
In many respects Joseph stands as a fairly minor figure in the Christmas story. And yet he demonstrates to us what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It means that we are to look to the Bible for guidance but equally we are to listen to what God is telling us to do now. These aren’t always one and the same, for I believe God is still speaking and he says things that aren’t in the Bible.
If Joseph had followed what the Jewish scriptures said then Mary would have been very publically divorced or killed. But instead Joseph listened to what God was saying to him. Firstly to treat her with love. And then of course take her as your wife. Forgive her and bring her child up as your own. Oh, and by the way call him Immanuel.
Joseph was being shown how Jesus would teach the world later. In the famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus adopted the same approach “You have heard it said that the law tells you to do this. But I tell you, you have to do more than that” For example:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5: 43 - 44
By choosing to live out the heart of the law – which is God’s love for all people – rather than the letter of the law, Joseph was already living out the values that Jesus would demonstrate. The values of God’s kingdom – love.
2,000 years later we as God’s people are still facing situations where we are pulled in different directions. Where the Bible seems to tell us one thing and yet where our hearts are telling us something else. For example over the issue of gay marriage. The Bible appears to have a set of teachings that set out that homosexuality is wrong. But then we hear Jesus telling us to love our neighbour. What is God saying now?
It seems to me that we all could do with the courage and wisdom of Joseph. The courage to obey God and to listen to what is God is saying to us. And the wisdom to discern God’s message of love. And the wisdom to realise life isn’t as simple as we may think. For God is a God of surprises. A God who uses ordinary people like a carpenter from Nazareth to do extraordinary things.
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