If you and I have a problem
with all the details about the Christmas story, think about
Joseph. Joseph was a good and a kind man. Tradition says he was
an old man, much older than Mary, reflecting some of the customs of
that era; we simply do not know for sure. We do know he was gentle and
kind. Whatever he
believed about his young wife, he was unwilling to shame her. Verses 18
&19 of the first chapter of Matthew say, “Now the birth of Jesus 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 by the Holy Spirit; and
her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame
resolved to divorce her quietly.”
Now think about that for a moment. You have been engaged for a while
and are about to get married. You have been very traditional, and have
refrained from intimacy, when out of the blue your betrothed says to
you, “Dear, I have to tell you that I am pregnant, but don’t worry, it
is by the Holy Spirit.” How patient and kind would you be with an
announcement like that.
Or how about your daughter? Mom, I am pregnant, but don’t fret, it is
the work of the Holy Spirit. That is the news that Joseph heard
and he had to deal with it.
What do we make of all this.
First, let us consider the normal Jewish procedure for marriage, which
was a three-step process. Dr. William Barclay, the great Scottish
theologian, states first there was the engagement. Frequently, couples
were engaged without even knowing each other. They were matched,
usually as young people by their parents or a professional matchmaker.
Such a procedure is still prevalent in many cultures, because the
feeling was that marriage was much too important to be left to the
feelings of the heart.
Chris and I have dear friends in India. I first knew Kenaz when he was
a student in Seminary in the United States. He told me when he returned
to India he would be marrying Kamzal, the daughter of Rev Mr. Bensam,
whom he had never dated, because it had been arranged by his Mother and
Kanzah’s parents. When I said, that seems like a strange arrangement,
he replied, if that was your task, wouldn’t you try to choose the right
candidate for your daughters whom you know best and love most? It’s
worth some thought. Certainly, Kanez and Kamzal are a great couple.
In any case, first there was the
engagement. That was followed by the betrothal. When a betrothal or
verification of the engagement was possible, the arrangement made by
the parents or a matchmaker could be nullified if the girl was
unwilling to go further in the relationship. If a betrothal was entered
into, it was absolutely binding and it lasted for one year. During that year, the couple was
known as husband and wife, though they did not have the rights of man
and wife. If the relationship was ended, it could only be done by means
of a divorce. In Jewish law there is a phrase, “a virgin who is a
widow,” that’s how it was possible. So, if Joseph wished to end
the relationship, he could do so, but only by means of
divorce. That’s
the relationship in which Joseph found himself with Mary.
As I hope you will recall from last week, we talked about the different
emphases of the gospel writers. Mary was the emphasis of Luke. It was
she who received the annunciation and had it verified by Elisabeth, the
mother of John the Baptist. Hearing that, Mary sings the words we have
come to call the magnificat.
Matthew, where we are today, has a totally different reason and
emphasis to write about. As the writer trying to convince Israelites
that Jesus is the Messiah, Matthew needs to validate the man, since
genealogy in that tradition comes only through the male. There is no annunciation to Mary in
the book of Matthew, no visiting with Elisabeth and no Magnificat.
Instead, Matthew has the Angel coming to Joseph and saying to Joseph in
a dream, Joseph, son of David. There is the link to the great Jewish
hero; it sidesteps Joseph’s father Matthis. "Do not be afraid to take
Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived within her is the Holy
Spirit."
Do you catch just a bit of the gravity of the decision that Joseph was
going to have to make? Here is Joseph, lying in bed, snoring quietly
after falling to sleep because he couldn’t get what he heard out of
head. Whatever transpired, the miracle of the event is that Joseph took
Mary home with him as his wife, and nothing was ever the same. Somehow,
Joseph’s righteousness gets all mixed up with God’s. When he awoke, he did as the Angel
suggested. He took Mary home and married her, and the story
continues. If he had chosen otherwise, the story, at least as we know
it, would never have happened. Matthew has the Angel making an
annunciation to Joseph that Jesus will be born and Jesus is Greek for
the Hebrew name Joshua, which means ‘Jehovah is salvation,’ and the
prophets said it was Emanuel, ‘God with us’.
For Matthew, then whole thing depends
on Joseph. If Joseph believes the Angel, the whole thing is on. If he
does not, then everything grinds to a halt. If he goes to the
courthouse and files for divorce, then Mary is an outcast forever in
that society- a disgrace to her family, disowned and left to scratch
out the barest of livings trying to feed her illegitimate child. According to Matthew, Joseph is the
key player in the whole drama. Often we miss that part of the story.
The quiet old man with the bent back and the weary look is the one to
watch. He is the one who is most like us, presented each day with
circumstances beyond our control, with lives we would never have chosen
for ourselves, reeling out of control at times and tempted to divorce
ourselves from the whole mess until….until an Angel whispers in our
ear, and says ‘fear not,’ God is here. The life you have may not be the
life that you planned, but God can be born here, right in the middle of
the tasks you must do- if you will permit it.
Joseph’s story tells us that the “if”
is the real issue. God’s yes, the "Aha" in your life, requires human
parents- a Joseph, a Mary, a You, a me! We are the ones who have
to claim the scandal, adopt it and believe it. God is born again right
here, in the sticky messes in which we live. Like Joseph, we have to
adopt it, accept it, and rock it in our arms, in the words of Barbara
Brown Taylor. But it is
not enough that just you and I do this, the whole Church must do this.
We are to survey a whole world that seems to have run amuck, a world
that causes us to pause in the evening news and wonder if it’s all
worth while. We, the Church are to embrace that world and all of the
disappointing and exciting people who are part of it, and say over and
over again to anyone who will hear that God is still with us, still
being born in the mess and amongst those who still believe what Angels
tell them in their dreams. It is believers who legitimize the mess, and
in the mess, the Messiah comes.
This Christmas, remember the whole
story. “When Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the Angel of the
Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but knew her not until she
had born a son; and he named him, Jesus."