Good morning! My name is Joseph. I was the husband of Mary and the earthly father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not surprising that my story was left until the last Sunday before Christmas. Scholars know more about many other characters in the Bible than about me. There are even people, like Herod the Great, who plays a part in my story, about whom we know a great deal more because they are historical figures. There are only a few references to me in the Bible. In my opinion, that is as it should be, for I am one of those people who are satisfied to work behind the scenes.

I was a carpenter (Matthew 13:33; Mark 6:3). [i] The first chapter of Matthew is written to show that Jesus was descended from Abraham, and thus a true Jew, and from David, our greatest king. I am the last person mentioned in that genealogy. It is from my line that Jesus was legally qualified to be the Messiah. [ii]

David lived 1000 years before my time. He had thousands of descendants, many of them more prominent than me. The fact that I lived in Nazareth in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, the center of Jewish culture, indicates that I was of an obscure branch of David’s the line. So many years had passed, and there were so many descendants of David, that, although my family was proud of its history, no one expected anything special to come from me or almost any other member of my family. We were a bit like Americans who can trace their family history to someone like Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. It was a matter of family pride, but most family members did not behave anything like David, just like most people descendent of your great families don’t necessarily continue on their values, their character, or their strengths.

The Situation.

Here is the way my story is told by the apostle Matthew:

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife (Matthew 1:18-24).

Prayer: Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, please come today that we might learn from the example of Joseph to be better disciples of you today and every day of our lives. In the Name of the Word Made Flesh we pray, Amen.

A Kind Reaction

In order to understand my story you need to know something about my world. In your day, couples marry for love. In my time, marriages were arranged. Generally speaking, the parents of a young man approached the parents of young woman and contracted for a marriage. If a man were older, and perhaps married before, he might contract for a bride himself. A contract was reached specifying a dowry price to be paid to the woman’s parents, among other matters. Sometimes, it took as long as seven years for a husband to earn enough money to pay the dowry and marry his wife. As many of you may remember, in the Old Testament, Jacob worked seven years to marry Rachel (Gen. 29:20)!

Most young people had marriages contracted long before they actually married. Men in my culture waited to marry until they could pay the dowry and support a wife. Most women in my time were contracted to be married about the time they were able to have children. In other words, they were quite young—in their teens. Once a marriage was contracted, the couple was “Betrothed.” [iii] This could last a long time.

I was, therefore, considerably older than Mary. [iv] Before we could be married I had to save enough money to have the right to marry her. Now here’s a funny fact about our system: once a marriage contract was signed, the couple was actually legally married. If a couple were to begin living together during this period, the husband had no right of divorce. However, if a husband found a character defect in his wife during the period of betrothal, he could divorce her (Exodus 22:13-19).

This is the exact situation I faced. During our time of betrothal, Mary came and told me she was pregnant. She explained that she had been faithful to me; however, an angel had appeared to her and explained that she was to have a child by the power of the Holy Spirit who would be the Messiah of Israel (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35). What the angels said, had come true!

Being a practical man, I didn’t believe a word she said. As a devout Jew, what my people called “a righteous man,” I knew my rights under the Law of Moses. I had the right to divorce Mary. Nevertheless, I loved Mary and did not want to publicly humiliate her. I wanted a divorce, but I did not want to hurt Mary (Matt. 1:19).

Supernatural Intervention.

I have always thought of myself as a kind man and a careful thinker. I don’t make decisions easily. Most of the time, I pray long and hard before doing anything that I think might hurt another person. Day after day, night after night, over and over again, I went over in my mind my options until I finally decided that I would “put her away privately” (v. 19). That is a fancy way of saying that I decided to divorce her without publically disclosing her infidelity. I didn’t want to be married to Mary; but I didn’t want to hurt her.

One night, as on so many nights, I fell asleep pondering the problem. That night I had a dream in which an angel of the Lord appeared and told me that I should not be afraid to take Mary as my wife because her story was true. The angel told me that Mary was carrying a child by the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 20). I was to name the child “Jesus,” which, as you learned last week, is the Greek term for “Joshua” which means “God our Savior” (v. 21-22). In addition, the angel told me that this was happening to fulfill a prophecy, and that my son was to be known as “Immanuel,” which in my language means “God with Us” (v. 22-23). In other words the angel told me almost exactly what the angel told Mary: our son was to be the Savior of Israel and God present in our history—the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

Mary had spoken the truth: Our child was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I did not divorce her. Instead, I brought Mary home as my wife (v 24-25). As I look back upon my life, I realize that from my very birth God had been acting to do something special. Mary was the virgin who would conceive and bear a deliverer for my people (Isaiah 7:14). Jesus, my son, was to be the fulfillment of all the prophecies and promises of a coming Messiah.

The Rest of My Story.

In due course, I had to go to Bethlehem to register to pay my taxes to Caesar. Because of the rumors surrounding Mary, I took her with me. It was in Bethlehem, the home of King David, that our son was born (Luke 2:1-7). This also fulfilled a prophesy of our prophet Micah (Micah 5:2). You will hear that story later on this week. Next Sunday, you’ll hear the story of how we presented our child to be circumcised after he was born (Luke 2:21-39). Right now, I want to continue with the way Matthew tells the story.

The birth of Jesus was not the only time the Lord spoke to me. I had several visions that impacted my life and the life of Jesus. One day, three Wise Men appeared where we were living. They had seen a special star, a star associated with the birth of the King of the Jews (Matt. 2:1) and gone to Jerusalem to see King Herod, but he had no new child. His advisors had told Herod and the Wise Men that a King of the Jews, the Messiah, was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea (vv. 2-10). After bowing before Jesus and giving him gifts, the Wise Men returned home.

When the Wise Men told me they had visited King Herod, my blood ran cold. I knew Herod would certainly try to kill anyone he felt might threaten his kingship. It wouldn’t matter that I was an obscure carpenter married a common country girl. The Wise Men were also concerned: They had a dream in which they were told not to return through Jerusalem, but instead to go home by “another route” (v. 12). [v]

After they were gone as I worried and wondered what to do, once again, an angel of the Lord appeared to me. This time I was told to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt (v. 13). I was obedient to the angel, and for some years we lived in Egypt (v. 14). It is a good thing too, because Herod killed all the children of Bethlehem around my son’s age (vv. 16-18). [vi] This event is known to you as the “Slaughter of the Innocents,” one of Herod’s worst crimes.

Then, after Herod died, an angel appeared and told me to go back to Israel (v. 20). My intention was to take my son, who was to be known as the “Son of David,” to Judea, King David’s homeland. However, I was warned by God in a dream not to go there because Herod’s son was ruler in Judea—and just as mad as Herod himself and just as likely to harm Jesus. Therefore, we went to Nazareth in Galilee (vv. 22). This also fulfilled a prophesy of the Old Testament. [vii]

When Jesus was twelve years old, we took him up to the Temple in Jerusalem, as was our custom (Luke 2:41-42). Jerusalem is a crowded and busy place during festival times. Mary and I had already left Jerusalem when we discovered he was not with our traveling party (v. 43). We thought he was with relatives, but he was not.

It took us three whole days to find him! We were frantic. When we found him he was in the temple courts talking with the teachers of the law. When we rebuked him, he looked puzzled as if we should know that he should be in the Temple. To be quite frank, we thought our son was going to be some kind of the king, and we didn’t expect to find in the Temple courts talking with the religious leaders of our people. When we complained about his behavior, he looked at us with puzzlement and said something like, “Did you not expect to find me in my father’s house?” (v. 49). Actually, we did not expect to find him in the Temple. We expected to find him running around in the streets playing! When we brought him home once again he was our son, Jesus, a person everyone loved and respected because he was such a fine boy (v. 52).

The Measure of the Man.

I did not live to see my son’s public career as a teacher, Rabbi, healer, and Messiah. I died before my son. Frankly, I’m glad I was spared seeing his final moments. While alive, I early on realized that my first job was to be a father to Jesus. Jesus worked beside me from the time he was able. He ran errands. He did odd jobs. He grew up strong. I like to think that in watching me, and how I treated other people, he learned to be honest, straightforward, kind, and gentle. I hope I modeled for him a kind of discipleship that is diligent, kind, and honest.

That is not so say that I was not religious. My dreams show that I had a mystical bent even though I was a practical person. I was diligent to dedicate Jesus, to take him to the synagogue, to attend religious festivals in Jerusalem, and to model for Jesus what it meant to truly worship the God of Israel. I prayed often in front of my son, and he knew what it was to be a man of prayer. I read the Law of Moses, and I taught it to my son. In fact, I think that this is the most important contribution I made to his life.

I hope as you think about me you’ll remember me as a simple, good, thoughtful, ordinary man trying to raise a family and provide for them. I hope you will remember that I was first and foremost a workingman, but that I did not ignore spiritual things. Most of all, I hope you will remember that I was obedient to God when he spoke to me. Not all disciples are called to be pastors and prophets. In fact, most people are called to be an everyday disciple just like me.

Amen

Copyright 2015, G. Christopher Scruggs

[i] In Jesus’s time, this could mean that Joseph was a workman who built homes, framing and acting as a stonemason, or, perhaps I owned my own business and had a small carpenter’s shop. The Bible doesn’t say.

[ii] Under Jewish law, inheritance was through the father. Thus, Jesus’ legal claim to the Messiah and King of Israel was through his father’s line, even though he was not the biological son of Joseph. Under Roman law, this was similar. For example, Caesar Augustus (born “Gaius Octavius”) was the heir of Julius Caesar. Although he was not his son Augustus was made heir to Caesar under Roman law. Augustus was the Son of Julius Caesar’s sister. Like Julius Caesar adopted Octavius, Joseph adopted Jesus as his son, making Jesus, technically, only the adopted son of David.

[iii] Most marriages in Biblical times were arranged between the parents of the bride and groom. In fact, on occasion the bride and groom might not even know one another. A betrothal could occur at any time, even years before the marriage, since the bride and groom would have to be of marital age before the actual marriage could occur. Betrothal occurred once a marriage contract was signed. In this contract, among other matters, a dowry would be agreed upon. This amount would have to be paid by the groom or the groom’s family to the bride’s parents. Once the betrothal contract was signed, the bride and groom were legally married and only death or divorce could end the marriage. When the dowry was paid, the groom would come and consummate the marriage in the bride’s home. A special cloth would provide proof that the bride was a virgin. If she was not, the groom did not have to accept the bride and could divorce her. After consummation, the bride was then taken to the wedding feast, and the couple celebrated their marriage. The bride’s parents kept the “proof of virginity” in case of a later dispute.

[iv] Scripture does not say whether Joseph was older than Mary. It is an inference both from Jewish marriage customs (grooms were almost always older than brides) and from the fact that Joseph is not mentioned in the Gospels after the events of Luke 2:41-52. When Mary and Jesus’ sisters and brothers come to see Jesus in the Gospels, Joseph is not mentioned (Matthew 12:46-50). The theory that Joseph had died by the time Jesus was an adult is given further credibility by the fact that Jesus, when He was on the cross, made arrangements for His mother to be cared for by the apostle John (John 19:26-27). Joseph must have been dead by the time of the crucifixion, or Jesus would never have committed Mary to John.

[v] Most scholars believe that the Wise Men were from what is today Iraq. In my view, the Wise Men probably took a northern route from what is today Iraq through northern Syria, then down to Jerusalem and then south to Bethlehem. In the ancient world, this route through the “Fertile Crescent” was the most traveled trade route From Mesopotamia to the Holy Land. I think going home, in order to bypass Jerusalem, they the southern route from Bethlehem to the Jordan River (Jericho) then north up the Jordan Valley to Syria, and back into Mesopotamia.

[vi] What is known as the “Slaughter of the Innocents” is recorded in Matthew 2:16-18). This event is only mentioned in Matthew; however, Bethlehem was so small that the murder of a few children under two years old is unlikely to have caused much contemporary comment. Herod was guilty of worse crimes.

[vii] There is no specific Old Testament prophecy that is fulfilled. This may refer to the use of the term “Branch” (“Nazor” in Hebrew). If so, then it fulfills Isaiah 11:1. It might also be that this refers to Jesus being a Nazarite, who abstains from drinking wine and cutting his hair, though I think this unlikely. See, The Harper Collins Study Bible (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1993), note on Matthew 2:23b.