The Courage of Joseph
Matthew 1:18-25
Every day for the first 10 months after Katrina, I would drive home on I-10 and there was an indelible image which would strike me. On a billboard just before I got off on my exit was the image of a female New Orleans police office submerged in water up to her neck, trying to stay afloat while helping a citizen stay alive and be airlifted to safety. There were other harrowing acts courage in the aftermath of Katrina: the citizens who took their boats and rescued literally thousands of people and took them to dry ground on I-10. The artist who used a beat up old truck to rescue 100’s and 100’s of people risking his own life amidst snipers and criminals. The doctors, nurses and health care professionals who stayed in Memorial Hospital trying to keep the ill alive for days without any help from the outside world. The firefighters, policemen and women who risked their own lives to maintain control of the city.
The thing about courage is that it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it. The Late Show with David Letterman is produced in the heart of New York City. It was Monday after 9/11 and Letterman said that the only reason he was back was due to the strength and courage of then Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In his opening monologue he said: "If you’ve been watching and you’re confused, depressed, irritated, angry, and full of grief and you don’t know how to behave and you’re not sure what to do, because we’ve never been through this before, all you had to do at any moment is watch the Mayor. Watch how he behaved. Watch how he conducted himself. Watch what he did. Listen to what he said. Rudolph Giuliani is the personification of courage. He’s an amazing man and far better than we could have hoped for." Courage. You don’t know how to define it but you know it when you see it.
We’ve been looking at the God encounters this Advent and several individual’s response to such an encounter. A God encounter is not something you’re looking for, yearning for, expecting or even thinking about and then God shows up. A God encounter is not you going to look for God. It’s when God comes looking for you and supernaturally makes an appearance in your life and calls you to him. First, we saw a God encounter Mary had when the angel Gabriel announced that she had been chosen by God to give birth His Son Jesus, who would be Savior of the world. When she questioned the angel about how this could happen, Gabriel responded, “For all things are possible with God.” And Mary chose to trust God when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your work.” Last week, we looked at the shepherd’s encounter with God and learned that God encounters us in the ordinary moments of our lives. These shepherds heard the call of God while at work protecting their sheep, and left their flocks journeying to Bethlehem to see what God was about to do. Having seen the miracle of the Christ child, they “spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child…” And then they “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” As a result of their God encounter, they returned to God and their faith grew as a result.
Today, our Scripture tells of the third major party to the incarnation and his response to it. It is a story of courage that is told every Christmas season. But it is also a story we often miss because this hero of the story is usually in the background. In the Nativity scene he stands silently next to the manger. His name is Joseph and he seems to play a secondary role in the nativity story. We don’t even have a single word he speaks! The only other event we have recorded of Joseph is several years later when he takes Jesus and Mary to Jersusalem to worship at the temple. Then he disappears completely from the pages of history. And yet the courage of Joseph was what made it possible for the child to be born in Bethlehem and to survive the life-threatening early years of his life. Joseph was the man to whom God entrusted the task of protecting the mother and her child from the time she conceived Jesus until he grew up. And he was given the responsibility to mentor this child in the faith and into becoming a man of God.
Joseph probably thought his life was pretty well planned. His vocation was set and his marriage was all neatly arranged for him, as was the custom of the day. How he and Mary must have laid plans during the customary year of engagement before they would begin their married life together. The hopes, the expectations, and the hard work of building a home for Mary and him were suddenly all set aside when God encountered him. One of the most inspiring aspects of Joseph is that he was an ordinary, flesh and blood man. In the midst of this story of the miraculous birth of Jesus, one that features visitations from angels, we find this ordinary man powerfully used by God in His plan of salvation. That gives hope to me and I pray it gives hope to you as well. For one of the themes of the Bible is that God uses ordinary people to do His work – people like you and me (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
That’s not to say that this was easy for Joseph. How he must have wrestled with what to do, balancing his faith, his values and the law of God. When our lives take a nasty turn, we cry out, like Joseph must have cried out, "God, how can this be?" We can only imagine how Joseph reacted when he found out Mary was pregnant. The only way he could explain her pregnancy, since he and Mary had not consummated their marriage, was that she had been unfaithful to him with another man. She was an adulteress! A scene from the movie “The Nativity Story” shows how Joseph must have agonized over what to do about Mary. The Nativity Story Film Clip: “Honor”
Any man would respond under such circumstances with: Shock. Joseph thought that Mary was a pure and chaste girl. He must have been shocked to the core. Deep sorrow. His dreams of marriage to this young girl now seemed to be forever shattered. Anger. Joseph must have felt betrayed. Surely a part of him wanted to punish somebody! No one would have blamed him if he had caused a terrible scene and made a spectacle of Mary. But Joseph’s righteousness and godly character enabled him to rein in his anger. Even under these circumstances, he sought to protect her as he courageously chose to treat Mary with love divorcing her privately. Love covers over a multitude of sins! Paul teaches that God the Spirit empowers us to love. When we live in the Spirit’s power, the fruit of the Spirit always trumps uncontrolled human emotion, even anger and rage. And that same Spirit empowers us with supernatural love (Galatians 5). Joseph faced down his own emotions and courageously chose to forgive Mary. But he also had to face down the society in which he lived. Joseph resisted societal pressure. As Mary’s pregnancy became obvious to the people in their small town, Joseph knew that he also would be publicly embarrassed. To save face, Joseph would have been justified in either stoning Mary for adultery or publicly divorcing her, thus disgracing her for all to see. And he would have been justified according to the law. In fact, the society he lived in expected him to express outrage and to punish Mary.
But because of his strength of character he decided to divorce her privately and protect her from public disgrace. But that was just a small step toward true courage. Not long after, an angel explained to him that Mary was pregnant because of a miracle. Joseph had a decision to make: continue forward with his decision to divorce Mary or go to the altar. But even now, with an angel to direct him, Joseph had to make a courageous decision. He had to take for his wife a woman who was not bearing his child and, in so doing, share in the unjust shame that was heaped upon her. He would also be undertaking to provide for the child and mentor him in his faith and in how to be a man. Joseph decided to obey God’s messengers and took Mary home to be his wife. It was Joseph’s faith in God which enabled him to overcome the stigma of becoming the husband of Mary and to accept the responsibility for this child.
Looking forward to fathering his own child, Joseph was faced with being a step-father to a child not his own. He accepted the humbling circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. He trusted the providential care of God every step of the way. He didn’t have any parenting books, any training on how to be a father to the Son of God, but he possessed faith and compassion. Bible scholars portray Joseph as an effective provider and protector of the family.
Matthew adds a comment that displays the integrity of this man. Although he had the legitimate right to it, he did not have sexual relations with Mary until after Jesus was born. And this simple fact underscores the truth of the virgin birth of Jesus! It takes courage to say no! But, for the higher purposes of God, Joseph restrained himself.
Because of this, Joseph is described in our Scripture today as a righteous man, meaning that he had such a strong relationship with God and that meant he was able to trust God, even in the midst of the incredible request or call of God on his life. And because he decided to place his trust in God’s hands, he was courageous enough to stand up against his own fears and doubts. Joseph teaches us when you live the way God wants you to do, and give God control of your life, not out of duty but because it was what he wanted to do, then you can live courageously. Joseph was courageous enough to live a moral life even in a corrupt culture. He grew up among people who were very religious but not very righteous. Even the religious leaders of the day were corrupt men, more interested in politics, power and possessions than in living for God.
If we’re honest, truly righteous people make the rest of us uncomfortable. Just by the way they live, they make us aware of our shortcomings. So the people had never treated righteous men very kindly. They killed the prophets. They would later reject Jesus. Even today, people completely committed and sold out to God are sneered at and looked down upon. Yet despite the ways of the world around him and the judgmental, condemning voices around he, Mary and their situation, Joseph remained committed to his faith and to his God. That must not have been easy!
God’s ways are not always our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and we may never understand everything that God is doing this side of heaven, but God says, "Trust Me, and all things will work together for good." It’s been said the best thing a father can do for his kids is to love their mother. Instead of being indignant, Joseph accepted the revealed will of God and accepted this child as his own. And He followed the instructions—journeying from Nazareth to Bethlehem, then to Egypt, then back to Nazareth.
If that wasn’t enough, the night after the wisemen’s visit, Joseph was again visited by an angel who commanded him to take the child and flee to Egypt for Herod was seeking to kill Jesus. Joseph courageously protected the child as his life was in danger and at the same time endangering himself and Mary. This meant months of dangerous travel over hostile terrain. Joseph probably walked most of the way! But God knew that Joseph was courageous enough and strong enough in his faith to handle the task. And so he took the child and his mother first to Egypt and then later, when Herod had died, back to northern Israel.
So the next time you look at a Nativity Scene and see Joseph standing in the background, think of the courage and faith of this man. That’s what heroes often do, stepping forth courageously to act for the well-being of others and slip almost unnoticed into the background.
Joseph was a courageous man because he chose to trust God. He showed courage in his personal life, by being a morally and spiritually strong man in a corrupt world. He demonstrated his courage when, despite personal embarrassment and in the face of social ostracism, he believed God and married the pregnant girl who was not carrying his baby. He revealed his courage in protecting the mother and child during the life-threatening years of Jesus’ childhood.
Max Lucado writes, Joseph was perched firmly on his branch in the tree. It was thick, reliable and perfect for sitting. It was so strong that he didn’t tremble when the storms came nor did he shake when the winds blew. No, this branch was predictable and solid. And Joseph had no intention of ever leaving it…that is until he was told to go out on a limb. As he sat securely on his branch he looked up at the limb that God wanted him to climb. He’d never seen one so thin. “That’s no place for a man to go, that’s no place to sit. There’s no protection from the wind, there’s no protection from the weather and how could you sleep dangling from a quivering twig?” He inched back a bit, leaned against the trunk and pondered the situation. Common sense told him not to go out on a limb. Self-defense told him not to do it. Convenience told him not to do it. Pride told him not to do it. But God had told him to do it. And that made it the only option. So resolute, he grasped the smaller limb. With tight lips and a determined glint in his eye he placed one hand in front of the other until he dangled in the air with only his faith in God as a safety net. At times that limb must have bounced furiously in the wind. But Joseph just shut his eyes and held on. But you could be sure of one thing, he never regretted it. Sweet was the reward for his courage. One look in the face of that heavenly toddler and he knew that he would do it again in a heartbeat….And then he writes, “Have you been called to go out on a limb for God? You can bet it won’t be easy. Limb climbing never has been easy. Just ask Joseph or better yet ask Jesus…He knows better than anyone the cost of hanging on a tree.”
This Advent, God needs courageous men and women for His will to be accomplished and His plan of salvation to come to fruition. He needs faithful trusting followers just like you and me. Raymond Murray writes, “The great want of this age is real men and women: Men and women who are not for sale; Men and women who will condemn wrong in friend or foe- in themselves as well as others; Men and women whose consciences are as steady as the needle to the pole; Men and women who will stand for the right though the heavens totter and the earth reels; Men and women who can tell the truth and look the world right in the eye; Men and women who neither brag nor run; Men and women who neither flag nor flinch; Men and women in whom the hope of everlasting life still runs deep and strong; Men and women who know their message and tell it; Men and women who know their business and attend to it; Men and women who are not too lazy to work, nor too proud to be poor; Men and women who are willing to eat what they have earned and to wear what they have paid for; Men who are not ashamed to say, “No!” with emphasis.” Men and women who are willing to to go out on a limb and take a stand for God.
