4 advent 10
Matthew 1:18-25
Joseph and the 1st Christmas
For some reason many find themselves struggling with anxiety during the holiday season. There seem to be added stresses, pressures, hurts and frustrations. Holidays seem to magnify everyone for better and more often for worse. Psychologists tell us that Christmas is a time of intensified depression, conflict, and loneliness.
Christmas music drowns out the cry of the baby in the manger. The message of God’s son is lost to parents whose children have grown up and moved on, leaving the parents far behind. The story of Joseph’s support of Mary doesn’t make sense to the women and men whose spouses have gone – whether by death or desertion. Like a biting winter wind, this “most wonderful time of the year,” as one of the Christmas songs says is anything but wonderful.
Lets look at another thing Christmas forces to the surface.
Christmas also reminds us that our relationships to others are more important than anything else, because they should be viewed as a gift from God; even when those people tend to just bug the heck out of you. I remember reading one time a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is in a conversation with Snoopy. Lucy says to Snoopy: “There are times when you really bug me, but I must admit there are also times when I feel like giving you a hug.” Snoopy replies: “That’s the way I am – huggable and buggable.” This is the situation many find themselves in when we are spending time with relatives at Christmas. You may want to hug them but they can bug the heck out of you.
Sometimes the situations we find ourselves in at Christmas can be downright hard to bear, like the one that Joseph went through on the first Christmas. Let me ask you this question, “what would you do in Joseph’s shoes?” I mean this story of Mary’s seems a bit far fetched, she conceives, goes to visit Elizabeth WITHOUT telling Joseph what happened to her and she comes back 5 months later and says, “the baby is by the Holy Spirit.” How believable is that story?
You see the Christmas story is one of faith and forgiveness. When we think about Christmas today, it’s so far removed from what the Christmas story is about that many of us are not even aware of what the spirit of Christmas is. We hear people talking about getting in the Christmas spirit as though Christmas is nothing more than us feeling good inside about giving and getting presents and telling one another Merry Christmas.
I do not want to know whether or not you are in the Christmas spirit. What I want to know today is do you have faith in Christmas. I’m not talking about do you believe in Christmas as you would ask a child do you believe in Santa Claus. To have faith in Christmas means, that you actually believe that God was so concerned about us as human beings, that God actually chose to become one of us, to talk clearly to us.
NOW Before you can have faith in Christmas, you have to have faith to believe that you actually matter to God. The God who created the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, is actually interested in you and all your imperfections. You see you can’t read the bible story about Christmas without running into that word Savior. The only reason a savior being born is good news is that somebody needed to be saved. Let me illustrate it this way, if a fire truck came racing down the road and pulled in front of your house, nobody is going to shout the good news, “the fire truck has arrived” unless there is a ____________. Otherwise you’re left wondering, what are they doing here.
By the same token, the only reason for recognizing Christmas is that you have faith to believe that God decided to come and live among us as our savior. Now it’s interesting AND disappointing somewhat in looking at how God decided to come and live among us. Let me explain. First God didn’t let the world know, “I’m about to make my entrance, hello look at me.” He didn’t write it in the sky with some airplane.
Second, God didn’t choose the well known celebrities or powerful political leaders his day to have as his parents which could have given him a great platform to start His earthly ministry from.
Third, and this is the most important, God didn’t choose an easy transition to come through the lives of others. He put some people in some very difficult situations in order to come to this earth. Because when something is born from adversity and strife, it is far stronger.
So let us examine the birth narrative a bit closer and you will see what I mean.
First of all it would be easier if we looked also at Luke’s account of the same story. Luke’s gospel tells us up front about the angel coming to visit Mary and telling her all that was going to happen. For some reason, Matthew leaves out that part of the story. But both gospels introduce Mary and Joseph at the same time emphasizing that Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph. Now to the adversity and strife part: women is there a good way to tell your fiancée that you’re pregnant when you’re in the church and everybody is getting ready for the wedding? However, Men is there NOT a good way for your fiancée to tell you I’m pregnant, but you’re not the father and I’m still a virgin and I have been 100% faithful and true to you?
Let’s look at Matthew 1:18. “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” The phrase, “but before they came together” means, “before they had slept together.” Matthew wants to make it very clear, that Joseph had nothing to do with Mary’s pregnancy. Jesus was not going to be born with the same sinful nature that we all inherited from Adam through our fathers.
Let me add also that Mary may have struggled with “how do I tell Joseph what has happened?” I know I would have. In those days, the engagement, or betrothal period would have lasted about one year, and during this year of waiting, Mary would have continued to stay at her parent’s home. Now the words, “she was found to be with child,” may indicate that she did not immediately tell Joseph about the pregnancy. Who found out and who told who? The only two people the Bible tells us who knew about the pregnancy were Mary and Elizabeth.
I am quite sure also Mary at some point must have told her family. I doubt if they bought into the story about her being pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Let’s bring this back up to today for a moment. How many of you would accept that from your son or daughter, at face value, with no evidence other than her word. “Most of us would have been saying, well you better sure hope an angel appears to me and tells me, otherwise you better come up with somebody’s name.”
Now let’s turn our focus back to Joseph. Of all the characters in the Christmas Story, I can relate to Joseph the best. Who ever gives him any credit? From the biblical record he is the most nondescript person you will ever find. Why, even his identity with his son is lost. Even in Christmas carols Jesus is referred to in these terms: "Haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the Son of Mary." Notice, Son of Mary, NOT son of Joseph. He might not have born him, but he helped raise him, what we know from scripture of his influence that Joseph trained him in the skills of a carpenter.
Aside from that, Joseph was a spiritual man trying to walk as close to God as he could. I can imagine him being called over to her parent’s home, and they try to convince him that their daughter is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. And even if Elizabeth comes by to tell him about her “miracle baby,” do you think Joseph is going to buy it?
I would imagine Joseph is too hurt, too humiliated, and too angry to believe this story. Joseph was faced with a pregnant fiancée whom they had not had and intimacy with. BUT Joseph also found himself in complete control of Mary’s future. He could file charges of adultery with the local officials. There would be no need of trying to prove anything, because they could see for themselves she was pregnant. Once found guilty, Mary would be led away to be stoned to death.
I want you to look at the way Joseph handled his hurt, his anger and his humiliation. First of all, he knew what his limits were. In his own strength he could not go through with this marriage. He could forgive her, but he could not go on with her. Second, he gave up his right to seek revenge. He didn’t try to make this thing a public scandal or try to call for the elders for a trial to be held. The Scripture said he did not want to expose her to public disgrace.
Third, he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t yell out a bunch of accusations murmuring about the town. He didn’t call her all kinds of names. He didn’t start saying what all he was going to do. He kept his mouth closed. You see, when you keep your mouth closed, you leave open the possibility that God might want to use you in a situation in the future.
Joseph didn’t leave Mary’s house saying, “You’ll be getting the divorce papers tomorrow.” The Scripture says, “he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” Instead of going to court, Joseph was thinking of handling his divorce “in private.” That means in those days, he would simply call two witnesses to the scene to see him grant Mary a divorce. If he did it in this manner, Joseph would not have to specify any charges.
But Joseph kept all these plans in his head. He didn’t let his mouth get ahead of his heart. The reason why, is we can say a lot of things in our anger, that we will regret later. Joseph was an example of being angry and yet not sinning. Joseph didn’t blab his plans to the world. You see that was simply between Joseph and God. Even in the midst of this confusion, Joseph wanted to be in God’s will.
Think about this a minute; why on earth did God let Joseph go through this pain and suffering? He could have sent the same angel Gabriel to Joseph that he sent to Mary that same day and there would have been a great deal less pain and grief. All I can tell you is that God calls us to walk different paths in life, with different amounts of miracles, different amount of pains, and different amount of suffering in our lives.
I personally believe Joseph wanted to have faith in that first Christmas. He wanted to believe that God was about to do something new for humanity. But it was hard to believe that God wanted to use him as a part of that process. The same is true for us, one of the greatest barriers to our growth in Christ, is our refusal to believe that God actually wants to use us to make a difference. We would rather believe that God is not really interested in us or in our circumstances. This allows us to keep doing the little things that WE want to do.
I would bet that God intervening into Joseph’s world drastically changed his plans for the future. The beautiful wedding he had hoped for was shattered. His reputation as a man of high moral character and righteousness would soon disappear. I am quite sure that his confidence in women was shaken. The trust he had in Mary had probably vanished. He must have thought she had lost her mind by insisting that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. He was probably thinking, “Why couldn’t she just tell the truth?”
But notice something; in the midst of his despair, God stepped in to restore his faith in Christmas. Let’s look at verses 20-25:
“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. [21] 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."
[22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: [23] "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."
[24] When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. [25] But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
I want you to notice something; even with this angel of the Lord coming to Joseph, he still had to take a step of faith to believe in the first Christmas. You see an angel came to Mary when she was wide awake. How many of you ever had a dream, and you were convinced it was a sign of something that was going to happen and it didn’t? Let’s face it, a dream would not have been enough for many of us. I believe that the key in this verse that persuaded Joseph was that the angel’s recited the Scripture passage in Isaiah, “that a virgin will be with child.”
Notice, once Joseph believed that God was willing to intervene into the lives of people, he put himself in motion to be used by God. He went back to Mary’s home and took her to his house. He was no longer concerned about what others would say about him, or about his reputation. But do you know they still talked about Jesus even as a grown man? In John 8:41 the crowds accuse Jesus of being conceived out of wedlock; so the reputation followed Him.
But Joseph accepted this child by faith that He was the Son of God. Joseph loved him as his own Son, risked his life for him, and trained him to be a carpenter. Yet the Bible doesn’t record that Joseph lived to see Jesus do a single recorded miracle. Other than the one time Jesus was 12 and was asking the religious teachers all kinds of amazing questions, Joseph never saw Jesus act like the Son of God. His faith in Christmas lasted his entire lifetime. In fact, Church tradition tells us that Joseph died shortly before Jesus began His earthly ministry. With that in mind, he probably died waiting for Jesus to become the Savior of the world.
What about you today. Do you have faith in Christmas? Do you believe God actually intervened in the life of humanity? Do you believe God is still interested in making a difference in your life? If you let God in, I guarantee you, He will not leave you where you are today. God does not come into our lives simply to make us better, nicer people. God comes in to take over and to change us into something different through a relationship with Him.
The Holy Spirit wants to come upon each of us and to birth things into our lives that He can use to be a blessing to the lives of others. God made you unique, not to simply sit back and enjoy you like a toy. God made you unique because God has a unique plan to use you in His eternal plan for creation. But it all begins with you accepting this Savior that God has sent into the world. So let me ask again, do you have faith in Christmas? If so, what are you doing with that faith?
