( Parts of this sermon were taken directly from Joseph’s tenacious love by Brian Bill, sermon central.)
Joseph’s Story
Good Morning, my name is Joseph. I know I look much like the person you call your pastor but my name is Joseph. You don’t hear a lot about me in your Christmas stories. Actually, in the story about the birth of my adopted son Jesus, nobody ever recorded a word I said. Story of my life. I spoke quite a bit during my life but neither Matthew nor Luke recorded anything I said. It really doesn’t bother me because the story of Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and not about me. If I may, I would like to share my story with you this morning.
You probably don’t know much about me so if I may; I would like to tell you some things about me.
I lived in a town called Nazareth. My family was originally from Bethlehem which is about 8 miles south of Jerusalem. At one time my hometown of Nazareth was a really beautiful and serene place to live but the Romans came in and the town got run down and the morality in our town seemed to disappear. With all the Romans and foreigners around, our town got a bad reputation. People were always making fun of us. They even laughed at the way we talked. Much like the way the people from the north make fun of people from the south. There was a disciple named Nathaniel who was from my hometown and even he was quoted as saying “can anything good come from Nazareth”? It was a pretty sad and run down place but hey, it was my home.
I made my living as a carpenter and I was pretty good at it. I wasn’t what you would see in a carpenter because I not only built houses but I also built furniture and anything else that you might need that is made of wood. In those days, I did anything I could to provide for myself and save for my future family. I’ll tell you more about them later.
My father’s name was Jacob and I learned my trade from him because he also was a carpenter. That’s what we did back then. Our fathers would train us and pass along their trade to us. I was looking forward to passing my skills along to my sons.
I was a religious man as I’m, sure many of you here today are. I loved God with all my heart, soul, mind and body, just as the scriptures required. While I didn’t say anything that was recorded in Matthew, he does refer to me as a righteous man in the scripture. That’s what I wanted to be. I wanted God to look at me and see someone who was devoted to Him.
There is a Hebrew word for people like me. We are called tsaddiyq. (sawd-deek). That’s what they called people who were dedicated to God the way I was. I would never eat anything that was not approved by the scriptures. I would only associate myself with other tsaddiyq”s. On the Sabbath, you could always find me in compliance with all the rules and regulations that governed the Sabbath. I was admired by everyone and little boys would look up to me and aspire to be like me. Much like the way your children look up to athletes and what you call celebrities. In my opinion, your standards sure have been lowered.
If you were to trace my lineage back 21 generations you would find that I am a descendent of King David. I have royal blood running through my veins. While I have this lineage, I don’t feel like royalty. All I am is a man trying to serve and please God. Others would sometimes mention my family history but I didn’t try to use it for any kind of gain. As I said, I am a simple man serving God.
I want to tell you about my wife. Her name is Mary and she is the most beautiful woman in the world to me. After I had taken over my family’s business from my father, I knew it was time to settle down. My family and Mary’s family had known each other for years and I had watched Mary turn into a beautiful young woman. I was a little bit older than her but not so much that I couldn’t marry her. I asked her father if I could marry her and he gave his permission.
We did things a little different in my day when it came to marriage. Mary and I had a ceremony with witnesses much like your marriage ceremony is today. The difference is that after the betrothal ceremony, the wife would go back to her father’s house for around a year. There would be no intimacy during this time. This allowed me time to prepare a place for us to live. What the groom would do is add a room onto his father’s house for him and his wife to live in. I spent my time building and dreaming. Building our house and dreaming of my life with my bride. Thanking God for all His blessings upon me and Mary. You must remember that I am a tsaddiyq after all.
This was also time for us to make sure of our commitment to each other. If we didn’t stay committed to one another during this time, a certificate of divorce could be issued. I couldn’t in my wildest dreams think that this would ever happen. I loved Mary and she loved me.
A little while after the betrothal, Mary seemed at times to be distant and engrossed in something. When she said that she wanted to go and visit her cousin Elizabeth, I encouraged her to go thinking that the trip would be good for her. Her cousin was finally pregnant and Mary wanted to celebrate the pregnancy with her.
When Mary returned, she came to me and said that we needed to talk about something. She looked at me and said that she was pregnant. I looked at her and said how can this be. We have never been intimate with each other. You have been unfaithful to me.
I was furious. How could she do this to me? All I had planned was for nothing. All the work that had been put into the house was a waste. She had betrayed me. I was a tsaddiyq and I knew what the scriptures told me must be done. She should be dragged out town and stoned to death. My beautiful Mary would be stoned to death.
She said wait, I have not been intimate with anyone, God is the father. I looked at her and thought not only have you been unfaithful, now you blaspheme God. She told me this unbelievable story about an Angel coming to her and telling her that she would become pregnant and give birth to a son and that the angel even told her the name. The angel told her to name him Jesus. I heard this and said yea, right. Then my training as a tsaddiyq came through. I remembered that somewhere in Isaiah, the prophesy about the Messiah, said that He would be born of a virgin. I thought about that for a minute and then discarded the idea because it was just crazy that Mary could be pregnant without being intimate with a man.
While I was furious, I still loved Mary and I began to realize that I didn’t want her to die. I decided that I would just give her a certificate of divorce and get on with my life. Maybe Mary could move somewhere else and start a new life for herself. Still though, in the back of my mind, something just wasn’t right.
That night, an angel visited me in my sleep and told me that Mary was telling the truth. The angel said that the child had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and that the child was the Son of God. The angel also reminded me of my lineage by addressing me as a son of David. If you remember, I told you that I had this royal blood running through my veins. I then remembered prophesies that said the Messiah would be from the line of David. Could it be? Could the child that Mary was carrying in her be the long awaited Messiah? I didn’t understand all of this but I knew that what Mary had told me was the truth so I went forward with the marriage immediately. Out of respect for her and the child she carried within her, I still was not intimate with her until after the baby was born.
I took Mary home and things were going ok even though the people were starting to gossip a lot about the timing of the pregnancy. We didn’t care because we knew that God was doing something miraculous through us.
As Mary’s time was almost complete, the Roman Emperor Augustus decreed that a census was to be taken and that all men were to return to their ancestral home to be counted. This was to be done immediately. What was I to do? Mary was near her term. We talked and decided that she would make the trip with me. I didn’t know how the people of Nazareth would treat her while I was gone and I knew I had to keep her and the child safe.
The trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about eighty miles and by the time we got there Mary was in Labor. I searched everywhere for an inn but with everyone coming back for the census, there wasn’t a room anywhere. Finally we found a stable that would at least keep the any wind and rain of us and I made a bed for Mary out of straw and placed my cloak over the straw.
As soon as we got settled, the baby came. It was a boy, just like the angels had said. Mary and I marveled at Him, not knowing what to expect next. All we knew was that there was something special about this child that we were to name Jesus.
After the baby was born, an amazing thing happened. A group of shepherds showed up at the stable. We had emptied one of the troughs that they fed the animals in and placed a blanket in there for Jesus. As we were trying to recover from all that had happened, these shepherds came and bowed down like they were worshipping Jesus. They said that an angel had told them about a baby that had been born that would save the people from their sin. They decided to come and see for themselves. They told this story to everyone. The apostle Matthew says that Mary heard these things and wondered about them all the time. I tell you the truth, so did I. What was in store for this adopted son of mine? I couldn’t imagine.
Being a tsaddiyq, I knew that eight days after the birth, that the baby was to be circumcised and that His name was to be proclaimed to the world. There was never any doubt about the name and after the circumcision we announced that his name was to be Jesus.
After Mary’s time of purification was over we went to the temple to dedicate our son to the Lord. While we were there, a man named Simeon was talking very strange after he saw Jesus. He was saying that now he could die because he had seen God’s salvation and then he talked about some strange things that neither Mary nor I understood. This added to our amazement about Jesus.
After the purification ceremony, Mary and I decided to settle down in Bethlehem. I found work as a carpenter and we moved into a house and things seemed to get back to normal in our lives. About two years after Jesus’ birth, another strange thing happened. Some men that people called wise came to our house to visit Jesus. They said that they had traveled a great distance to see Jesus with their own eyes and then they presented Him with Gifts that were very expensive. This added more to the mystery of the child that God had entrusted us with.
After the wise men had left, an angel told me to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because it wasn’t safe for us in Bethlehem any more. So we moved to Egypt and stayed there for a couple of years and one night an angel again appeared to me and told me to move back to the land of Israel. We decided to move back to our old home town of Nazareth. We settled in there in Nazareth and grew our family Jesus had many brothers and sisters to grow up with.
While Jesus was part of the family, He was always a little bit different than his brothers and sisters. He would spend all his free time reading and studying the scriptures. While his brothers and sisters thought this was strange, I was proud of him because he was becoming a tsaddiyq.
There are many more things I could tell you about the life of my adopted son. Even your scriptures say that all the books in the world couldn’t tell of all the things that he said and did. In what time I have left, I would like to tell you about his death.
My adopted son was special. I always knew that but it was in the last 3 years of his life that I started to realize how special he was.
I always knew that He was God’s son but I never could put my finger on why He was here. Then I realized it. He was God. My adopted son was God in the flesh. He had come to save His people from their sins. He had come to be the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of mankind. He had always required the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin but now it was going to be His own blood that would cleanse us of our sins.
He told people that they couldn’t be saved the way that the religious leaders of the day were telling them. This made them furious and they had him killed. Crucified like a common criminal. What they didn’t know is that this was the plan all along.
My adopted son, Jesus was born to be killed on a cross for the sin of all men. All they had to do was accept this sacrifice and forget about all the rituals and ceremonies and just accept this sacrifice.
.You know how He authenticated what he did and said when He was alive, He was resurrected. This authenticated who He was and then He told all that saw Him that if they would believe in Him and follow Him that they too would have eternal life with Him,.
.That’s why my adopted son was born. To save mankind.
.That’s why you celebrate this thing you call Christmas.
. Still don’t believe, His brothers didn’t believe Him either. They mocked and ridiculed Him his whole life until He died and was resurrected.
.That is one way you can know that all that I have told you is true.
.What would make His brothers believe so much that two more of my son’s wrote part of your scriptures. James and Judas. You know Judas as Jude. They saw their brother alive after He had been crucified and now they know that He was more than their half brother. He was God in Human flesh.
.I implore you this morning to hear and believe the story of Jesus, God’s son, God Himself.
. The one who was born to die for you.
***Sources
The Holy Bible, NLT
Joseph’s Tenacious Love, Brian Bill
