The Sacrifices We Make Series

There was a Christmas play where a little boy desperately wanted to be Joseph. But when the parts were handed out, his biggest rival was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn keeper instead. He was really bitter about this. So, during all the rehearsals he kept plotting in his mind what he might do to get even with his rival who was Joseph. Finally, the night of the performance, Mary and Joseph walked across the stage. They knocked on the door of the inn, and the inn-keeper opened the door and asked them what they wanted. Joseph answered, “We’d like to have a room for the night.” Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, “Great, come on in and I’ll give you the best room in the house.”

THAT WASN’T IN THE SCRIPT

For a few long seconds poor little Joseph didn’t know what to do. Then finally, an idea occurred to him. He pretended to look inside “the inn” and then - turning to Mary he said: “No wife of mine is going to stay in dump like this. Come on, Mary, let’s go to the barn.”

Now, did Joseph ever say anything like that in the Gospels? NO! In fact I’ve done a study on the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke, and I found that Joseph never said anything, anywhere in the Gospels. Not a single word.

In Matthew 1:18-24 we’re told: “Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and 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 fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will 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 1:24

JOSEPH NEVER SAID A WORD. He simply obeyed God and took Mary to be his wife.

In Matthew 2:13-15 we’re told that “When (the Wisemen) had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.” Matthew 2: 15

AGAIN, JOSEPH NEVER SAYS A WORD. He simply obeyed God and went to Egypt.

Then, in Matthew 2:22 we read “When he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.” Matthew 2:22

AGAIN, JOSEPH NEVER SAYS A WORD. He simply obeyed God and went to Nazareth.

Joseph was kind of like the “silent partner” in the story. He never speaks up, never complains. He just does what he’s told. And you gotta believe that couldn’t have been easy. One preacher put it this way: Joseph didn’t expect to raise a boy that he actually wasn’t the father of. He didn’t expect to be traipsing around countryside on the run from Herod’s soldiers. He didn’t expect to live in Egypt. And he didn’t expect to be responsible for the training and protection of Son of God. I mean, before Mary got pregnant, his future was predictable. He was a skilled craftsman… known for his honesty & righteousness. He knew what to do and when to do it. His life was comfortable. His was not exactly a 9 to 5 workday, but his town and his family would support him as he did what husbands and fathers were supposed to do. He was just an ordinary guy, from an ordinary family, living in an ordinary town, with an ordinary job. (Chris Tiller)

BUT THEN JESUS CAME ALONG and life got complicated real quick. For the next 5 years his family was constantly on the move. In Bethlehem they ended up staying in a barn; then they probably lived with relatives for a couple years. Then Joseph had to take his family into a foreign country for about 2 years. And if Herod ever found them… well, that would not have been a good thing! When Joseph proposed to Mary… that wasn’t what he signed up for. But because of Jesus, Joseph’s life became unpredictable and confusing. He literally SACRIFICED his future for Jesus!