As we come into the week of Christmas our minds will inevitably turn to the Christmas story. A love story that turns complicated with the intrusion of an unplanned pregnancy, and a turn of events Hollywood could never make up.
We admire a brave young woman, barely marriageable age, and recently betrothed, for accepting the word of the Lord and agreeing to carry and give birth to the Messiah, despite the severe social consequences she will endure. We have to admire her courage. We have to applaud her willingness to give up everything to be obedient to God. She reminds us that when God blesses us he turns our world upside down.
As with many birth stories the focus most often is on the mother. I’d like to think today about the Christ Child’s adoptive father, Joseph the true patriarch.
He is a hard working carpenter, meaning he could be a wood-joiner and maker of furniture and other products from wood, or a stone mason, or both. He also has social connections. In fact, if it had not been for the Jewish captivity and the turn of history he would be king, a direct descendant of David himself. Prestigious among those who regard those things as important in his world, but not doing him much good in the Roman regime.
Now let’s consider his character. We are told he is a righteous man, and when he discovers Mary is pregnant during a time when she should be chaste, he decides to extend grace, and part ways privately and without allegation or charges. When the angel visits him in a dream to encourage him, he agrees to take her as his wife.
By taking Mary on Joseph willingly compromises his own reputation in the close-knit society of Nazareth. He publicly accepts responsibility (and the stigma) for what everyone assumes is immoral behavior and claims the unborn child as his own. The babe is thereby adopted and for all legal and practical purposes as the child of Joseph. He brings Mary and child under his roof, and accepts full responsibility for their care and protection. He also defers his own gratification until the child is born.
When taxation and registration force Joseph to travel to the home of his fathers, he takes Mary, “great with child,” with him. He assures her safety and makes sure she has somewhere to rest and give birth. After her purification, he presents the child in the temple and offers prescribed sacrifices for his “firstborn.” The Lord warns him of danger from Herod’s paranoia, and he takes mother and child away to Egypt to ensure safety.
We catch a glimpse of Joseph twelve years later, as the family travels with others home from the Passover observance at Jerusalem. When they miss young Jesus after a day of travel, Joseph returns to Jerusalem and searches frantically for three days before finding him in the temple, doing “his father’s business”.
We don’t see Joseph in person after that. But we do see the lasting impression he made on his Son, who at age 30 walked away from the carpenter shop to accept the call to be the savior of the world. We see Joseph’s willingness to obey at great personal sacrifice. We see Joseph’s ability to hear the Lord and to see beyond the immediate circumstance and to live for the greater good. We see Joseph’s ability to defer personal gratification. The mark of a true patriarch is to be able to recognize him in his children.
Joseph is a patriarch because he uses his masculine strength to protect, provide, and make a way for a brighter future. Not just for his family, but for all mankind.
We admire a brave young woman, barely marriageable age, and recently betrothed, for accepting the word of the Lord and agreeing to carry and give birth to the Messiah, despite the severe social consequences she will endure. We have to admire her courage. We have to applaud her willingness to give up everything to be obedient to God. She reminds us that when God blesses us he turns our world upside down.
As with many birth stories the focus most often is on the mother. I’d like to think today about the Christ Child’s adoptive father, Joseph the true patriarch.
He is a hard working carpenter, meaning he could be a wood-joiner and maker of furniture and other products from wood, or a stone mason, or both. He also has social connections. In fact, if it had not been for the Jewish captivity and the turn of history he would be king, a direct descendant of David himself. Prestigious among those who regard those things as important in his world, but not doing him much good in the Roman regime.
Now let’s consider his character. We are told he is a righteous man, and when he discovers Mary is pregnant during a time when she should be chaste, he decides to extend grace, and part ways privately and without allegation or charges. When the angel visits him in a dream to encourage him, he agrees to take her as his wife.
By taking Mary on Joseph willingly compromises his own reputation in the close-knit society of Nazareth. He publicly accepts responsibility (and the stigma) for what everyone assumes is immoral behavior and claims the unborn child as his own. The babe is thereby adopted and for all legal and practical purposes as the child of Joseph. He brings Mary and child under his roof, and accepts full responsibility for their care and protection. He also defers his own gratification until the child is born.
When taxation and registration force Joseph to travel to the home of his fathers, he takes Mary, “great with child,” with him. He assures her safety and makes sure she has somewhere to rest and give birth. After her purification, he presents the child in the temple and offers prescribed sacrifices for his “firstborn.” The Lord warns him of danger from Herod’s paranoia, and he takes mother and child away to Egypt to ensure safety.
We catch a glimpse of Joseph twelve years later, as the family travels with others home from the Passover observance at Jerusalem. When they miss young Jesus after a day of travel, Joseph returns to Jerusalem and searches frantically for three days before finding him in the temple, doing “his father’s business”.
We don’t see Joseph in person after that. But we do see the lasting impression he made on his Son, who at age 30 walked away from the carpenter shop to accept the call to be the savior of the world. We see Joseph’s willingness to obey at great personal sacrifice. We see Joseph’s ability to hear the Lord and to see beyond the immediate circumstance and to live for the greater good. We see Joseph’s ability to defer personal gratification. The mark of a true patriarch is to be able to recognize him in his children.
Joseph is a patriarch because he uses his masculine strength to protect, provide, and make a way for a brighter future. Not just for his family, but for all mankind.
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