12/23/07 - Advent 4 - Matthew 1:18-25

CONSIDER JOSEPH
- He believed the impossible
- He faithfully did his duty

He always seems to be the sidekick in a way. He’s forever overshadowed. He’s right there in full view but no one pays him any attention. Because there’s the baby Jesus in front of him, the Lord, the King, lying in the manger bed. And then there’s the virgin Mary, the instrument of the Holy Spirit’s miracle, kneeling next to her son, the one who is always depicted as holding the Savior in her arms. And, oh yeah, Joseph is there too. Isn’t that what it’s like? Joseph is almost in the background even though he is front and center. We think of him as simply standing there, holding his staff, distant, mysterious, caring, but not all that involved with that momentous event in Bethlehem.
There’s a reason for this universal passing over of Joseph. Scripture doesn’t say a whole lot about him. Other than some insignificant references to him in the other gospels, the first two chapters of the book of Matthew are the only places in which a few details are spoken about Jesus’ stepfather. And for good reason. The focus should be on Christ. The focus should be on the miracle of God’s birth. But as we dwell on this portion of Scripture today, Matthew 1:18-25, it seems as if the Lord doesn’t want us to forget about that third person in the middle of that manger scene. Today I want you to consider Joseph. Because he believed the impossible. And he faithfully did his duty.
Although we don’t know a whole lot about Joseph, the little that we do know about him is all good. He was a Christian man who handled himself very well in strange and unprecedented situations. Think of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth that Joseph had to deal with. He was engaged to a young woman named Mary, but before it became official, Mary was suddenly pregnant! Joseph must have been shocked and furious and humiliated and heartbroken all at the same time! He knew it wasn’t his child and there was no way he could take Mary as his wife after her infidelity. But because Joseph “was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” According to the laws of that time, adultery could be punishable by death. And even if death were not the result, a woman would be ostracized and looked down upon by the rest of her people. And so what Joseph had planned to do was a very noble thing.
But as he was thinking about this an angel of the Lord visited him in a dream. “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.” These are very familiar words to us. Words we here every Christmas. But the amazing thing about these words is that Joseph believed them! Joseph believed the impossible! He didn’t question what the angel had said. He didn’t wake up from his dream and wonder if it were true or not. He simply believed. He trusted that this impossible, unthinkable, unbelievable miracle was actually true. And even if we assume he knew what Isaiah had said, that “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,” even if he knew that prophecy and remembered it at the time of the angel’s announcement, he still believed that it was happening to him! That his wife-to-be was the mother of the Messiah. That they were the parents of the one whom all believers of all time had been waiting for.
We talk about a child-like faith sometimes. A faith that doesn’t question, that doesn’t hesitate, that doesn’t criticize, critique, or test. A faith that understands, “If it is said, it is so.” But forget about a child-like faith! How about a Joseph-like faith! Because he was an adult! He knew better! He could logically, intellectually, and rationally see that what the angel told him was completely ridiculous! It was impossible! He couldn’t understand it and so he believed it. He took the Lord at his Word.
But that wasn’t the last time Joseph believed the impossible. After the wise men had left their gifts with Jesus, Matthew records for us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph again in a dream. And this time he told him to go to Egypt because Herod was going to seek out Jesus in order to kill him. Joseph didn’t wonder if this were true either. He didn’t say to himself, “King Herod? What would he be worried about? How would he even know about Jesus? And if he did, how would he know where we are?” No, Joseph just believed. And then he took the Lord’s at his word again when the angel told him to go back to Israel, and again when he was told in a dream to go to Galilee. The Lord spoke to him four times in his dreams and every time Joseph displayed an incredible faith that is rivaled in few other places of Scripture. He continually believed the impossible without question, without comment. If it was said, it was so.
Do you feel as if your faith doesn’t measure up to the faith Joseph displayed? I feel that way. I know I don’t accept things in his Word like Joseph did. I read words in Scripture about things like predestination, words that are all true but words that just don’t logically fit together and never will. And when I read those kinds of things my eyebrows lower, the corner of my mouth smirks, my hand rests on my forehead and I think, “That doesn’t make sense. How could that be? It doesn’t fit together. Something’s not right.” Haven’t you ever experienced that?
Maybe you read that God says, “I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you” (Jer. 29:11). These are simple and clear enough words. But then he says them to you in the middle of sicknesses and pains and catastrophes and accidents and surgeries and diseases and death and sin, and you begin to wonder, “Is that really true? It doesn’t make sense. How could he have plans to prosper me and not to harm me if all these things are happening to me right now?” Or we may think of God’s eternal judgment on unbelievers. That God will condemn every unbeliever to death - even those who have never heard about Jesus before. “Is that really true,” we’re tempted to say. “It doesn’t make sense. How can that be if God is a loving God and wants all people to be saved?” There are many things we wonder about in the Bible, things that God has said that we question and maybe even disagree with. Things that don’t sit well with our learning, things that don’t correspond with the way we would do it if we were in charge. That is doubt, my friends. And doubt is not a good thing. Doubt is not believing. Doubt is not trusting what God has clearly said in his Word. It is harmful, it is disrespectful, and it is a product of our corrupt and nasty sinful natures. That’s why Joseph’s faith is so incredible. It’s so easy for us to doubt and wonder and deny. But Joseph believed, without a doubt. He believed the impossible, because that’s what God said. He put his logic and intellect and experience and the very laws of nature behind him and surrendered to God’s clear Word about his Savior. A Savior who also happened to be his son.
That relationship between Joseph and Jesus must have been an interesting one over those next few years. It’s hard to say what it was like. A father with his son, but at the same time: a servant with his Savior. Of course, our relationship with our Savior is just as close and just as profound. Because the one whose words we doubt, is the Word incarnate. The one whose promises we question, came into this world based on a promise. The one whom we hesitate to believe at times did not hesitate to humble himself to be born in a barn, to go without sleep in order to pray for our well-being, to experience temptations from the devil himself, to allow his enemies to beat and mock him, to offer himself up as a sacrifice for disobedient creatures, or to lay in the tomb for three days as if he were only a regular human being… What a unique relationship we have with our Savior because our relationship with him is one-sided. He does all the work and he shows all the love. He forgives us when we question him and encourages us when we doubt. He promises us more when we remember him less. He gives up his own life when all we care about is ourselves. Our relationship with our Savior is everything it needs to be. It all depends on him. That’s something Joseph understood. That’s why he believed in him. And that’s also why he faithfully did his duty.
That’s another interesting thing we know about Joseph. He always faithfully did what he was supposed to do. Matthew tells us, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” It wasn’t anything too spectacular that Joseph did. It wasn’t outwardly fascinating, it didn’t take a whole lot of time nor much effort. He took Mary as his wife and he named the boy Jesus. But Joseph faithfully did what he was supposed to do. And every time that an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream after that, he did exactly what he was told to do again. He immediately went to Egypt and then back to Israel and then finally to Nazareth. Again, nothing extraordinary. He traveled and he took his family with him. Anyone could do that! But the point is: he always did his duty according to the Lord’s will.
You and I will rarely do anything visibly extraordinary either. We will probably do nothing that is comparable to Moses parting the Red Sea or a woman washing Jesus feet with perfume that cost a year’s salary or that beautiful Christian confession of the thief on the cross. But the Lord still calls on us to faithfully do our duty. We know what we should do. We know what God wants us to do. And we should not hesitate to do it. That would include going the extra mile to lend a hand to those in any kind of need. Giving of your time to help out the congregation. That would include telling others about this holy child whose birth we will celebrate these next two days. That would include being kind, patient, and forgiving to all people in all circumstances. That would include making an effort to be a quality husband, wife, father, mother, child, employee, neighbor, friend, member. That would include encouraging those of us who are down, correcting those of us who are wrong and feeding those of us who need to taste the pure and glorious gospel once again. You have work to do. You have a duty to carry out. Maybe nothing on which books will be written. Maybe nothing for which you will be remembered for years to come. But very important work that the Lord has called on you to do nevertheless. And I can only pray that you live your Christian life in the same way as Joseph led his. Faithfully and quietly and humbly.
We don’t hear anything about Joseph after they went back to Nazareth. He drops out of the picture completely. Other than mentioning that he traveled with his family to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12, we don’t know how long he lived, where he died, or how he died. Because the Bible is not about him. Or Mary. Or Paul. Or Abraham. The Bible is about the one in whom all of those Christians believed. That little baby in the manger. The Savior in the straw. He is the heart of all Scripture. He was at the heart of Joseph’s life. And he is at the heart of ours. Tomorrow night we will celebrate his coming. The next morning we will continue our praises. And for every day after that we will thank him in our words and actions for all that he has done for us until we too with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and angels will see him face to face as well.
Amen.

“Jesus appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” - 1 Tim. 3:16