Matthew 1:18–25

Advent 4

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). ²⁴When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

This text begins with Joseph’s refusal to believe. Joseph did not believe that Mary, his legal wife, had conceived a son by the Holy Spirit. Even though God himself prophesied through Isaiah that the virgin would conceive and bear a Son Joseph did not believe Mary. O yes, he believed that she was pregnant. He also believed the prophecies about the Virgin Birth. He just didn’t believe that Mary was the one Isaiah had talked about. In other words, our text starts out with a lack of faith. Just like all of us begin our lives without faith, lost, and separated from God by original sin. In this respect we are just like Joseph.

Although this text begins with a discomforting story about Joseph’s lack of faith, it ends with the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. In the end Joseph’s unbelief was overcome by the Word of God delivered by an angel. He not only believed in Jesus, he claimed him as his own legal child and is the one who named him Jesus.

Although Joseph is the center of this text from the Gospel of Matthew, it is really the story of how God saved us. The name Jesus itself means, “God saves.” Mary’s child is God appearing in human form. This is what we confess every Sunday: He “was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” The incarnation, that means God taking on human flesh and bone, is the foundation of all that we Christians believe.

Taking a closer look at Joseph, it was not that he did not believe Isaiah’s prophecy about the virgin bearing a child, but he did not believe that the prophecy was coming true in Mary. Preposterous claims deserve skeptical responses, and no man in Joseph’s shoes would have reacted any differently.

Christmas is usually seen as a Mary and Jesus thing, not a Joseph-Jesus thing. Our carols are more about Mary and Jesus. Not too many people talk about Joseph during Christmas. Even the post office always issues stamps with Mary each year at Christmas, but never on just of Joseph unless he is with Mary and Jesus. Joseph’s role seems secondary. He is somewhere behind the angels and shepherds and Wise Men. Nevertheless, speaking through Matthew, the Holy Spirit places Joseph in center stage. For Matthew, Christmas begins with Joseph’s dilemma about what to do with a wife whom he thinks is carrying another man’s child.

Culture affects what we think is right and wrong. Joseph’s situation of what to do would not be a major problem today. Today some couples live together without being married, and they even have children. The scenario of a man marrying a woman who is carrying another man’s child is not uncommon. Joseph’s world was much different. Israelite men were obliged to have a son to secure the inheritance God had given the sons of Israel. Since Joseph was David’s descendent, he knew he could be the progenitor of the Messiah. Someone else’s child would not do. One way to discredit a person is by reminding others that he is illegitimate. Jesus had to face this accusation. From the very beginning the enemies of the Church have attempted to discredit Christianity by claiming that Jesus may have been illegitimate. If this were really true, then Jesus would not be the Son of God and the Christian religion would be a fraud.

Joseph believed Mary’s word that she was pregnant, but not that she was pregnant with Emmanuel, the one promised by the prophet Isaiah. Legal separation and divorce are bitter experiences, but in Joseph’s mind, he had no other choice.

Still, even in his unbelief, Joseph is an example of doing the correct thing in that he did all he could do to protect Mary’s good name by not making public what he supposed to be an act of infidelity.

Perhaps through repetition, saying the creed every week, we have become to think that Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit is rather ordinary. So we often don’t really realize just how tense the situation was between Joseph and Mary. If Mary had been unfaithful, Joseph would lose a wife and Mary would lose not only a husband but also support for her child and herself. Mary would lose her good name and would be an outcast in Jewish society from that time on. While John the Baptist had doubted if Jesus was the Messiah, for Joseph, it was not a matter of doubt. He simply rejected the claim that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Things like this simply do not happen; at least not usually. But it happened once and God became a human being just like us.

The Old Testament law required divorce in cases of adultery. But Joseph had a dilemma; he simply did not want to tell anyone what he thought Mary had done. He chose a kinder path. It’s one thing to be morally right, but a much harder thing to forgive. Indignation about the infractions of others comes much easier to us than overlooking their faults. Joseph is introduced to us here as not believing the word of salvation that Mary had preached to him about her Child being the Son of God. But, on the other hand, Joseph is what every Christian should be in not exposing the sins of others. Luther in his explanation of the 8th Commandment says that we should not only avoid lying, but we should also put the best construction on even the bad things others do. In broadcasting the misdeeds of others, we bring condemnation upon ourselves.

Now Joseph had work to do. He had to get down to the brass tacks of how he was going to prevent Mary’s pregnancy from coming to light in a village of less than a hundred people. No matter what he did, sooner or later her predicament would become known and that would have been a disaster for Mary. It may have been just this problem that Joseph was wrestling with that sleepless night when an angel appeared to him. The angel told him that he should take Mary as his wife. Her child was no ordinary child, but is the God who redeems his people. The same God who had come in dreams to Abraham and Jacob and the Joseph of the Old Testament, was now coming to another Joseph in a dream. Mary’s husband would not be the biological father of the Messiah, but he would be his legal father. As soon as Joseph wakes from his dream, and much to Mary’s surprise, he takes her into his house as his wife.

If, in our Christmas celebrations, Joseph is the minor figure, in the Christmas story the first Christians heard he had a major part. That dream telling him to take Mary as his wife was not his last one. He received another dream to flee from the wrath of Herod to Egypt in order to save the Child’s life. He received still another dream some years later, instructing him to return from Egypt to their home in Galilee. Then there is still another dream on the way back to Galilee, that they should avoid Judea and Archelaus, the murderous son of King Herod. Matthew’s Christmas story begins with Joseph’s refusal to believe his wife’s report that she is carrying a Child conceived by the Holy Spirit, but it ends with Joseph as the hero of faith and the guardian of the child born to be the Savior of the world; Emmanuel, God with Us.

We can define life in several ways. One definition to which we can all resonate is that life is a series of dilemmas. When we get through one dilemma, we face another. That also describes the Old Testament. God’s people get out of one dilemma, and in a short time they were in another. When God resolved Joseph’s dilemma of what to do with an unfaithful wife, he was resolving the predicament of all humankind. Mary’s child, Emmanuel, would save God’s people from their sin by releasing them from death and Satan’s power. All this Mary’s Child could do because Jesus, “God saves us,” was also the Emmanuel Child spoken of in Isaiah. That name means “God is with us.” God could save us because he became one with us in Mary’s Child. He became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone.

For all legal purposes throughout his life, Jesus was known as Joseph’s son, and from Joseph Jesus learned the trade of a carpenter. Yet after Matthew’s Christmas narrative, Joseph plays no part in the Gospel.

Still, Joseph’s legacy would be preserved in the life of Jesus and also in his own sons. James, the eldest brother of Jesus, became the bishop of Jerusalem and the author of a New Testament book. Jude, another son of Joseph, also wrote a book of the Bible. With the death and resurrection of Jesus, the question of “who was related to whom by blood?” lost its importance. Jesus said that his brothers, sisters, and mothers were those who did the will of his Father in believing that he was the Christ. Together, Christ’s brothers and sisters constitute the household of God. The point of Matthew’s Christmas story is that God came to us as Mary’s child; Emmanuel, God with Us.

And if we are looking for a secondary lesson, it might be Joseph’s willingness not to make a public example of Mary. Joseph’s desire to overlook her faults and to forgive rather than expose her sin to the rest of the world. His forgiveness is raised to an even higher plane in Jesus, who forgives all of us so that as his church we can become his Bride without spot or blemish. Like the Old Testament Joseph, Jesus forgives all his brothers with whom he has become one by his incarnation of the Virgin Mary.

Matthew’s Christmas story begins with unbelief and ends with faith.

Maybe that’s the way every Christmas should be.

Amen.