He was
named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived~
Luke 2:21
Any
one who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of Christmas, I love everything
about the Christmas season; I love Jesus of course (I’m not a heathen): but
also I love the parties, the food, the trees, the tacky decorations, the music,
and the traditions. I even love the stuff I should probably see as distractions:
like Frosty, Santa Claus, the elves, reindeer, and gift giving and getting;
basically all the commercial stuff that sidetracks from what should be a simple
celebration of the birth of the Savior.
Since becoming a Christian I have
attempted to balance my appetite for the more commercial aspects of the
celebration with the spiritual side of Christmas. Because I am drawn to the
less than spiritual aspects of Christmas (please don’t judge me) I have disciplined
myself to spend a little extra time every year focusing on the birth story of
Christ. This year I started in Matthew
and rediscovered an over-looked (at least for me) hero of the Christmas story:
Joseph.
Joseph is easy to dismiss because Mary is
the star of the show. It’s easy to get caught up in the drama of her story. A
young virgin whose world is suddenly turned upside down by a visit from an
angel of all things; her obedient response to the angel’s announcement is a
picture-perfect example of what a response to God’s call should look like. She
willingly endured personal loss, hardship and probably even ridicule to become
the Mother of the Messiah. Her bravery and selflessness stands as an example to
us all; Mary’s story is easy to get caught up in.
But this year Joseph captured my attention,
in Joseph I see attitudes and behaviors that I would like to see more of in
myself; I’m convinced that if all Christians were a little more like Joseph the
world would be a better place. Today I’m going to share with you the three
things I gleaned about authentic righteousness from the most overlooked member
of the Christmas story…
The first thing that struck me about
Joseph is that God considered him a righteous man; it was a fairly rare thing
for God to declare someone righteous pre-resurrection of Jesus. Then the text
says that because of his righteousness he did not want to divorce Mary publicly.
It’s important to understand that at this point Mary and Joseph were legally
wed, but the marriage had not been consummated and would not be for a full year
after their betrothal.
According to both Jewish and Roman law Joseph
had every right to publicly divorce Mary. He had what appeared to be solid
evidence of infidelity and her story about the angel would have pushed the
boundaries of believability in Joseph’s mind. Any one of us would have excused
Joseph for publically humiliating a woman who slept with another man and then
told an outrageous story to cover-up her sin. Joseph’s gracious attitude
teaches us that in God’s estimation righteous people go out of their way not to
hurt others or behave in a vengeful way even when they have been legitimately wronged.
As I read through Matthew chapter two I
was amazed by Joseph’s willingness to ignore the opinions of people in order to
gain the approval of God. After Joseph
had the dream where he was instructed to keep Mary as his wife, he had to go
back to his family and friends and tell them that he planned to go ahead with
the marriage to the girl who I am sure most people were persuaded was a well,
uhm not the nicest girl… You get my meaning.
Keep in mind that this was a different time;
the standards of behavior were much higher then than they are now. Today forty
percent of all American children are born to unwed Mothers. That sort of monkey
business simply did not happen in ancient Jewish communities. Most of his
family and friends probably believed that Joseph was either a chump or a liar.
I’m convinced that Joseph took a lot of guff for his decision to stick by Mary.
He did it because righteous people care
more about pleasing God than people.
Joseph’s difficulties did not end there.
He waited to consummate the marriage until after the baby was born; he spent
the next couple of years on the run. Every time he and Mary would get
comfortable somewhere he would have another dream telling him that Jesus was
not safe and he and Mary and the baby would head out for a new location. It was
like being in witness relocation for God instead of the government. Joseph’s selflessness
reminds me that true righteousness involves inconvenience and self-denial. This
piece of the Christmas story teaches us that God considers us honorable when we
are willing to put other people and their needs first for the sake of the
greater good.
Christmas is a time of joyful celebration and
that’s okay because I am convinced that God is a lover of fun and celebration,
most of the Old Testament Holy days were intended to be joyful celebrations of
God’s goodness. The story of Christ’s birth and the celebration of Christmas
should be a joyful reminder of God’s goodness to humanity in giving us His son
who would become the Savior.
My
prayer this week for all of us is that Joseph’s story will be reminder that our
response to God’s goodness should be a life of authentic righteousness. I pray
that Joseph’s actions and attitudes would serve to teach us what a life of
righteousness should look like.
He has showed you, O man,
what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love
mercy
and to walk humbly with your God~ Micah 6:8
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