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Not just Mary’s husband: The fortunate obedience of Joseph

Sept. 14, 2008
Background Scripture: Matthew 1:18-2:23
Devotional Reading: Hosea 11:1-4

Christmas in September? Why not? The story of the incarnation is timely any day of the year.

Dec. 25 is a special time of celebration, but, just as the resurrection is timely the whole year long, so is the Incarnation. Christmas and Easter are integral parts of the same story. Both the manger and the cross define for us who and what Jesus was, and is.
If you compare the Christmas narratives in both Luke and Matthew (there are none in either Mark or John), you will note that while Luke’s account – apart from Jesus, of course – is focused almost entirely on Mary, Matthew’s narrative tells the story from Joseph’s perspective.

The name Joseph, which means “may God add posterity,” appears 15 or 16 times in the Bible, depending upon the version you read. I imagine that most people think of the Old Testament son of Jacob, the Joseph of the many-colored coat who in Egypt became the Pharaoh’s prime minister. Others may remember Joseph of Arimathea, the member of the Sanhedrin who buried Jesus in a tomb on his own property.

Mary’s husband

Joseph is prominent in Matthew 1 and 2 and mentioned briefly in Luke, in Mark not at all (although there is a reference to “the carpenter”) and in John (1:45, 6:42), Jesus is twice mentioned as “the son of Joseph.”

Although during the Middle Ages – roughly, the 12th to 14th centuries – there was a modest cult of St. Joseph in the Roman Catholic Church, and today he is still honored on several Catholic festival days, Joseph has been largely neglected by Christians.

Many artistic renditions of the Nativity picture only Mary and the newborn Jesus. One writer claimed there were more stable animals in Nativity paintings and crèches than of Joseph!

Nonetheless, he has some positive values for followers of Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 2, as well as in the New Testament itself, the first mention of Joseph is his designation as “a just man and unwilling to put her (Mary) to shame.” For that reason, he “resolved to divorce her quietly” (Mt. 1:19).

In Jewish society at this time there were two distinct steps before marriage. The first was engagement, a step often taken for children by their families. Engagements could be broken by either party.

The second step was betrothal, a one-year period that signified that the engagement was ratified and in which they were regarded as husband and wife, although without the right of sexual relations. This step could be terminated only by marriage or the formal procedure of divorce.

This is where we find Joseph and Mary at the beginning of the Nativity story. Normally, a pregnant betrothed woman would have been denounced, divorced and shunned, but more than being “just a man,” Joseph was a just man.

A receptive man

According to Luke and Matthew, Joseph was a distant descendant of King David, a requirement for anyone to be considered as messianic. Joseph was also responsible for Jesus’ training as a carpenter.

But probably the most admirable trait of Joseph was his openness to God’s guidance. Four times Joseph received guidance from God in his dreams and each time he overcame his natural inclinations in order to follow the instruction given him. Instead of divorcing Mary quietly as he intended and his contemporaries would have expected, he took her in marriage.

When Herod was doing his utmost to find and kill the infant Jesus, Joseph followed God’s warning to escape to Egypt, thus saving Jesus and his family from Herod’s bloody slaughter of children in the area of Bethlehem. When Herod died, and in a dream Joseph was told to return to Israel, Joseph did as he was told.

Finally, arriving in Israel, he obeyed another dream to settle in Nazareth, away from Archelaus, the son of Herod.

Joseph was a man who was amazingly receptive to God’s guidance. So, before we dismiss him simply as Mary’s husband … how many of us can match his example of openness and obedience?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.

9/10/2008