Courage to Stand

Four hundred years of prophetic silence was broken when the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias the priest to announce that he and his wife would be having a child in their old age. This son would be named John and would be the one who would precede the Savior of the world and call the people of Israel back to God. This was followed by an announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the Savior of the world, whose name would be Jesus. Her pregnancy would be even more miraculous in that she had never been with a man. She then went and visited Elizabeth, Zacharias’ wife, and they praised God together for what he was doing in their lives and what would happen as a result.

The story now passes to Joseph, Mary’s husband, as he responds to the news.

Matthew 1:18–25 NASB95

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Let’s place ourselves in Joseph’s shoes. Here’s a young man from a small town living his life as a carpenter. Life was probably looking pretty good at this point. He had a trade, he was engaged to a young woman, things were probably moving along as they were supposed to. Now it is likely that their parents arranged this marriage, but it does not necessarily mean it was forced upon them or they did not love each other. Let’s assume for now that Joseph really cares for Mary and is looking forward to spending his life together with her.

During the betrothal period, the Hebrew couple are legally married. The pledge to be married was legally binding and people would refer to them as husband and wife as if the marriage ceremony had already taken place. During this time, the husband was off preparing a place for he and his wife to live. This would often be an addition to his parent’s house. During this time, if the wife was found to be pregnant, it was regarded as adultery and the husband had legal grounds for divorce. So Joseph is assuming all is well until one day Mary drops a bomb on Joseph by telling him she’s pregnant.

Now the real kicker to this whole thing is she claims not to be pregnant by another man, which is the only natural explanation, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. As I have stated before, this is a unique situation. This has never happened any other time in all of human history. God has opened the wombs of many barren women, but never created a fetus using only a single parent’s DNA. Joseph had to conclude Mary was lying. This is indicated by his decision to divorce her quietly. This process could have been a very public spectacle. The punishment for adultery was stoning, but it may have been different if a woman was known to be pregnant. In either case, public humiliation and shame was on the table. But Joseph’s care for Mary is seen in his desire to handle this quietly.

Then an angel appears to Joseph in a dream.This is presumably the same angel Gabriel who appeared to Zacharias and Mary, but the text does not say this. The angel reveals the truth to Joseph and it is here that we learn that Jesus is not just a ruler who will take the throne of his father David, but he will save his people from their sins. We get a hint at the atonement here where Jesus will offer himself as the ultimate sacrifice. Matthew, the writer to the Jews, ties these events to the fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. There is a child born of a virgin and the name on his birth certificate was not Immanuel, but it has become clear that what Isaiah spoke in chapter 7 is more than a name. It is a reality. John wrote in John 1:14

John 1:14 NASB95

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word, who was with God and who was God, became a human being and lived among his people. This is the ultimate meaning of the name Immanuel. God became like one of us, experienced suffering and death at the hands of his own creation, to save us from ourselves, from the power sin had over us, and the prison of our own making. This was the man who Joseph was called to be father of.

The angel is calling upon Joseph to do something incredibly scary and dangerous. Be the father of the one who will bring forth salvation for his people. There is no doubt that Joseph would have faced his own public shame and ridicule in the wake of his decision to take Mary as his wife. What Joseph is willing to do would be a massive scandal in his culture. News would spread. You can imagine the amount of pressure that came from his family, his friends, and neighbors once his decision was made public. “Joseph, don’t do this to yourself. You deserve better! Don’t you want to be with someone who will be faithful to you? Why would you want to raise another man’s son?” It’s one thing to make a decision, but it is another to walk in that decision.

Joseph would have had a ton of naysayers. But he made a choice. He chose to obey God as the angel had commanded. There is no way to determine how long before the marriage ceremony this event took place, but it seems like they were officially married by the time Jesus was born because of this last statement in verse 25. He kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. There was no intercourse even after it would have been legally and culturally permissible to do so.

This passage teaches us many things about the person of Jesus, but it also teaches us something important about Joseph:

Doing what is right may cost you your reputation.

Joseph did not have to take Mary as his wife. Nobody would have faulted him if he divorced her. Except God showed up and told him to do it. Could you imagine having to do what Joseph did? Maybe you have been the talk of the town before in a negative light. Maybe people have said things about you that were not true. Maybe everywhere you went people looked down on you for the rumor mill they listened to. Try as you might to fox the narrative and set the record straight, the stories just kept persisting. It would be hard to walk the path Joseph walked in the time period in which he lived.

In one sense, things are different today. A situation like this is not as damaging as it was in Joseph’s time. We are used to crazy at this point. If someone claimed to be pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit today, we would say she’s nuts, but I’ve heard a lot of crazy things and seen a lot of crazy things in my relatively short lifetime. Not much surprises me anymore. On the other hand, the court of public opinion still has the power to pronounce you guilty before proven innocent. How many times have you believed something you saw on the news, on social media, or anywhere on the internet, believed it to be true, only later to discover that after new information came to light it wasn’t true at all? There comes a point in which it does not matter what the truth is. The damage to a person’s reputation is already done. Joseph lived this firsthand. Saying yes to God surely cost him his reputation. Joining himself with his wife might have been seen in joining her in her sin. What might that do to the only carpenter in town? To stand for what he believed in might have cost him his business and his standing in the community as a righteous man.

How many times have we seen this unfold before our eyes in the last few years? For the last few years, the message has been if you don’t agree with the narrative, they will cancel you. It has been demonstrated that if you don’t believe what the media tells you, they will do everything to bury you. Disagree with the BLM movement? Cancelled. Disagree with the LGBTQIA+ agenda? Cancelled. Don’t buy into the idea that a man or woman can actually change their gender? Cancelled. There is constant pressure for you as a Christian to compromise your biblical views in favor of the cultural narrative. While these two issues are not the same, this is the kind of pressure Joseph would have faced.

We are often called to choose between what is right and what is easy.

Once upon a time, the right thing to do and the easy thing to do may not have been so far apart. Today it feels like they are at the ends of an ever-widening chasm. Joseph was called by God to follow through with his commitment to take Mary as his wife. He was called to stand firm and refuse to believe the narrative. What they are saying about Mary is not true Joseph. You know the truth. His decision to stand by her side when everybody else was probably telling him not to was not an easy choice, but it was the right choice.

Are you facing a choice between what is right and what is easy? We always want to choose the easier path. It means less conflict. It means there is a measure of peace. It means that you aren’t as tired all the time. It makes it feel like the problem is going away. But the devil doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t take a day off. He doesn’t let up if we take the easy way. We are called to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ. We represent him wherever we go. We are often called to stand on the truth of God’s word in a day where everyone wants to define truth for themselves. You have to keep standing because standing is what is right.