Mathew 2

Christmas in August

Last week we went through the genealogy of Jesus to see the way that Matthew used it to summarize the story God told through the people of the old Testament and how all of that has lead up to this moment in history when Jesus was born.

Now as I said last time Matthew had a primary purpose of showing the Jewish people that Jesus was the promised Messiah. You will notice as we go through the text that he references back to old testament prophets and talks about the fulfillment of prophecies often. Before we dig into all of the prophecy though I want to start having Christmas in August tonight.

I know it seems like Christmas gets celebrated earlier and earlier every year.

We are going to focus on a character of Christmas that I feel like does not get talked about quite as much. We are going to discuss Joseph. People focus in on Mary and on the three kings and just about everything in the story except for Joseph. Joseph is hardly ever mentioned outside of this story either so it seems as though Joseph must be insignificant. I would argue that Joseph is one of the best characters in this whole Gospel and that more of us should be like Joseph.

The Character of Joseph

So what can we learn about the earthly father of Jesus? What kind of guy was he? Was he just some random guy or did God pick him for a reason?

Let’s start with the text beginning in verse 18

Matthew 1:18 “Now 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.”

What is betrothal?

We often think of betrothal as being the same as engagement in todays culture. A promise to get married one day. This was not what it actually was though.

In those days marriages were often arranged by the parents of the bride and groom. Once they got to the point of being betrothed then that actually ment that legally they were married. They had already had a separate ceremony and signed documents so that they were legally bound together and could only be separated by divorce. The betrothal period was a one year time period in which the now married couple would spend apart. They do not get to spend their first night together until the end of that year where then a big celebration would be held and they would get to finally stay together.

This one year period was to demonstrate their commitment to purity to one another and to God. If the wife was found to be with child during this time or the husband caught with another woman, it would show that they were not committed to one another and be grounds for divorce.

So when Mary is found to be with child let’s look at Josephs reaction.

Matthew 1:19 “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”

Now the first thing that many people will think is why would he do that? She was pregnant from God it was the Holy Spirit who did this she was a virgin and it was Jesus in there. Ok we know all of that is true because of what happened next, but think about Joseph.

Honestly if a woman came to you and said he I’m pregnant but I swear I am still a virgin and it is from God because an angel came and told me so. What would your reaction be? Most of us are going to laugh in her face and then call the crazy house to see if they had one escape recently. This is something that to us today looking back on Mary and Josephs situation seems normal because we have all grown up with the Christmas story.

Praise God that we were all raised in church and know all of these stories, but it can sometimes be a hinderance to us because we fail to grasp the gravity of a situation such as this one because it has become commonplace for us instead of the supernatural work that it is. I want to remind you today that this was an unbelievable story. When Mary told Joseph about what was going on while it was the truth, no sane human being on earth would have believed her if God had not already spoken to them.

Josephs Love/Mercy

So, Joseph decides to divorce her quietly. Why? It says here to not put her to shame, but let me clue you in on what would have happened to Mary had Joseph made it known publicly why they were getting divorced. The punishment for adultery was to be stoned. Had Joseph let the jewish leaders know why he decided to divorce Mary they would have drug her from here home (keep in mind that she is likely three months pregnant at this point) out of the city gates and stoned her to death killing her and the child. This was not such an uncommon occurence in these days.

Joseph would have been within his legal rights to allow this to happen. But he didn’t. He didn’t let them know why he was going to divorce her. Imagine the hurt that he was feeling. Imagine to anger and the sadness that would be going through him. He had been betrayed in his mind and she made up some crazy story instead of coming clean with him.

He would have been devestated I am sure. but instead of taking his anger out he shows mercy. Let’s look at Jesus’ own teachings later in his life.

Luke 6:37 ““Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”

Joseph already understood this principle before Jesus taught it. He, even while hurt and burned by someone he trusted, chose to forgive and to show love and mercy just as he would want God to show him.

How often have we been hurt? All of us have been hurt by people we thought we could trust. We have been betrayed and lied to and how often do we react like Joseph in this situation? More often than not all of us want to react in retaliation. We want to get them back and see them punished for what they did to us.

Let’s be a little more like Joseph and be willing to forgive people for what they have done to us even in the midst of the pain. Now I do want you to notice how Joseph handles the situation though. He does not totally forget everything and pretend like nothing happened. No he just protects her from being hurt. In our life we are able to forgive someone and not wish harm on them and at the same time cut them out of our lives so that we are no longer of being hurt in the same way.

Now all of us know though that Mary was actually telling Joseph the truth and she had been faithful this whole time. So what happens next?

Matthew 1:20-25 “But 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

So after he had made his decision to divorce her quietly he laid down to sleep on it essentially. And as he slept he had a dream and in that dream an angel shows up and basically tells him hey everything Mary said is true. Mary her and raise the boy that she gives birth to. Notice another thing that he says here. He calls him Joseph son of David.

This is an important reminder to Joseph of his family heritage. The angel is telling him here hey remember how you are in the line of people that God promised the savior was going to come through? Today is the day buddy and you’re gonna raise him.

All of what the angel says is true and is true and meaningful, but again let’s be real for a second and think about it. Joseph went to sleep thinking about how his wife must have been unfaithful and now he has to get a divorce. He then dreams that an angel comes to him and tells him her wild story was the truth and not a lie. It still isn’t easy to believe.

I don’t know about you guys but I have had some pretty wild dreams before so it would still be hard for me to believe Marys story in this situation. But what we see from Joseph is that he immediately believes the angel and takes Mary as his wife. Again this is a fact that we take for granted since we have heard the story a million times but compare it to the story of Jonah real quick.

Jonah was told directly by God to go and preach to the city of Ninevah and he ran and tried to avoid what God was telling him to do. Joseph was told in a dream by an angel to believe Mary and he did it without question. Whats the difference here?

Jesus will later teach us more about it in Matthew.

Matthew 17:20 “He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.””

Josephs Faith

The difference is faith. Jonah lacked faith that anything good could come from him ministering to that city because he harboured a hatred for the people of that city. Joseph on the other hand still had faith in God that even if the situation seems tough and seems unbelievable God can and will work through it.

Joseph believes here that God is capable of doing such an unbelievable miracle that we see in this story and so he takes Mary as his wife and raises Jesus as His earthly father.

God can work in this same way for us. When we are faced with challenging situations we often doubt that God is capable of making something good come from it. But sometimes, those challenging situations were designed by God to make something great come from our lives. We need to have faith in Him through the ups and the downs that He is infinetely wiser than we are and knows the situation better than we do.

Through this story we see two instances where Joseph exemplifies a lesson that Jesus later teaches to His followers. Joseph wasn’t just randomly picked because he was in the line of David, no remember how he is described in verse 19? Joseph was a just man. He was a man that had a heart for the Lord and wanted to serve Him no matter the cost and no matter the situation.

We’ve learned to be more like Joseph and show those who have wronged us mercy and forgiveness just as we would want to be shown. At the same time hold onto your faith that God is with us and that though faith in Him impossible feats become simple tasks.