Christmas Eyewitnesses: Joseph

Introduction

The Bible gives little information about Mary’s husband, Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. Matthew 1:16-25 contains virtually all that is known about Joseph prior to his trip to Bethlehem for Jesus’s birth.

The first mention of Joseph shows him as being obedient to God under the most unusual and unique circumstances, and most of the remaining mentions of Joseph demonstrate that same obedience. Perhaps their consistent and long obedience is why Joseph and Mary were chosen to be the earthly parents of the Messiah.

Try to imagine the feelings of Joseph: as he heard the news that Mary was pregnant; as the angel of the Lord told him that the child in her womb was conceived, not by a man, but by the Holy Spirit. How could anyone, even a righteous Jewish man, like Joseph, process such an event?

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The Context of Joseph’s Obedience

Betrothal

a binding commitment: Under the customs of that time, betrothal was equivalent to being married, except that the couple did not live together and did not have sexual relations until the day that they consummated their marriage covenant, usually one year after the bride price was paid. That is why Matthew 1:16 says Joseph was her husband. Yet, they had not come together, meaning that the marriage was not yet consummated.

a virgin was pregnant: This is an absolutely shocking pair of words—a “virgin mother” is naturally impossible, which points us to the supernatural aspect of Jesus’ birth. Physically, Jesus is Mary’s son, for even in the genealogy, where we read over and over that one individual fathered another, verse 16 identifies Joseph as Mary’s husband and Mary as the one “who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.” The text is careful not to call Joseph the father of Jesus. Though the virgin birth is hard for anyone to fully understand — Mary echoed our question: “How can this be?” — it is crucial and necessary to believe, as we’ll see later.

a righteous man: That same verse says that Joseph was faithful to the law. According to the Leviticus 20:10, both parties to adultery were to be put to death. There was no alternative, such as divorce. Joseph was in a complete dilemma. He did not want to publicly disgrace Mary, but he was trapped as to what to do. That trap did not necessarily go away after he took Mary home as his wife. His conscience would have been clear because of the information he received from the angel, but the community of Nazareth would likely have been accusatory, and those accusations would follow Jesus throughout his life. In John 8:41, the Jewish leaders seem to accuse Jesus of being illegitimate.

What he decided: The Levitical law could only be in affect if the Joseph brought charges against Mary, But he didn’t. He decided to divorce her secretly (privately). What this demonstrates: not only was Joseph a “righteous man”, he was also a compassionate and merciful man.

God’s Intervention

God sent an angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream (asleep or a vision? Dreams and visions were a way God often revealed His will in the past: Jacob, Joseph, Peter, and more.)

The angel revealed the supernatural conception of Mary’s baby. In other words, this informed Joseph that Mary had not been unfaithful.

The angel revealed the gender, name, and the destiny of the child Mary will give birth to: “he will save his people from their sins.” By commanding Joseph to name the child meant that Joseph was to adopt the boy as his legal son. This is significant, as we will discover later.

The angel revealed the true identity of the child: the Messiah who Isaiah prophesied, who will be “God with us.” This is more than Israel dreamed; not only a deliverer but God’s physical presence among them; and more importantly, a rescue from sin, not just a human oppressor.

Joseph’s Obedience

This is how Joseph reacted: he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him to do and took Mary home as his wife. The Bible doesn’t say when Joseph took Mary home, but in the hours, days, or months between her being found to be pregnant and her arrival at his house, there must have been a myriad of emotions of the people involved: Joseph and his family members, Mary and her family members, neighbors, rabbis, and others in the community. Few people in Nazareth would have been exempt from being involved emotionally.

Joseph’s (and Mary’s) obedience is remarkable. And their obedience reveals significant truths about Jesus’ birth, nature, and mission.

What This Means

Jesus is fully human: He was born of a woman, so just like any other child, He came as a crying, cooing, bed-wetting baby boy. Don’t let yourself picture Jesus apart from His true humanity. It was a holy night, but it wasn’t silent. After all, whoever heard of a child coming out of the womb and staying quiet? After sleepless nights of putting my own children to sleep, I can only imagine trying to put a baby down when the cows keep mooing and the donkeys keep braying. Jesus wasn’t born with a glowing halo around His head and a smile on His face; He was born like us.

Full range of human characteristics (He is like us physically)

Fully human mentally (He learned as any child learns. He grew as any child grows.)

Fully human emotionally (We read about Jesus’ soul being troubled; we see Him weep, express anger, and we can assume that he smiled and laughed.)

Fully human outwardly (Jesus’ humanity was plain for all to see. John wrote: 1 John 1:1–3 “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

This means that Jesus is fully able to identify with us

Jesus is fully God: As we affirm Jesus’ humanity, in the very same breath we must acknowledge that as the Son of God, Jesus is fully divine. Just as Jesus possesses the full range of human characteristics, so Jesus possesses the full range of divine characteristics.

power over disease

command over nature

authority over sin

control over life and death

This means that Jesus is able to identity with us, and as God, He is fully able to identify with God.

Jesus is King, Priest and Savior

King: born to an adoptive father who was from the line of David. Being Joseph’s legal son means that this adoption ties Jesus to the line of David as a royal son.

Priest: being both fully human and fully God, and able to identify with us and with God, qualifies Him to mediate between God and humankind.

Savior: Matthew tells us that all of these things happened amidst a fallen world. Jesus came to a world of sin in need of salvation, which is why it is crucial to see that ultimately, Jesus is God’s Son. The problem of sin needed a divine solution. Part of the purpose of the virgin birth of Jesus is to show us that salvation does not come from man, but from God. Salvation is wholly the work of a supernatural God, not the work of natural man. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves from our sins, which is evident even in the way in which Jesus entered the world.

When you put these truths concerning Jesus’ nature together, you begin to realize that the incarnation, the doctrine of Jesus’ full humanity and full deity, is the most extraordinary miracle in the whole Bible. And if this miracle is true, then everything else in this Gospel account makes total sense. After all, is it strange to see Jesus walking on the water if He’s the God who created the very water He’s walking on? Is it strange to see Him feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish if He’s the One who created their stomachs? Furthermore, if what Scripture says is true, is it even strange to see Jesus rise from the dead? No, not strange at all, not if He’s God.

The Incarnation of Christ is the most profound mystery in the whole universe. This mystery is encapsulated in what Matthew writes about the virgin birth of Jesus. There are, after all, other ways Jesus could have come into the world. On the one hand, if He had come without any human parent, then it would have been hard for us to imagine or believe that He could really identify with us. On the other hand, if He had come through two human parents—a biological mother and a biological father—then it would be hard to imagine how He could be fully God since His origin would have been exactly the same as ours. But God, in His perfect wisdom and creative sovereignty, ordained a virgin birth to be the channel through which Christ came into the world.

What will we do?

Joseph and Mary’s obedience, recorded in the Gospels, reveals two shocking miracles: One, that God chooses to accomplish His plans through people just like us; and two, that by our obedience God reveals to the world the Good News of salvation.

So the questions to us are:

Are we obedient to God’s will for our lives?

Will we obey God under unusual and unique circumstances?

Are we submissive to the Holy Spirit so that our righteousness is being built up so that we are ready to obey God at all times?

What will others learn about the Good News of salvation as we obey God.

The fact is, Jesus wants to incarnate His grace and mercy, His presence and power, His salvation, through our lives. The question is: Will we obey His commands?

Listen to Jesus’ words: “If you love me you will keep my commands.”