When Good News Makes Life Hard
Christmas Series
Matthew 1:18-21
All of us have wondered at one time or another – why is God letting this happen in my life right now? We’ve all had those situations in life where the purpose of God just didn’t make any sense. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign and so He controls all things. And Romans 8:28 tells us that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. This is our theological conviction and we believe this because God said it. But sometimes, it doesn’t look or feel like that’s true on the surface. And we’ve all been there at one time or another.
As we move into this holiday season, some of you are there right now. This message is for you.
For reasons that are perfectly wonderful and glorious, God often puts us into temporal situations that are confusing and painful and as embarrassing as all get-out! And He knows exactly what He’s about. When it comes to your inner life, He knows exactly how great the pressure is and He also knows exactly where the pressure lies. His hand is firmly on the wheel… and He hasn’t lost control.
I was thinking about this in my own life as I was praying over what to preach in December. And there it was right in the Christmas story. The Christmas story itself is the outworking of this truth in the lives of Mary and Joseph. God was moving behind the scenes to prepare the stage for the most glorious event in human history; but in their field of vision, God’s good news made life very, very hard. Look at Matthew 1:18-21. In honor of God and His Word, let’s stand for the reading of Scripture.
18 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. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. 20 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 that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” [NASB]
[Prayer] This birth narrative was written to document the supernatural incarnation of the eternal Son of God. That’s the key purpose of this text. So until we understand that key purpose, we can’t go any further. But after we grasp God’s main reason for inspiring these words, we can then consider this narrative from a human perspective… examining it from different angles, like a jewel. There’s one sub-theme in particular that I think needs to be seen and savored by God’s people. It’s this: God’s good purpose for you and all His people doesn’t always appear good on the surface. Mary and Joseph would strongly agree. Listen to verses 18-19 of our text…
18 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. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly.
I. The greatest news ever heard brought confusion, pain, and embarrassment to the couple who first received it (1:18-19).
The good news that the Savior was to be born through the womb of Mary into the family of Joseph brought great difficulty to this couple. The first two skeptics of the virgin birth were Mary and Joseph! When Mary was told by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive and bear a Son, she said, “How can this be since I am a virgin” (Lk. 1:34)? That’s a good question, Mary! Her question reveals that she was aware of the implications of this statement. She understood enough biology to have a problem with these words. Her response to Gabriel indicates that she wasn’t gullible or passive about the news.
And when her fiancé Joseph learned that she was pregnant, he knew he wasn’t the father; and it didn’t make any sense to Joseph because this was so out of character for the woman he planned to marry. She was such a godly young woman and she would never have acted in such an adulterous or immoral way… or so he thought. He was blindsided by this news and whatever he thought about his betrothed fiancé, well, the pregnancy speaks for itself. So Joseph wasn’t thinking about a glorious miracle and the fulfillment of prophecy; he was thinking about her betrayal, and infidelity, and a private divorce. On the surface, it was just horrible. Both families (Mary’s and Joseph’s) would have been appalled and mortified with embarrassment. Yet Mary was completely innocent regarding her fidelity to Joseph and her purity before God.
The first sentence in verse 18 is introductory. The second half of the verse encapsulates the whole virgin conception and birth of Christ without heavy arguments or embellishment. It’s merely stated as fact. The purpose here was to show that Mary couldn’t have become pregnant by another man; it was an act of the Holy Spirit.
Jewish law considered an engaged couple as virtually married; although they didn’t live together during this one year period. During that betrothal, the couple could only break their engagement with a certificate of divorce. Verse 19 describes Joseph as “a righteous man”. This tells us that Joseph was a man who observed the law of God as a standard for living. In other words, he couldn’t let Mary’s apparent infidelity pass without taking some action. He was in a horrible catch-22. He loved Mary and was planning to spend the rest of his life with her; but he also loved God and knew that honoring God came before every other relationship, even at great cost. To him, this meant only one thing: he had to divorce her according to Mosaic Law – or risk ruining his own reputation as a righteous man. On the surface, it was a horrible situation.
Because he was a righteous (dikaios) man, and because he still loved Mary (even though he felt betrayed by her) he opted to divorce her privately. This was the best of three bad options as Joseph considered it. First, he could ignore this apparent infidelity; but that appeared to violate Leviticus 20:10 requiring him to break the Mosaic Law. Second, he could divorce her publicly; but that would expose Mary as a public adulterer and subject her to the possibility of stoning. So Joseph took the third option, to write a private divorce with a written certificate in the presence of two witnesses. This was his way of making the best of a bad situation. But at this point in the narrative, notice how God’s perfect plan brought confusion, and pain, and embarrassment to Mary and Joseph. Now look at verses 20-21…
But when he had considered this [the private divorce], 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 that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”
II. God communicates enough of His plan that His people can bear the difficulties and joyfully rest in His will (1:20-21).
For Joseph, the joy was in knowing that he had been wrong about Mary. Never before had any man been so glad to be so wrong! Verse 20 says Joseph “had considered this” it means he pondered the issue in his mind, looking at it from every different perspective; he agonized over it and deliberated since he was consumed with Mary’s apparent infidelity. At that moment of angst and deliberation, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream. In this way, God communicated directly (and audibly) to Joseph, through the angel, so that he would be able to obey God and bear the difficulties ahead. But let’s understand how God communicates His will.
When people today say “God told me to do thus and such…” they usually mean they sense that God wants them to do a certain thing based on their intuition or even because of their study of the Word. But that formula (“God told me…”) is so subject to abuse and manipulation in our day by those who want to attach God’s authority and God’s reputation to their own misguided endeavors that whatever they propose in that context sounds unassailable. We’re not supposed to question anything if God told them to do it. But don’t be deceived! God doesn’t speak audibly like this to people today, even though some have claimed such for themselves banking on the spiritual credulity of their audience.
Today God communicates to His people through His written Word, the Bible. So when I hear people say, “God told me to divorce my wife”, or “God told me to not pay my taxes so I could support more missions and ministries” or “God told me to quit my job and not look for another job to prove my trust in Him…” All of that is contrary to God’s Word. People who speak like this are deceived; don’t be deceived by them!
God communicated directly to Joseph because there was no specific Scripture to fully explain his situation. He was living in the moment of God’s unfolding plan… and it was never to be repeated. The angel tells Joseph not to be “afraid” to take Mary as his wife. This suggests there was no anger or bitterness in his heart – which would have been natural in light of what looked like betrayal and infidelity. But Joseph was more concerned about Mary and her well-being even before he knew that she was favored by God and innocent of adultery. That tells us something about the kind of man Joseph was. He didn’t want her to be hurt. He didn’t want her to be disgraced with a public divorce. He certainly didn’t want her to be executed… even though he felt betrayed. True love seeks to cover even the most scandalous offenses of the one who is loved, while still honoring God’s will by addressing the sin according to His Word.
The message from the angel of God is that the child has been conceived (lit. “begotten”) by the Holy Spirit. So Mary hasn’t been unfaithful at all. She is still a virgin at this point. The marriage will go forward. Verse 21: “And she will bear a Son; and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
So God communicated enough of His plan so that Mary and Joseph could bear the difficulties and joyfully rest in His will. The same is true for those who study God’s Word today. As we meditate on Scripture and mark its terrain in our own mind, our confidence in Him grows. Our ability to bear the inequities of life increases; and our relationship with Christ as the spring of joy becomes a more constant retreat from day to day. The fight for joy is a constant battle in the Christian life… but it’s worth everything we have to give to win it.
So Mary and Joseph went forward with renewed faith and assurance that everything that seemed so confusing and painful and embarrassing in their lives was all according to God’s good plan. His plan for you and me is also going forward under His direction… even when good news makes life hard. Trust Him and draw near to Him through His Word and time in prayer.
Let’s close in prayer.
(c) Charles Kevin Grant
November 3, 2006