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Stories of the Jesus Creed - Joseph: The Stiry of Reputation
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Matthew 1:18 - 25 New International Version
The Birth of Jesus Christ
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,?a? because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” — which means, “God with us.”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Stories of the Jesus Creed - Joseph: The Story of Reputation
Part two of Scot McKnight’s book, The Jesus Creed, begins by telling the reader that one of the ways in which we express our love for God and others is to embrace the stories of others who love Jesus (p. 63). McKnight reminds us that in the later creeds Christians would confess their belief in “the communion of the saints.” This communion, says McKnight, began during the earthly life of Jesus as those who followed him shared with one another what it meant to them to put that “followership” (my word, not McKnight’s) into practice.Today we are going to take a look at Joseph, the person who eventually became the earthly father of Jesus. Here is the sermon in one sentence: “Spiritual formation begins when we untangle reputation and identity, and when what God thinks of us is more important than what we think of ourselves or what others think of us” (p. 76).
Joseph makes an interesting character study for those of us who have always been part of the church. Joseph is described in our text as a righteous man. When we our modern ears hear this we tend to think what it means is that Joseph was just a good fellow, the sort that any of us would like for a neighbour.
According to Scot McKnight it means more than that. He says that Joseph is a “tsadiq.” In Joseph’s world this means that he recites and lives the Shema daily, that he follows the food laws, that he supports the Nazareth synagogue, and that he regularly celebrates the high holy days in Jerusalem. “In Joseph’s world there are no reputations more desirable than “tsadiq”—unless you are a priest (unusual), a prophet (rare), or the Messiah (very rare)” (p. 77).
If you think about it just a little, if you have grown up in the church there are markers to which we point that gave us a particular status within the church. Do you remember a Sunday School award system called the Cross and the Crown? A pin was awarded for the first and second years of perfect attendance. The second year pin had connecters so that for the third and subsequent years of perfection a bar could be added.
The Sunday School I attended once awarded a week at Camp Kwasind as the prize for the best attendance. I was so focussed on winning that prize that when our family visited friends in Ottawa one weekend I had the teacher of the Sunday School class write me a note that I could give to my teacher back in Toronto. If that’s not the 1950’s version of Baptist righteousness I don’t know what is!
Joseph is serious about his practice of the faith. He wakes up with the words of the Shema on his lips. When he takes to his bed after another long day in the carpenter shop, he falls asleep again offering those words to God. He is looked upon as an example in the synagogue of Nazareth. He is looking forward to the day when he can fully put into practice what God has said about the Shema—recite them to your children.
At least he was looking forward to this until just recently. For most of us the story about Joseph and Mary and the baby is tied, of course, to our celebration of Christmas. That is such a lovely and appealing time to us, it’s hard to wrap our minds around the idea that being part of the first Christmas could ruin someone’s reputation. But that is exactly what happened.
There is no reason for us to think that the arrangements made for Mary and Joseph were out of the ordinary. Their fathers would have met and agreed upon the marriage. Mary and Joseph would be considered engaged. The engagement lasted up to a year, the bride and groom were expected to remain sexually pure during that time, and the engagement could only be ended by a divorce.
As I always say, one needs to be careful in putting together stories from more than one of the gospel accounts. However, I think we are justified in putting together part of Luke’s account with our text from Matthew. Luke tells us that when the angel came to Mary, he not only told her about the child she was going to have, but also said that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was six month’s pregnant. Then Luke tells us Mary went to stay with Elizabeth for three months. In other words, she stayed until the baby, John, was born.
So get this picture in your head. The engagement of Joseph and Mary is announced. Mary says she is going to spend some time with her pregnant cousin, helping out around the house until the baby comes—something I expect family members did for one another on a regular basis. Three months later Mary arrives back home and to use the terminology of the supermarket tabloids her body now has a new feature—the “baby bump.”
Joseph has two bits of information: Mary is pregnant and he cannot be the father. There is no other conclusion to make than this. Mary has met someone while visiting with Elizabeth and Zechariah. He’s not with her now, so it must have been a “one night stand.” He didn’t think Mary was that sort of woman, but she must be. If he follows through on the marriage he will no longer be thought of in his village as a “tasdiq,” a righteous man. What is Joseph to do?
Joseph is worthy of our admiration, I believe. We need to embrace his story. Mark Twain, well known for giving a little twist to the familiar turn of phrase once described someone as being “a good man, in the worst sense of the word.” You’ve known someone like that, haven’t you? This is not Joseph. There is a sense that Joseph was a follower of the Jesus Creed even before there was a Jesus. Joseph loved God and knew that something about loving God was wrapped up in loving others. Love of God’s law meant that he had to end his relationship with Mary. Love for Mary meant that he could do it quietly so as not to expose her to disgrace. Joseph then was someone who listened to God. That friends is the key.
Joseph listened to God in at least three different ways. First he listened to God through the story of the Scriptures. It is important for us to take note of this. Joseph thought he knew that his relationship with Mary must end because he observed the Word of God. But because he was observant to that Word he also knew that God had promised to send his Anointed One, his Messiah.
Second, Joseph listened to God through the voice of Mary. Matthew does not give us the details of their private conversations, but at some point Mary must have told Joseph about the visit of the angel to her. She must have asked him not only to believe in the promises of God but also to believe in the promises she had made to him and that she had kept those promises.
Third, Joseph listened to God through his own spiritual experience. I am not an expert in dream interpretation. I do not know how often it is that God speaks through a dream. There are famous examples in the Bible. Joseph interpreted dreams that were messages from God. Daniel interpreted dreams also. This dream is different. Interpretation is not necessary. The angel who appears in the dream tells Joseph that Mary’s child is from the Holy Spirit, that the baby will be a boy, and Joseph is to name him Jesus because he is going to be the Saviour of God’s people. The end result of listening to God in these ways is Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. In other words, when God told him what to do, he did it.
His reputation, however, remains in shatters. Joseph knows he has obeyed God; but in Nazareth he is no longer thought of as righteous. At best he is thought of as a fool who couldn’t see past his love for a woman who has wronged him. Just as once Joseph would have been called a “tsadiq,” now he will be known as part of the rabble, a member of the “Am haaretz.” Scot McKnight describes them: “Such people don’t observe the Torah: they eat ham sandwiches, pass on tithing, and idle on street corners with Gentiles” (p. 77).
Christians must embrace the story of people like Joseph because God makes it clear that what he expects is obedience to his will and that what he thinks of us must be more important to our lives than what others think of us. St. Augustine said that before he became a Christian his notion of a good life was to win the approval of the people around him. As a Christ follower this is what he said: “I find no safe place for my soul except in God.”
Did you know that I once won a trip to church camp? And all God wants to know is if I’m listening to him still today.
