Monday, November 29

Monday

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.  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.  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.                  –  Matthew 1:18-20

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.                - Matthew 1:24

A couple of mornings ago I looked outside to see my neighbors putting up their multi-colored neon manger scene.  They are usually first on the block with the Christmas decorations and it is kind of a signal to the rest of us that it’s that time of year again. 

I have noticed that in many manger scenes it is not always immediately easy to tell which one of the figures is Joseph.  Mary is easily recognized because she is the only woman, and of course baby Jesus is front and center in the manger.  But sometimes Joseph gets lost among the shepherds and the wise men (who don’t really belong there anyway, read Matthew 2).  I guess the best way to identify Joseph in any manger scene is to look for the one male figure without a crown, without a shepherds crook and without wings.  For many of us, Joseph is kind of a peripheral figure in the Christmas story itself.  We tend to focus on Mary, on the angels announcements, and of course on the Christ child himself.  But Joseph has something very important to teach us about how we are to receive Jesus into our lives.

 In the passages above, we get a glimpse of how Joseph responded to the news about Mary carrying this mysterious child (which was not his).

The Jewish marriage custom of the day was for the couple to go through a year-long betrothal period before the wedding celebration.  This was kind of like an engagement, except that a betrothal was actually a binding contract.  You could not break the betrothal contract without a legal divorce.  During this one year period, the couple would be preparing for their life together as husband and wife, but they would not be living together and they were not to have any sexual union until after the wedding ceremony.  Just in case you are not getting the implications of this little historical tidbit, let me make it clear.  Mary and Joseph are from a small town.  Mary is pregnant and beginning to show.  There were no “shotgun” weddings in first century Jewish culture.  Everyone in town would have assumed that either Mary had been unfaithful to Joseph, or both Joseph and Mary had been unfaithful to God. I can’t help thinking that before the angel appeared to him, Joseph’s heart must have been completely crushed. 

As an unwed, pregnant, teenage girl, Mary’s life would have been pretty much ruined.  She would have been a social outcast without much hope for her or her baby’s future. 

Joseph, on the other hand, has some options.  Option one - he could publicly denounce Mary and break off the engagement.  This was his legal right and it would have added to the shame and humiliation for Mary.  But the text tells us that Joseph had chosen option two - to divorce her quietly.  In other words, Joseph knew that he could not go on with the marriage, but he had compassion for Mary and did not want to make any harder for her than it had to be.  But then he has this weird dream where an angel gives him option number three; marry the girl and raise the child as your own!?  This was unthinkable in that culture.

Basically the choice for Joseph is this, he can either have the Christ-child come into his life with all the complications that will bring, or he can keep his distance and maintain a nice comfortable life, but he cannot have both!

That was Joseph’s choice and it is ours as well.  We can either receive Christ into our lives, or we can try to keep our nice, neat comfortable existence.  We cannot have both (although many Christians try to have it both ways).

We know what choice Joseph made, and we know how that turned out. 

What choice will you make this advent season? 

The only life worth living is the one with Christ at the center of it!

Jeff Frazier