Matthew 1:18-25
How different might our celebration of Christmas be if we
only had Matthew’s account of Jesus birth?
We just head
it as this morning’s Gospel.
Matthew starts with several paragraphs of a long genealogy. “An account of the genealogy of Jesus
the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of
Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of
Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father
of Aram…” and so on and on and on…
Then the
brief passage we just heard about the birth of Jesus. That’s it.
Matthew does mention the magi, but that’s later.
It’s not
very Christmas-y. Not even very
Advent-y. There is not a lot of
hope or excitement. If we had just
Matthew, it seems like virtually all of our Christmas carols and Advent hymns
would disappear. The focus is
almost entirely on Joseph. Mary is
passive, almost a shadow in the background. I certainly can’t think of any Christmas carols about
Joseph’s struggle with what to do when he finds out Mary is pregnant.
As I understand it, in Mary and Joseph’s day, betrothal was
a binding, legal commitment, more significant than an “engagement” today. Joseph presumably entered into that
commitment anticipating a quiet, normal life in Nazareth, surrounded by his and
Mary’s extended families. Working
as a carpenter within the community.
Participating in the routines of Jewish life and worship.
We don’t know how Joseph found out Mary was pregnant… if she tried to tell him about the
conversation with Gabriel. You can
imagine how that conversation might have gone! Or if it became physically obvious that she was
expecting. Either way, when Joseph
discovered Mary was pregnant, apparently he had two choices: accuse her publicly and she would have
been stoned for adultery. Or
quietly divorce her. He chose the
latter.
And then an angel came to Joseph and said: No, you are not to follow either of the
options that are religiously prescribed or socially accepted. You are to marry her and raise this
child. Teach him how to tell the
evil from the good. Keep him
safe. Give him a home. Later, another angel would come to Joseph
and say: to keep this child safe
you need to pack up your wife and child and travel to Egypt and stay there for
awhile.
This is what the coming of Emmanuel, God being born into
Joseph’s life meant.
For most of us, Christmas is steeped in tradition. Personal traditions, family traditions,
social traditions. Sometimes keeping
up these traditions can feel overwhelming, but I think the predictability, the
expectability, of the holiday is a big part of what we like about Christmas. It is comforting, comfortable.
For Joseph, the first Christmas, the actual coming of Christ
was anything but predictable or comfortable. We look forward to Jesus joining us by our cozy
fireplaces. Joseph reminds us that
the coming of Christ into our lives is about a total reorientation of our expectations,
the launching of unimaginable change in our lives.
How did Joseph feel when this baby was actually born? It’s impossible to know. Did he feel blessed to cradle Immanuel
in his arms? Awed to be a part of
God’s plan to come into the world?
I hope so, but…
If there were a Christmas song about Joseph, its refrain
would be: This is not what I
signed on for! This is not what I
signed on for. This is not the
life I anticipated. But I’ll do
it. I’ll raise this child, because
God asks me to. Because God
promises he will save people from their sins.
Both Mary and Joseph had a choice. God asked them if they would take on roles, tasks, that would
enable God to fulfill God’s purpose of being born into the world. Today, looking at Joseph, maybe we see
some of the cost that came with accepting God’s purpose. But both Mary and Joseph said yes.
For that today we may be profoundly grateful. But Joseph also prods us to ask
ourselves: What task does God ask
of us? What change might be asked
of us to fulfill our role in helping to bring the saving presence of Christ
into the lives of others in our world today?
