The Faith of Joseph – Another View of the Christmas Story

We all love the big Bible stories and the main characters who have remarkable faith and huge parts to play in the plans of God.  I think we all secretly wish we could be one of those people sometimes.  But in reality, the most remarkable faith is often shown by the minor characters – those people who are part of the story, but operate in the background.  Usually, they do not get acknowledged and sung about and praised.  But if we look closely, sometimes they are the ones that are the most inspirational.  I believe that such is the case with Joseph, the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus.  This Christmas season, I wanted to take a closer look at the man who is in every nativity, but in very few other moments of Christmas.

By the world’s view, Joseph was an unremarkable man.

By the world’s view, Joseph was an unremarkable man.  A lowly carpenter from the backwater village of Nazareth, he is the modern-day equivalent of what some people call trailer trash.  At least that is how much of the world would have looked on him at that time.  We know this because when Nathaniel meets Jesus, another man from Nazareth, Nathaniel’s first response is, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”  (John 1:46).  Joseph was probably used to being brushed aside and undervalued by those from “better” neighborhoods.

There is reason to believe that Joseph is older because of how quickly he stops being mentioned in the life of Jesus. 

Joseph is also interesting in that he may well have been quite a bit older than Mary.  We don’t know this for sure – the Bible never mentions their ages.  But we do know the customs of the day.  Generally, when couples married, it was a teenage girl around 14 or 15 years old, being wed to an older man, perhaps twice her age.  There is reason to believe that Joseph is older because of how quickly he stops being mentioned in the life of Jesus.  We don’t hear of him after the incident at the temple when Jesus is 12 years old.  And at the cross, Jesus asks John to take care of His mother, indicating that Joseph is no longer around.  Not all people die in their older years, but it gives us something to consider.

His heart was devoted to God and his lineage was that of kings.

We pick up a few more details about Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew.  Matthew 1:19 tells us Joseph was faithful to the law.  He was a devout and practicing Jew.  Matthew 1:20 says that although he is commoner, he comes from the royal line of David.  So while the world may have looked at him as an undesirable, his heart was devoted to God and his lineage was that of kings.  Both were necessary to qualify him for the role he was to play in the life of Jesus, prophetically and practically.

The most remarkable part of what we learn about him is in how he relates to Mary and Jesus. 

While we read little else of the background of Joseph, the most remarkable part of what we learn about him is in how he relates to Mary and Jesus.  Matthew tells us that because he was a devout follower of the law, when he found out that Mary was pregnant, he would have been required to have her stoned for adultery.  They were not yet married, but in that day, a betrothal was as legally binding as a marriage, and would have required a legal proceeding, much like a divorce, to call it off.  So any unfaithfulness by Mary during their betrothal would have been considered adultery, just as in a marriage.  And as I think of Joseph, I can only imagine the shock, betrayal, hurt, and anger he must have felt when Mary first told him.  And not just from what appeared to be unfaithfulness.  Her explanation must have seemed like the most crazy, lame cover-up lie of all time:  “Really, Joseph – an angel came to visit me and then God’s Spirit gave me this child.”  I can almost hear Joseph saying, “Can’t you at least come up with a better story than that?”  I think the vast majority of people in that situation would have thought that stoning was more than appropriate, at least as a first reaction. 

In this instance, he acted so much like Jesus.

What makes Joseph so remarkable is that it was not his first reaction.  I have no doubt he was feeling all the feelings anyone else would have.  But Matthew tells us in 1:19 that in spite of his faithfulness to the law, he didn’t want to have her stoned.  He didn’t even want to have her outed or embarrassed.  It says he “. . . did not want to expose her to public disgrace.” He wanted to divorce her quietly.  How different that is than our normal human response.  When I am hurt or betrayed, I want justice.  I want the person to have to pay for what they have done.  If I am honest, I want a little revenge.  That is the response from the brokenness of our fallen world.  But Joseph was different.  Joseph was the ideal human father for Jesus because, in this instance, he acted so much like Jesus.  There was no condemnation.  There was no demand that Mary pay for her supposed sin.  There was only concern that, as he did his best to follow the law, she would be hurt as little as possible.  He displayed mercy and grace. 

He didn’t walk away from Mary, or from the part that God had for him to play.

I have always known that part of the story.  What really hit me was the next verse.  Matthew 1:20 says, “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream . . .”  We all know that the angel backed up Mary’s version of the events, and let Joseph know that everything was okay.  What I never realized was that this did not happen immediately after Mary told him.  It says that Joseph had time to consider it.  There was some time that passed as Joseph had to wrestle with the hurt and betrayal and doubt, and mercy and grace and love, while he tried to figure out what to do.  Yet in the struggle, he didn’t walk away from Mary, or from the part that God had for him to play.  The faithfulness of Joseph.

There is nothing that says he questioned or doubted or asked for more proof.

After Joseph woke up, he immediately did what the angel commanded, and married Mary.  That is also remarkable to me.  I mean, it wasn’t like Paul’s road to Damascus where he was wide awake and got struck blind as proof that what he had experienced was real.  Joseph had a dream.  And then he woke up, got up, and did what God asked.  There is nothing that says he questioned or doubted or asked for more proof.  It is so unlike me.  I want to have faith.  I want to believe and follow.  Yet when the path seems difficult or uncomfortable or not what I wanted, I start to doubt and question if I am doing the right thing.  I turn into Gideon and start throwing out fleeces, wanting assurance after assurance from God that I really heard Him right.  I would have been just as likely to pass it off as my active imagination, than to follow through.

Joseph was being asked to walk a difficult road for the rest of his life. 

I admire Joseph even more when I stop to think of the price he had to pay for following what the angel told him.  It wasn’t just an emotional battle, as hard as I am sure that was.  Joseph was being asked to walk a difficult road for the rest of his life.  We often hear of how Mary would have been shunned and talked about and ridiculed for becoming pregnant outside of marriage.  Joseph would have to suffer that right along with her, plus the added contempt because he failed to do his duty under the law and have her killed.  He would have been viewed as a sinner who sheltered another sinner.  Once pregnant, Mary couldn’t have easily walked away.  Joseph could have – in fact was supposed to – and he didn’t.

The first Christmas was not a time of food, fun, and lots of family and friends.

He also spent a fair amount of time as a stranger in a foreign area.  Before Jesus was born, in order to fulfill prophecy, Joseph found himself having to travel to Bethlehem for a census.  When he got there, he wasn’t even able to get decent shelter for his wife and the unborn Jesus.  He, father and provider and protector, could only find a stable for them to stay in.  Imagine the concern.  Imagine the self-doubt and fear of a soon-to-be father, alone in a strange area, trying to help his family to survive.  The first Christmas was not a time of food, fun, and lots of family and friends.  It was a cold night, alone in a stable in a strange city, with no family anywhere to be found.  I feel some sadness this year as I spend my first Christmas away from my familiar home and friends and family.  But I have a comfortable place to live, plenty of food, new adventures, and new people to develop relationships with.  It changes my perspective on what I should focus on this Christmas season.  Family, food, friends, and traditions are wonderful.  But they weren’t a part of the birth of Jesus.  Maybe I need to switch my focus back to Him.

God knew who He was choosing to protect and raise His Son. 

Finally, Joseph didn’t get to return home after that, at least for a while.  Because of Herod’s edict to kill the male children, Joseph had to travel far away from his home nation and Jewish culture to live in the land of Egypt.  Talk about being alone!  He had to remain in Egypt until after Herod died in 4 B.C. – a couple of years or more after leaving Bethlehem.  Again, he was told to travel by an angelic visit.  It is interesting that Matthew 2:13 tells us that the angel appeared to Joseph and not Mary.  This, to me, is just another testament of the faithfulness of Joseph.  God knew who He was choosing to protect and raise His Son.  He blessed and loved and called Joseph to be a parent to Jesus, just as much as He did Mary.

He never got to see the promise of Jesus fulfilled in his lifetime.

The final thing that struck me as I considered the life of Joseph is that he never got to see the promise of Jesus fulfilled in his lifetime.  Jesus came to save us – to be our Savior and Messiah.  He sealed that promise with His death on the cross.  Mary was there at the cross when He died.  The heartbreak she felt is hard to imagine.  But Mary also got to be there when the resurrected, exalted, eternal Son of God returned to show that He had conquered death and the grave.  The absolute joy of that moment is also unimaginable.  But Joseph was not there.  By all indications, Joseph was dead.  He, like so many others in the Bible, lived out his part of the plan with the hope of Jesus in his heart, but not seeing the hope fulfilled on this side of heaven.  He parented, worried, sacrificed, hurt, suffered, and loved for the sake of Jesus all on faith alone.  Just as we are called to do.  We love and follow Jesus, not seeing Him bodily in His exalted state, but joyful and faithful in the hope of the day when we join Him, for eternity.   We follow Him faithfully through all of God’s plan, not wanting worldly acclaim or comfort or wealth, but wanting to share in the glory of a heavenly home, and to share the hope of that with others.  Let’s remember that THAT is the reason for the season.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.