Graduate 101: Advent, Day 24 (Christmas Eve)
Joseph
Matthew 1:19-25
Joseph doesn’t get a lot of airtime in the gospel birth-narratives, it seems to me. He is mentioned only very briefly in Luke’s account. His longest time in the spot-light is in these seven verses at the beginning of Matthew. And when set alongside marry who conceives miraculously by an act of God and has received much veneration as a result throughout church history, Joseph can seem to be a relatively minor player in the gospel story.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Over and over we’ve seen that there are no minor players in God’s plans. It is no small thing that Joseph stepped out in faith and took marry as his wife. It is no small thing, in the culture of that time, that he abstained from consummating his marriage until she had given birth to the Christ-child. It is no small thing that he continued to receive instructions from God and responded in faith to God’s call on his life. Joseph received dreams and visions and angelic visitations.
On the other hand, no “songs” of Joseph are recorded (like those of Mary, Zacharias, Simeon, and the angels). In fact, not one word of Joseph’s is recorded in the gospels (so far as I can remember; correct me if I’m wrong). But I think we would be gravely mistaken if we concluded, thereby, that Joseph did not play a significant, even pivotal, role in redemption history. He raised the Messiah. He taught Jesus his first lessons.
Many people wonder about the thirty years that fill the gap between the birth narratives and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Doubtless, those were years dominated by interaction between Joseph and Jesus as they worked together as carpenters. Those were the years in which Jesus was formed and molded into the man that we first see at his baptism by John the Baptist. It is inconceivable that Joseph should not have had an enormous impact on the development and personal formation of Jesus Christ—and yet we don’t hear about it.
That’s often how it is. We don’t hear about all the background, all the details. In biographies and histories, we only get the highlights, the big moments, the exciting events. The rest is ‘tedious’, ‘uninteresting’, ‘more of the same’—but that is exactly what is so vitally important. Jesus’ own ministry was shot through with periods of intense prayer and time away from the crowds in fellowship with only his closest disciples, but we don’t usually hear about that.
If it weren’t for Joseph, things might have gone very differently; and yet we hear so little about him. I wonder if he knew that would happen when he chose to take Mary as his wife. I wonder if he knew that he would be taking second place to Mary in prominence; after all, she was the one who would be with child by the Holy Spirit. I wonder if he knew—like John the Baptist knew when he told his disciples, “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Maybe he knew; maybe he didn’t. But he remains an example, in either case, of a what a man can accomplish who is committed, not to his own advancement or fame or prestige, but to the work of God. That work, we celebrate tomorrow. That work, we are also called to participate and partake in.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
Matthew 1:19-25
Joseph doesn’t get a lot of airtime in the gospel birth-narratives, it seems to me. He is mentioned only very briefly in Luke’s account. His longest time in the spot-light is in these seven verses at the beginning of Matthew. And when set alongside marry who conceives miraculously by an act of God and has received much veneration as a result throughout church history, Joseph can seem to be a relatively minor player in the gospel story.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Over and over we’ve seen that there are no minor players in God’s plans. It is no small thing that Joseph stepped out in faith and took marry as his wife. It is no small thing, in the culture of that time, that he abstained from consummating his marriage until she had given birth to the Christ-child. It is no small thing that he continued to receive instructions from God and responded in faith to God’s call on his life. Joseph received dreams and visions and angelic visitations.
On the other hand, no “songs” of Joseph are recorded (like those of Mary, Zacharias, Simeon, and the angels). In fact, not one word of Joseph’s is recorded in the gospels (so far as I can remember; correct me if I’m wrong). But I think we would be gravely mistaken if we concluded, thereby, that Joseph did not play a significant, even pivotal, role in redemption history. He raised the Messiah. He taught Jesus his first lessons.
Many people wonder about the thirty years that fill the gap between the birth narratives and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Doubtless, those were years dominated by interaction between Joseph and Jesus as they worked together as carpenters. Those were the years in which Jesus was formed and molded into the man that we first see at his baptism by John the Baptist. It is inconceivable that Joseph should not have had an enormous impact on the development and personal formation of Jesus Christ—and yet we don’t hear about it.
That’s often how it is. We don’t hear about all the background, all the details. In biographies and histories, we only get the highlights, the big moments, the exciting events. The rest is ‘tedious’, ‘uninteresting’, ‘more of the same’—but that is exactly what is so vitally important. Jesus’ own ministry was shot through with periods of intense prayer and time away from the crowds in fellowship with only his closest disciples, but we don’t usually hear about that.
If it weren’t for Joseph, things might have gone very differently; and yet we hear so little about him. I wonder if he knew that would happen when he chose to take Mary as his wife. I wonder if he knew that he would be taking second place to Mary in prominence; after all, she was the one who would be with child by the Holy Spirit. I wonder if he knew—like John the Baptist knew when he told his disciples, “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Maybe he knew; maybe he didn’t. But he remains an example, in either case, of a what a man can accomplish who is committed, not to his own advancement or fame or prestige, but to the work of God. That work, we celebrate tomorrow. That work, we are also called to participate and partake in.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 2:00 AM
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