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JOSEPH – WHAT’S A GUY GOING TO DO?

As a facilitator of a small group here at Bethany, you’ve asked the members of your group to memorize an entire chapter of the Bible. You’ve recommended that they consider I Corinthians 13, Romans 8, Hebrews 11, or possibly one of their favorite psalms.
To encourage them, and to set an example, you tell them that you are going to memorize the third chapter of Colossians. Then, as their leader, you inform them that you will be checking back with them in one week to see what chapter or Psalm they have chosen to memorize.
Well, as promised, the next week you begin the evening by asking them what they have chosen to memorize, i. e. to hide in their heart. You’re encouraged by the fact that most of the participants have accepted the challenge. They had decided to memorize a chapter and as recommended, they had chosen chapters like Romans 8 and I Corinthians 13.
But one lady chose to memorize the first chapter of Matthew. If you know anything about Matthew, you know that the first chapter is simply a record of the genealogy of Jesus. So you can imagine everyone’s surprise when she announced that she was going to memorize Matthew 1.
After you recover from the impact of this unusual piece of information, you respond by saying, “Judy, I’m glad that you’ve chosen a chapter to memorize but why in the world would you memorize the first chapter of Matthew?
That’s easy, she replied, “When I get to heaven I want to know who is related to whom. That way, I can say things like, ‘Oh, you must be the father of Hezron. Tell me, whatever happened to him?’ You’d be surprised how a few simple statements like that can jump-start a conversation.”
She’s right, the first chapter of Matthew ought to jump-start a few conversations. It reads:
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
and on and on, until we get to vv. 15 and 16 where we read,
Eliud the Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph,
and Joseph the father of Jesus, the Christ child.
No, that is not how the 16th verse reads, for the pattern that holds for 42 generations is broken with Joseph. Because Joseph is not listed as the father of Jesus, he is listed as the husband of Mary.
This breaking of the pattern is no slip of the quill. Biologically speaking, Joseph wasn’t, and isn’t, the father of Jesus. However, and this is why Matthew began his account as he did, Joseph was the legal father of Jesus. Matthew traced the legal ancestry of Jesus through the royal line of David and Solomon to Joseph, who was the husband of Mary. The husband of Mary, and consequently the legal father of Jesus.
To those of us who like things nice and neat, this is neat indeed. It means that Jesus is legally from the tribe of Judah. It means that prophecy is fulfilled as predicted by Isaiah. It means that for the Pharisee within each one of us, the prophetic i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. For us, v. 16 is logically satisfying. It’s like the last piece of a puzzle, we put it in and stand back with a feeling of satisfaction that at long last everything fits together and we have the joy of seeing the completed picture.
But what about Joseph? Do you think he was satisfied with simply being the legal father of Jesus? In the midst of his betrothal to Mary, do you think he understood or appreciated the beauty and wisdom of God’s parental plans for the Christ Child? I don’t think so!
No, Joseph was blind sided with some really tough issues. Issues that he pondered and pondered until there was no pondering left within him. In the end, the decisions he made teach us something about his character and the cost of simple obedience. Picking up his story in v. 18 we read,
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.
Joseph and Mary were engaged to each other. Actually, they were betrothed which was a more serious practice than our modern practice of “engagement.” For betrothal was a legally binding arrangement. It left the survivor of a man’s death a widow. It meant that infidelity at this stage of the game was considered adultery. It meant that only a writ of divorce, or I suppose murder, could break it.
The marriage itself took place when the groom ceremoniously took the bride home. It was when the “wife” moved in with her “husband.” Only then was sexual intercourse proper. But here, it is clear that Mary’s pregnancy was discovered while she was still betrothed and the context presupposes that both had practiced abstinence up to this point in time.
Note, Scripture tells us that Joseph was “righteous man.” We tend to take this to mean that this is why, in the end, he chose to remain betrothed to Mary. Actually, it means just the opposite. Because he was a righteous man, because he wanted to do the right thing, he chose to divorce Mary.
You see, both Jewish and Roman law demanded that a man divorce his wife if she was found guilty of adultery. In fact, if the maximum penalty under Jewish Law had been applied, Mary would have been stoned to death. In addition to what was expected of him legally, Joseph had another reason to divorce her. His reputation was at stake for the rest of his life. For if he did not divorce her, others would conclude that he had gotten Mary pregnant and in the end he chose to do the “right” thing.
Furthermore, Mary’s purported adultery brought shame on Joseph and his family. It suggested that Mary did not find Joseph appealing and it revealed that his family made a poor choice for his mate. In a honor-shame based culture, something had to be done by Joseph to protect his injured family from further shame.
So he knew what he had to do, and yet, to his credit, he had no taste for it. So he decided that he would do the “right” thing quietly, privately. He knew the suffering that polite society would cast upon Mary for her infidelity and he chose to minimize it. This shows us the gentleness of Joseph.
This gentleness is remarkable for two reason. First, he could have profited from the divorce. By taking Mary to court he could have impounded her dowry – the assets that she brought to the marriage – and he could have recouped bride price, assuming he had paid one at the time of betrothal. Second, it’s remarkable because hurt people tend to hurt people. Joseph had undoubtedly been wounded by the betrayal and yet he chose to do what he could to minimize the pain that always follows divorce.
We now see the first reason as to why Joseph was chosen to be the husband of Mary. He was protective of Mary. He cared for her and watched out for her, even in this case where he concluded that he had to divorce her. In the days ahead, in Bethlehem, in Egypt, and in Nazareth she would need his loving protection.
We now read the rest of the story,
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. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.”
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Here we see the second reason as to why Joseph was selected in eternity past to be Mary’s husband. He trusted God enough to instantly obey him. Now you might think that obedience in this case was easy because he wanted to marry Mary in the first place. If so, you haven’t been paying attention!
His obedience, in this case, was costly. It cost him his reputation. All his life he would remain an object of shame in the eyes of many. In a culture dominated by honor, outsiders would assume that he had gotten Mary pregnant before the wedding. And Roman law would would count him as a panderer for exploiting his wife as a prostitute. Nevertheless, as costly as it was, he obeyed without hesitation.
A few years later, this very quality would save his life, the life of Mary, and the life of the baby Jesus. In Matthew 2:13 - 15 we read:
When they (the Magi) had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Joseph knew something about obedience that some of us, even as mature adults, don’t understand very well. He knew that postponed obedience was disobedience. He didn’t roll over and go back to sleep that night. He got up and headed south!
There is a third reason as to why Joseph was selected in eternity past to be Mary’s husband. At first glance, one might think that Joseph’s only role in this whole thing was to assure that Jesus was legally from the tribe of Judah. That being done, he could step off stage and disappear. But, we have already seen that his role was bigger than simply being the legal father. He was to love and protect Mary.
But, I believe, he was also called to be a real father to Jesus. And like all new fathers, this is the one area where he didn’t have the slightest idea as to what this meant on a day-to-day basis. We get a glimpse of how he must have felt in a song entitled Joseph’s song. It goes like this - (see attachment).
Again and again, Joseph must have pondered the question asked in this song. How can I, a simple carpenter, raise a king? How do I fit into this plan of God’s as the child’s father? As an expectant father, did Joseph build a crib for baby? A crib that he never had a chance to use. As a father, did Joseph ever send Jesus to his room? As a father, as a carpenter, did he teach Jesus to work with his hands? Well, I think the answer to some of our questions is found in Mark 6:1 -6. We read:
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed (surprised).
“ Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters with us?” And they took offense at him.
Do you see how Jesus is referred to in this passage by those who thought they knew him well? They referred to him as “the carpenter.” The Greek word used for carpenter is tekton. It’s a word that means more than someone who merely works with wood. It refers to someone who is a craftsman. It refers to someone who could do anything with wood.
You see, Joseph taught Jesus how to work with his hands. He taught him to square off the edges, follow the plumb line, and to measure twice before he cut once. He taught the boy to take ordinary wood and make something extraordinary out of it; not fully realizing that Jesus came into the world to take ordinary people and transform them to be extraordinary.
He also taught him that carpentry could serve to take care of Mary in his absence. Then, when Joseph left the stage early on, and he did, that is exactly what Jesus did before beginning his public ministry at the age of thirty. He took care of his mother as well as his brothers and sisters, just as Joseph had taught him to take care of them.

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