Your Kingdom Come,

Your Will Be Done!

Matthew 1:18-25

The Hero of the Advent

 

Last week we began our new adventure into the Gospel of Matthew.  We began with the “boring” list of names known as “The Genealogy”.  We discovered, “Hey, this list is not so boring after all”.  We began to answer the most important question ever; “Who is Jesus?”  Reading through the first 17 verses of Matthew – I am not reading them again – we found:

-Jesus is the coming King.

-Jesus is the new King David.

-Jesus is the new King David who is bringing his Kingdom to this world.

-Jesus is the new King David who is bringing an unexpected kingdom.

-Jesus is King David who is bringing a kingdom to fulfill the old prophecies.

-Jesus is bringing a kingdom full of new expectations, which are his will.

 

At the end of those three lists of 14 names each, we found the last name surprising.

 

Matthew 1:16 …and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

 

At the end of the countdown, we found Joseph the husband of Mary.  We found the step-father of Jesus.  We scratched our heads.  Why did Matthew count down to Joseph?  Joseph is not Jesus’ biological father.  This morning we have to ask the same question again.  Matthew chooses to tell the story of Jesus’ birth from the perspective of Joseph.  Joseph is the main character in Matthew’s advent story.  What?  I told you to expect the unexpected.

 

From our perspective Joseph is the least important character in the story.  If you look at nativity scenes, Mary is in the middle with Baby Jesus.  The wise men and the shepherds are all right there looking at Jesus.  Joseph is in the back looking bored.  Even the sheep and the camel are more predominate than Joseph.  Why does Matthew tell the story through Joseph’s eyes?  Luke wrote the story from Mary’s perspective.  Mary even sings the Magnificant, in Luke’s account.  Mark’s Gospel is in too big a hurry to tell the baby Jesus story.  John begins at the beginning; The Word became flesh; Joseph is nowhere to be found.  But Matthew makes Joseph the Hero of the Advent. 

 

And I love it.  Joseph is not left in the waiting room while Mary is having her baby.  Joseph is not an extra in the manger drama.  Joseph is not the irrelevant step-father.  Joseph is the hero of Matthew’s Avent story.  Let’s see why.

 

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Matthew 1:18  This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.

 

Let’s stop here.  We need to understand the situation, before we will appreciate Joseph.  Marriage and engagement in Matthew’s first century Jewish world was different than it is today.  In their world marriages were arranged.  There was no dating.  You didn’t go out with the girl.  In their world, most likely, Joseph had never been alone with Mary.  They had never spent the evening watching a movie. They never played putt-putt.  There was no dating.  In upright Jewish families the couple was never left alone.

 

Once the parents thought they were old enough; the girl 12ish, the boy 18 or so, the couple would have had an engagement ceremony.  It was a big deal.  Joseph, may have worked from his 13^th birthday until he was 18 to have money for a dowry for Mary.  The dowry would have been a significant amount.  After this first ceremony they were considered husband and wife… but they still would never have been left alone.  For a year, usually, the girl would still live with her parents.  Then they would have another marriage ceremony and then the wife would move in with the husband’s family. 

 

Matthew begins to tell the story of the birth of Jesus Christ during that year of engagement. 

 

Matthew 1:18 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, (at all) she was found to be with child…

 

This was a show stopper for Joseph.  The whole point of parents arranging marriages, keeping the couple apart and waiting a year to get married was to ensure that any babies they had, were of Joseph’s lineage.  I told you last week, who a person was, was their lineage; their heritage; their line of ancestors.  The whole marriage process was designed to make sure the lineage was what it was supposed to be!  So, for Mary to turn up pregnant was stunning.  That was never to happen to any good 12 year old Jewish girl.  It was a show stopper.

 

Can you imagine the conversation?  I suspect, I don’t know, but I suspect, Mary was not the one who told Joseph.  “Mary was found to be with child.”  I suspect Mary’s mother discovered it.  Mary’s mother told Mary’s father, who told Joseph’s father, who told Joseph.  I suspect Joseph never even got to ask what happened.  I bet Joseph was stunned… confused…  embarrassed… full of shame. 

 

Matthew’s first century Jewish world was a world all about honor.  Their whole world was an honor/shame society.  It wasn’t a money-making society like ours.  All the poor people of Matthew’s first century Jewish world had… was their honor.  Mary turning up pregnant was as bad as it got. 

 

What was Joseph going to do?  His nice plan of living a boring little life as a peasant in Nazareth was unexpectedly shattered.  Nothing would ever be the same.  Don’t plug in his heart was broken.  He probably didn’t love Mary.  He hardly even knew her.  But his honor was devastated.  How could she bring such dishonor on him and his family and herself and her family?      

 

Joseph, as the hero of the Advent, is unexpectedly shoved into the drama.  His fiancé is pregnant.  What is he going to do?

 

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I stopped fours words short of finishing Matthew 1:18.  These are four startling words.

 

Matthew 1:18  …she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

 

Last week I told you to expect the unexpected.  I guess that is impossible to do.  If you could expect the unexpected, then it wouldn’t be unexpected.  Regardless of this inconsistency, these four words are unexpected.  God has chosen to send his son into the world in… as a fetus.  We understand Jesus on the White horse of Revelation, coming as a conqueror.  We get the Lion of Judah.  We like Aslan.  But to come as a fetus in a young Jewish girl’s womb…is not expected. 

 

I wonder if Mary told her mother, who told her father, who told Joseph’s father, who told Joseph, that it was from the Holy Spirit?  I doubt that part of the story got to Joseph.  Joseph is in the dark about the Holy Spirit part of this story.  Joseph has a tough choice to make.  What is he going to do with his pregnant finance’? 

 

Here is where it gets good.  Here is where we begin to see why Matthew chose Joseph to be the Hero of the Advent.

 

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Matthew 1:19 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 had a couple of options:

-He could, I suppose, go on with the marriage.  But everyone would assume he was the father.  If he was not the father, the first century Jewish culture would have demanded that he not marry her.  It would have been the wrong thing for Joseph to do.  If he went ahead with the marriage he would dishonor himself and his family, even more.  His righteousness demanded he not get married.

-He could make a big deal out it, after all the Mosaic Law required Mary to be put to death for her adultery.  At the time the Jews did not have the right to the death penalty.  The Romans did not allow it.  So, he couldn’t have gotten her stoned.  But, if he took her to court, he could have gotten his dowry back.  Then he could have married some other woman.  That was really what his community would have expected him to do.  Save his honor.  Punish Mary.  Get back the dowry.

-Joseph was leaning towards a simple divorce.  He could get two witnesses and write a divorce degree and quietly send it to Mary’s family and that would free both of them from the engagement.  It was the least embarrassing scenario; for Mary.  It was a compassionate choice. 

 

He valued Mary enough to give her the best option he could.  Joseph was a righteous man.  But Joseph was about to find out what that really meant. 

 

So, Joseph is making arrangements for the quiet divorce, when the next startling thing happens.

 

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Matthew 1:20  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.”  

 

An angel in a dream… that’s unexpected.  The angel changes everything.  The NIV leaves out an important word.  Let me read the first part of this verse again from the Yoda version.

 

^YLT Matthew 1:20 And on his thinking of these things, lo, a messenger of the Lord in a dream appeared to him,

 

The Greek word ivdou, is used over 40 times in Matthew.  ivdou points to the unexpected!  “Behold, Look, There, Lo”… something unexpected is happening.  The startling is here.  LO!  An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and told Joseph what was going on! 

 

God could have given Joseph a head’s up before he found out about Mary.  The angel could have shown up a week earlier and saved Joseph a lot of grief.  Had Joseph known it was through the Holy Spirit before Mary sent word, it would have made life easier.  That is not really how God operates.  Making things easier is usually not on God’s agenda.  It wasn’t for Joseph.  There is a clue about where I am going with this sermon.  Here is why Joseph is the Hero of the Advent.

 

Angels usually say, “Don’t be afraid”.  But this angel says not to be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.  The angel resolves Joseph’s dilemma and tells Joseph what to do.  Take Mary home as your wife because the fetus is from the Holy Spirit.  Did Joseph understand this?  Probably not any more than I understand it.  But Joseph accepted it.  I told you he was a hero.

 

Behold what else the angel tells him.

 

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Matthew 1:21-23 “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." 

 

That’s a lot for Joseph to absorb.  “I am supposed to go ahead and marry, Mary.  I got that.  The baby’s name is Jesus.  That’s okay there will be 6 other Iesous’s in his kindergarten class.  But this child is the fulfillment of prophecy.  This baby is God.  This baby is going to be God with us!  This is baby is God with ME!”

 

Can you imagine raising baby God?

-Every time he poops his diaper is filled with God Poop.  Are you supposed to keep God Poop?  Maybe there is a special container for it. 

-Every time Immanuel gets a fever Joseph is worried, “What if baby God dies?” 

-What if I have to spank toddler God?  Am I allowed to spank God?

-Maybe Joseph gets a flash of a 12 year old Jesus getting lost… “I’ve lost God.” 

 

All those thoughts and lots of others crash through Joseph’s head as he reels from what is expected of him.  How does Joseph get his head around being God’s step-father?

 

It is the last two verses of this story where we see why Matthew chose Joseph to be the Hero of the Advent.

 

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Matthew 1:24-25  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.

 

Joseph may have been a righteous man before the dream, but after the angel speaks, Joseph really learned what it meant to be righteous!  Joseph did what the angel commanded.  He took Mary home as his wife and stood alongside her in the stigma of her “sin”.  Joseph’s community would have thought he was confessing to his immorality.  “The hurried up wedding ceremony was… proof.  Somehow the couple had fooled around before they got married.”  What did his parents think?  Did they buy the “through the Holy Spirit” story?  Joseph was called to give up his reputation; his honor; his righteousness to follow the righteousness of God. And in doing so, he became the Hero of the Advent.

 

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Here is where the sermon is going.  Here is why Joseph is the Hero of the Advent.  Matthew chose to tell the story from Joseph’s perspective because Matthew is calling us to the same level of righteousness.  Joseph is the first model of righteousness.

 

Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

 

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

 

Joseph was the first, in Matthew’s Gospel, to be called to… “Your will be done”.  He is not the last.  All of us, who claim to be followers of Jesus, are called to God’s righteousness.  God’s righteousness may not be easy.  Joseph’s wasn’t.  We may be called to give up our righteousness; our honor; our reputation.  We may be called to stand alongside “sinners” in their stigma.  We will be called to righteousness in unexpected ways.  That is the way of the kingdom. 

 

Joseph is the Hero of the Advent… We are called to be heroes of the Advent!

 

Los Alamos Church of Christ

Tim Stidham

December 11, 2011