The liturgical calendar reflects the wisdom that liturgical churches inherited—a wisdom embodied in its worship. This wisdom is seen in how it deals with Christmas.
In the liturgical calendar, Christmas is not a single day as it is in popular culture. Rather, Christmas is the second season of the liturgical calendar. It is a twelve-day celebration, i.e., the twelve days of Christmas—December 25 through Epiphany on January 6.
The twelve days of Christmas teach us that the birth of Jesus is more than an event in the past that is to be remembered and celebrated. Rather, the birth of Jesus embodies a profound mystery—something beyond our normal human understanding. This mystery invites us to reflect on it—to sit with it—to be still before it—to allow its truth to come to us. This mystery carries the promise of deep knowing that is more than human understanding.
Today is the seventh day of Christmas. As we continue to celebrate and reflect on the birth of Jesus, we shift the spotlight from Jesus to a member of his supporting cast: Joseph. Joseph’s story helps us reflect on the meaning of Jesus’s birth.
In the gospel of Matthew, the biblical writer tells the story of Jesus’s birth by telling Joseph’s story. His story is found in Matthew 1:18-25. In telling Jospeh’s story, the biblical writer first set the stage by presenting the situation. Then, the writer recorded three different movements in the story—three different scenes: Joseph’s dilemma, Joseph’s dream, Joseph’s response
The story begins with the situation in which Joseph found himself. “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). In this one verse, the biblical writer sets the stage for the drama that was to unfold.
Joseph and Mary were engaged—that is, a marriage contract had been arranged between them. Tradition would suggest this contract was made with Joseph by Mary’s father. In this engagement stage, Joseph and Mary did not yet live together as husband and wife, but they were committed to one another. Their marriage agreement was a legal, binding covenant. It could only be undone was through divorce.
During this engagement period, Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant—and he knew the child she was carrying was not his. The news of Mary’s pregnancy created Joseph’s dilemma.
Scene 1—Joseph’s dilemma. Joseph would have been devastated by the knowledge of the pregnancy. The pregnancy represented a violation of the marriage contract—a betrayal of their covenant—a flagrant rejection of Joseph. It was an affront to Joseph’s reputation and standing.
In addition to the pain he felt, the pregnancy created a dilemma for Joseph: what was he to do? According to the Law of Moses, Mary was to be punished by being stoned to death.
Rather than doing what the Law required, Joseph resolved to divorce Mary privately. His decision sought to protect Mary from public disgrace. “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly” (Matthew 1:19).
In recording Joseph’s decision, the biblical writer used two phrases to explain Joseph’s decision to divorce Mary privately.
The writer described Joseph as “a righteous man.” The term meant Joseph was one whose life was patterned after the Law of Moses. He was a man who wanted to live a life that was pleasing to God. He dis so by living in obedience to the Law.
The writer also noted that Joseph was “unwilling to expose her to public disgrace.” Joseph did not want Mary to experience the disgrace and humiliation that accompanied being unmarried and pregnant in that culture. He wanted to protect her from that cultural shame. In this desire to protect Mary, the writer portrayed Joseph as compassionate. He was sensitive to what Mary felt. He was compassionate and merciful in the way he responded to her and her situation.
These two descriptions would have been significant for those for whom the gospel was written. The term righteous points to the Law of Moses while the term compassionate echoes the call of the Hebrew prophets. Joseph’s life reflected the two major portions of the Hebrew scriptures: the Law and the prophets. Describing Joseph as righteous and compassionate, the biblical writer portrayed Joseph as one who, desiring to live a life that was pleasing to God, patterned his life after the teachings of Hebrew scripture.
In Joseph’s decision, compassion took precedence over obedience to the Law. The Hebrew prophets called for compassion and mercy. They denounced external obedience to the Law and prescribed rituals of worship when those practices were not accompanied by compassion and mercy. Joseph is portrayed as one who moved beyond the demands of the Law to live out of the compassion and mercy proclaimed by the prophets.
Joseph’s decision set the stage for scene two in the story: Joseph’s dream.
Scene two—Joseph’s dream. Having decided to divorce Mary quietly, Joseph had a dream. His dream reflects the struggle that was going on inside him. He had made a decision, but he was not at peace. He was still filled with inner turmoil.
In the dream, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel instructed him to do two things, Matthew 1:20-21: he was to marry Mary; he was to name the child Jesus. In these instructions, the angel said two things about the child Mary was carrying. The child conceived in her was “from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20); “he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
The common Jewish belief, reflected in Hebrew Scripture, was the Spirit anointed select individuals whom God had chosen for a special work, e.g., prophets and kings. The Hebrew word messiah and its Greek translation Christ meant “the anointed one”—one anointed with God’s Spirit for a special work. The unusual twist in the angel’ message was that the child Mary was carrying was not anointed by the Spirit but rather was conceived by the Spirit. This child was brought into being by the Spirit. The language suggests the imagery in Genesis 1 of the Spirit brooding over the waters of chaos, bringing forth order and creation and life (Genesis 1:2).
This reference to the Spirit’s work in the child’s conception meant the child Mary was carrying was not just another child. In this child, God was calling into being that which had never been.
The name Jesus would have had significance for the original audience. It is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. The name means “Yahweh saves.”
The common Jewish belief was that God would work through the Messiah to save his people. Just as God had saved the people from Egyptian bondage and from Babylonian exile, so God would use the Messiah to save them again. The unusual twist in the angel’s message was that this child that Mary was carrying would save the people from a different, greater kind of bondage: bondage to sin. “He will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
We commonly understand the term sin as referring to personal failure and wrongdoing. In the gospel, however, the term probably referred to the sin of the nation—the nation’s failure as the people of God to live the ways of God. This child would teach them the ways of God and lead them to live the ways of God—ways that were different from what they were currently taught and which they sought to live, ways that centered on self-effort to conform to the scribal interpretations of the Mosaic Law.
The writer interrupted the flow of the story to point out how this child’s birth was the fulfillment of what was said in the Hebrew Scriptures. “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us’” (Matthew 1:22-23).
The common Jewish belief was that God was “with us.” The Tabernacle in the wilderness had been built so that God could dwell among them. The temple in Jerusalem—which replaced the Tabernacle—was viewed as God’s dwelling place on earth. Thus, God dwelt in their midst in the Temple. The unusual twist in the angel’s message was that God would be “with us” in an unheard-of way: in this child. In this one, God would dwell in their midst—in the flesh, as a human being.
While this 2nd scene appears to bring the child center stage, the writer’s emphasis continues to be upon Joseph—specifically on how Joseph responded to this message with its unusual twists.
Scene 3—Joseph’s response (Matthew 1:24-25). Joseph acted on the dream by doing what the angel had commanded him to do. He took Mary as his wife. He named the child Jesus.
In this scene, Joseph is portrayed as being obedient to God (as opposed to being obedient to the Law). He chose to be a participant in this unusual thing God was doing—a partner in God’s work. Although not told in the story, Joseph’s obedience would have been at great cost to himself. Throughout his life, he would bear the stigma of having a wife who was pregnant before they were married. In spite of what he surely knew his obedience would cost him, Joseph gave himself to—abandoned himself to—what God was doing. He sacrificed his own thoughts and will to the will of God.
This scene portrays Joseph as one who was open and receptive, as one who was responsive to what God was doing. He is portrayed as being open, not closed to new ways of thinking, as being teachable, not rigid in his thinking. When God acted in new and different ways—in ways different from the past—Joseph did not question or reject the new thing he was told. Rather, he was receptive to and responsive to that work.
Joseph's story is the story of one who—patterning his life after the teachings of Hebrew scripture, particularly after the prophets—was compassionate and merciful, of one who was open, teachable, and responsive to what God was doing, of one who abandoned himself to God and God’s will.
Why did the gospel writer focus upon Joseph, making him center stage instead of Jesus?
The gospel of Matthew was written for a Jewish audience—specifically, Jewish Christians after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. After the destruction of Jerusalem, only two religious groups survived: Pharisaic Jews and Jewish Christians. Both worshiped in the synagogue. The synagogue was under the control of the Pharisaic Jews. Using the threat of excommunication from the synagogue and shunning by the community, these Pharisaic Jews pressured the Jewish followers of Jesus to live in obedience to the scribal interpretations of the Law, i.e., to be disciples of Moses rather than disciples of Jesus.
The followers of Jesus for whom the gospel was written were faced with a difficult dilemma. If they were to be disciples of Jesus rather than disciples of Moses, they would be excommunicated from the synagogue and abandoned by their families. They would pay a high price to be followers of Jesus. In Joseph’s dilemma and struggle, these believers would see their own. They would have identified with Joseph and with his struggle. Joseph would have been for them a model for how to live as a faithful follower of Jesus.
Joseph’s choice to move beyond rigid obedience to the teachings of the Law, to live out of compassion would have called them beyond the Law as taught by the synagogue. It would have called them to live out the compassion and mercy that Jesus taught and lived in his embrace of the outcasts—lepers, sinners, children, Gentiles, women.
Joseph’s openness to the new thing God was doing in Jesus—abandoning himself to that work even at great cost to himself—would have called them to be faithful in living as followers of Jesus, bearing the cost.
In the same way, Joseph’s is for us a model of how to live as the followers of Jesus today: allowing the teachings of scripture and the compassion of Jesus to shape our lives so that we too are compassionate people; seeking to be open to, receptive to, and responsive to what God is doing; abandoning ourselves to God’s will and work.
Our inclination is to make the baby Jesus center stage in our Christmas celebrations. Doing so makes us passive recipients of what God is doing, sitting in the audience observing. By putting Joseph center stage, Matthew’s gospel calls us from being passive recipients sitting in audience to being on stage ourselves. In Joseph, the gospel writer calls us to be faithful disciples whose lives are shaped by the teachings of scripture, who go beyond external obedience to rules to being compassionate and merciful, who are open and teachable, receptive and responsive to the new work God is doing in us and among us, who abandon ourselves and our agendas to what God calls us to do.
As we move through this
Christmas season, may God help us move out of the audience onto the stage!
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