Sermon, December 23, 2007 Matthew 1:18-25

“Joseph’s Song” (Matthew 1:18-25)
Rick Olson, December 23, 2007

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” Thus begins Matthew’s description of the birth of the seminal figure in world history: the birth of the messiah took place in this way. And skipping down to the end—you’re allowed to do that in the Bible—skipping down to the end, he describes the actual birth like this: Joseph “had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son.” And this has always seemed a little off-hand to me—he describes the actual event almost as a side-issue to his main issue, the fact that he had no marital relations with Mary until after the birth. Contrast that with Luke’s rendering, which we’ll read tomorrow night: “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Much sharper writing with many more details which, as every writer knows, gives a sense of time and place, of realism. You can almost smell the animals and feel scratch of the hay as you pick it out of your clothes.

But Matthew gives none of those details, none of the atmosphere—indeed, as far as he knows, Jesus was born in a house like everyone else. The details of the actual birth are unimportant to Matthew; what are important are the actions of Joseph, what he does in the face of a scandal. Matthew is much more interested in that scandal than he is the mundane details of Jesus’ birth, and he concentrates on what Joseph’s reaction was. And that was a dilemma indeed . . . what was he going to do with his pregnant fiancée?

Now, this isn’t exactly the same problem it would be today . . . today, women get pregnant by their fiancées all the time, the shotgun wedding has become a joke, if not a national pastime. But that’s not the problem here. Look at how Matthew puts it: “When . . . Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” The key phrase here is “before they lived together” – the Greek word translated as “lived together” is literally “came together.” The problem is not that Mary was pregnant before formal marriage—they were apparently pretty lax about that sort of thing in Galilee, and would have given them a wink and a nudge. The problem was that Mary was pregnant before they lived together, before they had relations. And though we’re told right off the bat the child is from the Holy Spirit, Joseph doesn’t know that, he has to assume—because he’d most likely never seen a virgin birth before—that somebody else was the father of the child.

And Mary’s getting with child by somebody other than the one to whom she is engaged is a scandal, but it’s not the first one in Jesus’ lineage. In good Jewish literary form, Matthew has right before our passage set the scene by listing the ancestors of his hero, who is Christ the Lord. Only . . . his is different from most ancestry lists in that it includes four women, four mothers as well as fathers in the genealogy. That was almost never done—in good patriarchal fashion, Jewish writers listed only the males, so it’s unusual to say the least to list women, but that’s not the most interesting part. The four women he cites are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba (whom he calls the “wife of Uriah”). And the fascinating part is that all four of these women are associated with some sort of sexual scandal. Tamar tricked Judah into fathering her child and Rahab was a courtesan. Ruth seduced her husband’s brother on the threshing-room floor and Bathsheba was taken by King David after the murder of her husband. All four of these women are associated with scandal, all four are in the direct lineage of Christ.

And now, Matthew spends a great amount of ink on yet another scandal, this time the scandal of Jesus’ birth. And the one in danger of being scandalized—scandals aren’t complete without someone to be scandalized—the one in danger of being scandalized is Joseph of Bethlehem, and he’s caught on the horns of a dilemma. It is within his rights to publicly humiliate her, to stone her, even, and kill her and the child, but he is a righteous man, a gentle man, and he doesn’t want to cause her disgrace, so he decides to dismiss her quietly.

Note what is happening here: Joseph doesn’t refuse to be scandalized, by Mary’s pregnancy, he still decides to dismiss her from her betrothal. And such a dismissal—although better than a stoning—would not have been easy for Mary—she would have had no protector for her baby, she would have likely been an outcast in her own family, it would not have gone well for her. And so Joseph still chooses to be scandalized, to let it be a stumbling block—another translation of the Greek word “scandal”—he let it be a stumbling block for himself . . . but because of his righteousness, he doesn’t let it erupt into violence as it so often does.

This notion of scandal is important in the Gospels . . . no, really, it is. Both Jesus and Paul maintained that the Gospel itself is a scandal. Paul came right out and said it: “We proclaim Christ crucified, a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” Christ’s message of unlimited, unearned grace, of God’s caring for the least of these over and above the rich and powerful, set the world on its ear. Jesus’ ministry caused the world offense, it was a scandal to a world that operates on the principle that those with all the money and power are the greatest.

And let it be clear that in spite of his mild reaction, in spite of the fact that he dismisses Mary rather than has her stoned, Joseph is scandalized by her untimely pregnancy. He was, after all, a product of his time, and more importantly, his scripture . . . Joseph was a good Jew, to a good Jew the thought of his betrothed being pregnant by another was insupportable. So he reacted in the only way he could, within the parameters of his culture and who he was: he resolved to put her away.

But just when he’s resolved to do so—and Matthew’s very clear about it—just when he’s resolved to do the normal thing, the thing required of him by his family, his religion and his upbringing, God steps in. Boy, does God ever. An angel, a messenger from God’s own self appears to him—in a dream, no less—and the first thing out of his mouth is “Do not be afraid.” Fear not! For the child conceived of Mary is from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the cause of that child in her womb, so don’t be afraid to jump in with both feet. Get over your self-righteousness, get over your worry, get over your fear . . . God is doing a new thing here, and all bets are off.

And just what is that new thing that God is doing? Is it a virgin birth that God’s pushing, is that it? You might think so, if you pay attention to all the battles that’s gone on over the years about that doctrine . . . it’s become a rallying cry of conservatives like Pat Robertson who feel that if you let that doctrine go, if you admit that the virgin birth might not be factually true, you’ve started that slippery slide down into the bowels of heathenism, or worse. It’s become a rallying cry for the other side as well, for progressives like John Spong, who wrote a whole book on the subject, and how silly he feels it is for modern people to believe in the virgin birth.

But you know what? The virgin birth is not what this passage is about, it’s not the new thing that God is doing. You shall name him Jesus, the angel says, Yeshua in Hebrew, salvation, for he will save the people from their sins. And make no mistake about it, the first one saved is Joseph himself . . . through a revelation from God, through this new thing that the Lord is doing, he is prevented from scandal, prevented from ruining the lives of innocent people, he’s allowed to be a vessel of God’s grace.

Jesus said “Blessed are those who are not scandalized by me,” and in this, Joseph was surely blessed, and we are blessed when we aren’t scandalized, when we don’t shun or punish or react violently to those who are different from us, who offend our sense of right and wrong . . . we’re blessed when we don’t make snide comments to folks who aren’t dressed the way we think they ought to be. We’re blessed when we don’t automatically dismiss other peoples’ lifestyles, when we don’t sniff or turn up our noses at them, no matter how subtle.

And we often read that statement as if we’re blessed after the fact, as if we who make the choice not to be scandalized, not to take offense are blessed, but actually, it’s the other way around. A blessing is a gift from God, not dependent upon any thing we do or say, and it sure worked that way with Joseph, didn’t it? Joseph, who was going to do the thing that everyone else in his position would have done, the thing he was locked into doing by his faith and his upbringing, Joseph was blessed by a revelation from God, given the power to resist scandal, to take a different path.

It is God who gave Joseph the ability to not be scandalized, to not react in the way he had been entrained to do, and that is the gift of this season. We are blessed by the coming of our Lord and savior, who enables us to behave in a manner that is contrary to the way of the world. Because it’s the way of the world to value being on top. It’s the way of the world to react violently to the different, to the not-like-us. It’s the way of the world to exploit the weak and glorify the powerful, to build wealth on the backs of the poor. But Christ has come—and will come again—to bless us, to empower us, to save us from our sins.

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, as the revelation had blessed him to do, and took Mary as his wife. And in this moment of Joseph’s conversion, the future of God’s Messiah, was assured. Jesus the child, the adolescent, the young man had hearth and home and shelter, he was nurtured and taught a craft, and he had an earthly daddy who loved and cherished him.

And 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." Hallelujah. Amen.