Joseph, the Righteous Man (Matthew 1:18-25)

This sermon was preached on 15/12/2013

Despite his involvement in the early life of Jesus, not much is said in the New Testament about Joseph. It is often assumed that he had passed away before Jesus began his public ministry, although the comment made by those who knew him, recorded in John 6:42, could indicate he was still alive at that time, but perhaps too old to travel about the countryside. We know he was a carpenter, living in Nazareth; we know that he went up to Jerusalem annually to keep the Levitical feasts; we know that he fathered four sons (called James, Joseph, Simon and Judas) and at least two daughters and provided the home where Jesus would grow up with them.

Matthew, after providing a genealogy of the ancestors of Jesus, choses to begin his Gospel with the story of Joseph, which suggests that the genealogy is his rather than that of Mary. He begins his story of Joseph by using the word genesis, which our translators have rendered ‘birth’. Yet the same word is used in verse 1 to introduce the genealogy of Jesus and I don’t see why it cannot mean the same in both references and have the meaning of ‘origins’. The genealogy could give the impression that Jesus was only a human being descended from David and Abraham. So Matthew provides more details about the origins of Jesus, and that is where the story of Joseph comes to the fore, but probably not in the way that uninformed readers would expect.

The man who was delighted

Joseph no doubt regarded himself as having been blessed by God. As far as we can gather, he was no longer a young man, yet here he was engaged to a wonderful young woman. Perhaps he had wanted to marry a pious woman and had to wait a long time until the right one appeared. He had found her in Mary and he knew that she was a godly person, although still young, probably a teenager. Probably she was a distant relative because they both had connections to Bethlehem in Judea, even though they were living in Nazareth in Galilee.

All the arrangements for the marriage had been made by an individual known as ‘the friend of the bridegroom’. Perhaps compensation would have been paid to Mary’s family and Joseph would have paid a dowry to her father (he was not allowed to spend it because it was to be kept for her should she be widowed or divorced). Perhaps we can imagine Joseph realising the importance of providing for the possibility of widowhood for Mary because he was much older than her. But he had no intention of divorcing her.

They had become betrothed. Joseph and Mary would have participated in a formal betrothal when he would have given her a present and said to her, ‘By this, you are set apart for me according to the laws of Moses and Israel.’ A betrothal was a bit like our engagements, yet it was more binding in a legal sense. It could only be cancelled by a legal decision, a divorce in a sense. The betrothal lasted about a year and during that period the husband would work on their future home. We can imagine Joseph doing this with great delight, counting the days until he could take Mary to their home.

According to the account in Luke, Mary was told by an angel that she would become pregnant. Her first response was to go and visit her older relatives, Elizabeth and Zechariah. Luke does not indicate that Mary had said anything to Joseph about what she had been told. No doubt, he would have regarded her visit to such a spiritual couple as very appropriate in preparation for her life with him. And he would have been looking forward to her return.

Then his world caved in!

The man with a dilemma

The news came to him that his betrothed wife was pregnant. Devastated he had to make a decision and here we can see what kind of man he was. We are told that he was righteous, but he was not self-righteous. A self-righteous man would have said, ‘Look what she has done to me despite all the things I was doing for her according to God’s law.’ A righteous person, in contrast, wants to respond in a manner that is God-honouring. So what did Joseph do?

The first thing that he did was to do nothing rash. Instead he thought about the situation. And is this not telling us that he was wise? Believers in God, even when they are disappointed, should not be impetuous. Joseph knew about the dangers of reacting rashly to a situation, therefore he refused to be rash.

At the same time, he was determined to do what God’s Word said and the Old Testament law was quite clear. Mary had broken the arrangement and whatever his feelings for her Joseph knew that he had to put God first. There would have to be a divorce.

Yet Joseph was also marked by compassion. He did not wish Mary to have to undergo the shame connected to a public announcement that the betrothal was over. Maybe he imagined that she would go and live in a place where no one would know her and begin a new life. Compassion is a beautiful character trait and it is never more striking than when it is displayed by the person who has been hurt towards the one who caused the hurting.

There does seem to be one detail that perhaps we could have faulted Joseph for and that is that he does not seem to have spoken to Mary about what happened. If he had, then she would have told him about the visit of Gabriel who came from heaven to tell her that she, a virgin, would become the mother of the Saviour. Of course, he probably would not have believed her and would have concluded that she was guilty of blasphemy as well as adultery.

There are two obvious applications to us from what happened to Joseph. The first is that our hopes and plans can be changed very suddenly, perhaps in ways that are incomprehensible. This can happen in many ways. We can think of Jacob losing Joseph through the jealousy of his other sons; we can think of Job losing everything in an uncontrollable sequence of events; and we can think of Mary and Martha losing Lazarus when all seemed to depend on him.

The second application is that when things go wrong we have to ensure that we respond in a manner that reveals we still trust in God. Joseph shows us how to do so. Think about it, see what God has revealed about the matter, and show compassion to whoever needs to receive it. This is very demanding, yet Joseph seems to have done it automatically and spontaneously, without any guidance from someone else.

The man with a discovery

The remedy came to Joseph through a dream in which an angel told him the truth about the situation. This angelic announcement is full of amazing theology, full of profound truths about the baby to be born. It contains a reference to a great mystery, the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. The Holy Spirit had brought it about through his divine powers as the Creator. We are not told how he did it, yet the method ensured that Jesus remained sinless even although he had a sinful mother.

The angel also informed Joseph about the name he was to give to the newborn infant – Jesus. It was a name full of significance to someone who knew the Old Testament because it meant Yahweh is the Saviour. Whether Joseph realised it or not, here he was being told about a complete Saviour. In order to be the Saviour, Jesus had to provide a perfect righteousness, and in order to provide it he had to experience every situation of human existence, including the pre-birth stages. Jesus was sinless in the womb on behalf of all those he would yet believe in him.

Moreover the angel told Joseph that Jesus would live up to the wonderful name that he had been given. He would deliver his people from their sins. This angelic statement is a wonderful summary of the gospel. We should note what it does not say – the angel did not indicate that Jesus would deliver his people Israel from the state of captivity they currently suffered at the hands of the Romans. He was not going to be a political deliverer. Joseph may not have understood that the people referred to were not his ethnic group. But we know that they would be composed of people from all over the world and from every period of time who would respond to the gospel that Matthew would explain in his book. Indeed some might wonder who would be included in his people from the period of Jesus’ birth and would be surprised and delighted to discover that the first to be mentioned by the writer would be Magi from the East who had travelled a great distance in order to worship the child!

The deliverance Jesus would provide would be comprehensive and effective. It would be comprehensive in the sense that he would provide complete deliverance, which means that he would deliver all of them from every effect of sin. We have often heard it described as deliverance from the penalty of sin when we trust in him, from the power of sin as he directs our lives, and from the presence of sin when we go to be with him in heaven.

At this stage in his story, Matthew inserts a comment that reminds his readers that the birth of Jesus had been predicted in precise detail centuries before by Isaiah. His reference adds another detail which new readers may not have realised. The prophecy adds to the wonder of a virgin birth the amazing detail that the one who was born was God himself and he had come to be with us.

Joseph, of course, would have realised eventually that he was involved in the fulfillment of a divine prediction. No doubt he would feel overwhelmed at the grace that had been shown to him. But he would always remember that an angel had come to give him great news during the moment of crisis that he had known when he discovered that the one he loved had seemed to have betrayed him.

The man with a delight

The story closes with a brief description of Joseph’s obedience. He immediately began to live with his wife. We know that the marriage was holy and pleasing to God, yet we can also see how the locals would regard it as a hasty marriage that appeared to cover up sinful behaviour. Joseph and Mary waited together with delight for the birth of the Deliverer. And we can imagine Joseph’s pleasure as he gave this wonderful name to the newborn child. Even in this we can see how obedience that focuses on Jesus enables a person to ignore the opinions and wrong deductions of those who might imagine they have grounds for criticism.