QUARANTINE BLOG # 629

December 19, 2021

The message this fourth Sunday of Advent, “Trust Beyond Reason, Hope Beyond Doubt,” is from The Word in the Wind, by Bruce L. Taylor.

Biblical literacy continues to decline in our modern age. One of the casualties is the appreciation of the distinctive message of each respective book of the Bible. This is probably the time of year when the problem is most noticeable among Christians. Just where do we find the story of the shepherds and the wise men, the stable and the flight into Egypt? Some of us may be surprised to open the New Testament to Mark or John, and discover that neither of those Gospels has anything to say about Jesus’ birth at all. Others of us may search in vain through Luke, looking for the wise men and Herod’s order to kill the newborns, or search in vain through Matthew, looking for shepherds and the stable. 

A lot of us have composed our own Gospel over the years, with bits and pieces taken from each of the four Gospels and perhaps movies and devotional books and assembled all together in a fashion that we have never examined critically. “What’s wrong with that?” some may be thinking. “It’s all true, isn’t it? What difference does it make what part of the Bible it came from? What difference does it make if the source of our pious notions isn’t really the Bible at all?” The difficulty is that, in the process of making our own “Gospel,” we will invariably lose the unique and important perspectives of the Bible as it has been handed down to us, and we will therefore naturally lose a large part of the truth that it conveys. We may even manufacture information that has no biblical basis at all.

On Christmas Eve, how we love to hear the familiar story from Luke’s Gospel about Mary giving birth to the baby Jesus as an angel had told her. We are charmed by the heavenly host appearing to the shepherds with good news of great joy. And there, at the stable, in addition to Jesus, of course, our mental tableau highlights Mary, and the shepherds, with Matthew’s wise men thrown in for good measure. 

The nativity story in Matthew highlights another personality – Joseph. In Matthew’s Gospel, it is through Joseph that Jesus’ lineage is traced back to King David, and back even farther to Abraham, with whom God first made covenant. In Matthew’s Gospel, it is to Joseph that an angel explains Mary’s pregnancy. In Matthew’s Gospel, it is Joseph’s character that is held up as exemplary. It is fitting that, on this fourth Sunday of Advent, we hear the New Testament’s other story of Jesus’ birth.

To all appearances, Mary deserved to be stoned to death – that is what the law prescribed in cases where a woman had sexual relations with a man not her husband, and it seemed obvious that, if Joseph had not been with her, someone else had. Imagine the shock and the shame, the tremendous heartbreak and dismay that Joseph experienced when he first heard that his wife-to-be was pregnant by another – hardly the sort of emotions that we usually associate with Christmas. All of his hopes, all of his dreams, were dashed. 

Joseph was a righteous man, we are told, a man of the law. But he was also a compassionate man, unwilling to see Mary disgraced. He resolved not to make public the scandal by going to the authorities, either to charge her with a crime or to petition for a divorce. But a divorce could also be worked by simply handing his fiancee a writ in the presence of two witnesses. Apparently, that is what he decided to do – to divorce her quietly, in the presence and knowing of the fewest possible people. 

Could he forgive her? He was a man of the law; there was no possibility of forgiving a sinner. How could she have done this to him, to violate his trust and cause him shame? How could he have been so wrong about her, to suppose that she was good and pure and faithful? Better to find out now, no doubt. Better to limit the scandal. Better to let his heart mend in secret. Surely, that was the reasonable thing to do.

But then Joseph had a dream – a dream no less fantastic than the dreams his namesake of old had had. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid” (Matthew 1:20). Do not be afraid of the gossip. Do not be afraid of having misplaced your affection. Do not even be afraid of disregarding the law of Moses. “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21). And Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took Mary as his wife” (Matthew 1:24). 

Aside from the question of what the law prescribed for adultery – and that is what this amounted to, from all reasonable appearances – any man would have to admit that Joseph’s behavior was remarkable. Men are vain and prideful and stubborn by nature; perhaps you women have noticed. I do not know what the Hebrew equivalent of “machismo” is, but Mary’s pregnancy certainly would have offended Joseph’s. What man would not have been thrown into a rage over such news about his betrothed? What man would have been credulous enough to accept the explanation that Joseph dreamed of? And even if he did accept the explanation as God’s own truth, what man would have been willing to brave the gossip, the stares, the lingering doubts that surely would follow him all of his life?

Matthew could easily have glossed over Joseph’s reaction to the news of Mary’s pregnancy. But Matthew had a particular interest in telling us about Joseph. “Do not be afraid,” the angel said to Mary in Luke’s Gospel. “Do not be afraid,” the angel said to Joseph in Matthew’s Gospel. Mary could not do anything about the fact that she was pregnant, or the fact that gossipers would reckon her the sinful mother of an illegitimate child, but Joseph could have walked away from the crisis without anyone ever knowing, or he could have been deemed a righteous practitioner of the law by exposing Mary. 

But Joseph didn’t do either of those things. Joseph trusted God, even in so incredible an explanation and promise as came from an angel in a dream, and, we may safely assume, he became a model of faithful obedience to God from whom God’s own Son found much to learn. “All this,” Matthew adds, “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.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took Mary as his wife” (Matthew 1:22-24).

Now, the prophet to whom Matthew referred was Isaiah. Isaiah had delivered a prophecy to King Ahaz of Judah. The king had angered two of Judah’s neighbors by refusing to join in league with them against Assyria. They threatened to invade Jerusalem if he refused to ally himself with them. Instead of joining with them against Assyria, King Ahaz had been advised by his council to seek Assyria’s assistance against the threatened invasion. Isaiah had told Ahaz that the invasion of Jerusalem would not happen in any event, and therefore, Ahaz should not turn to Assyria. Perhaps Isaiah realized that reliance on Assyria would result in Jewish society and Jewish religion being polluted with Assyrian customs and Assyrian gods. 

“It shall not stand,” the Lord had declared concerning the threatened invasion, “and it shall not come to pass. . . . If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:7, 9). God even offered to give Ahaz whatever sign Ahaz chose as a proof that things would go Judah’s way without any help from Assyria. Excusing his disobedience in the pious terms of not wanting to put the Lord to the test, Ahaz declined the offer. “Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:13-14). So great would be the joy at God’s saving Jerusalem from destruction, that a woman then with child – perhaps Ahaz’s own wife – would name her newborn “God is with us.”

But this king in the line of David went his own way in the matter, and the result was disaster for Judah. The promise of God’s deliverance from the approaching armies seemed too incredible to Ahaz. The enemies were at the gates. The best minds in the kingdom had urged Ahaz to trust in the military might of Assyria. As logic dictated, he chose the worldly wisdom of his human advisors over the implausible promises of God. Hundreds of years later in a little Judean village, another man in the line of David received another promise of God that seemed implausible, but being a righteous man, he trusted God’s promise, and so he was instrumental in protecting and raising him who would save his people from their sins. It defied all reason, what Joseph did – trust such an incredible promise. His hope in God transcended all the doubts that he naturally would have had about Mary and about her child. And when she bore a son, Joseph named him Jesus, which means “salvation.”

The story of Christmas is a message of faith – of trust against long odds, of hope that casts out fear. That the Savior of the world should be an infant born into a carpenter’s family in an insignificant little place called Bethlehem – incredible! That the Son of God should live with common people and serve their common needs and forgive their common sins – unbelievable! That the hope of the world narrowly averted a scandalous birth and a shameful label – amazing! 

God certainly expects a lot of us by asking us to trust and to hope – to trust beyond reason and to hope beyond doubt, to trust beyond human contracts and to hope beyond human accomplishments, to trust beyond savings accounts and insurance policies, to hope beyond the American dream and the next election, to trust beyond human senses, human logic, and human satisfactions, and to hope beyond worldly reservations, fortune, and reputation. The message of Christmas is that the promises of God are true, and that the promises of God are for you. Incredible? Unbelievable? Amazing? God certainly expects a lot of us by asking us to trust and to hope. But see what an enchanting starting place God gives us:

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. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do 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 as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 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 call him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25);

-30-