A Sunday School was putting on a Christmas pageant which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. One boy wanted so very much to be Joseph, but when the parts were handed out, a boy he didn’t like was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn-keeper instead. He was pretty upset about this but he didn’t say anything to the director.
During all the rehearsals he thought what he might do the night of performance to get even with this rival who got to be Joseph. Finally, the night of the performance, Mary and Joseph came walking across the stage. They knocked on the door of the inn, and the inn-keeper opened the door and asked them gruffly what they wanted.
Joseph answered, "We’d like to have a room for the night." Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, "Great, come on in and I’ll give you the best room in the house!"
For a few seconds poor little Joseph didn’t know what to do. Thinking quickly on his feet, he looked inside the door past the inn-keeper then said, "No wife of mine is going to stay in a dump like this. Come on, Mary, let’s go to the barn." -And once again the play was back on track!
In all the Christmas pageants performed, Joseph doesn’t get a starring role, but he is far more important than we have ever made him. Think about what he did! Everyone praises the courage of Mary, but who praises the courage of Joseph? Here is a man of integrity who always obeyed religious law, who is engaged to a young girl - he finds out she is pregnant not by him. She says there was no other man, but the Holy Spirit which created the child.
By law he has two choices: he can go through a kind of “divorce”, severing his promise of marriage. Mary and her family would be forced to leave the village go somewhere else, public scrutiny would be too much; by law he could call for her to be stoned to death for adultery.
Yet here is a man who hears angels - and angel who whispers to him to take Mary as his wife, and trust God. So in the English translation, we are told he marries Mary even though she is a ‘virgin’.
However, In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Hebrew meaning of the word used is “young woman”. When the Gospels were written, they were first written in Hebrew - so for Joseph, Mary would not necessarily have been a technical virgin, just a young woman. The word is ‘alma’. In Isaiah 7:14, it says, “a young woman shall conceive and give birth to a child.”
When the Gospels were translated from Hebrew to Greek, there was no corresponding word - and the translator chose the Greek word meaning someone who has not been sexually active.
Yet there was a commitment and a promise between Joseph and Mary. Mary’s father was required to pay a dowry; even though they were technically not married, all the same rules applied. If Joseph should die, she would be called a widow. If she died, he would be called a widower. If the engagement broke up, it would be called a divorce. During the time they were engaged, they were called husband and wife. While they were engaged, they were both to be virgins. The engagement was to last one year and then they were to be married.
In the biblical text, we are told, “Joseph was a just man.” That means that Joseph was a good man, a kind man, an honorable man. The Bible uses the word, “righteous.” Joseph was a righteous man. Then we come to this beautiful line, “Joseph was unwilling to put her to shame.” That line says mountains to us about Joseph. He didn’t want to hurt Mary. He didn’t want to destroy her. He was not punitive. He was not revengeful. He wasn’t out for a pound of her flesh. Instead, Joseph had these feelings of grace towards her, and so he resolved to divorce her quietly. Not tell her parents. Not tell his parents. Not tell the rabbi. Not to tell the court so he could get his money back. So the first story about the birth of Jesus is a story of compassion, a story of grace, a story of a man who had been enormously violated by a pregnant woman and he vowed not to punish her. He had been deeply violated, yet he still cared for her and took care of her.
But the story continues. An angel or divine messenger appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Mary is pregnant by the Spirit of God. The Spirit hovered over her and she is now pregnant. You are to marry her and name the child Jesus for he will save the people from their sins. Call him Immanuel because God is always with us.” And so Joseph remained with Mary because he believed the dream and the message of the angel.
Notice that Joseph never says a word, in the few times he is mentioned in the birth narratives. He listens, he takes actions, but he never speaks. We might assume his words are recorded, because we can imagine the conversations he had with Mary, and the Angel Gabriel. He can “hear” him talking to the innkeeper. We can visualize him teaching Jesus about carpentry…but then he fades from the scene. It is widely thought that Joseph was much older than Mary, which would be consistent with cultural practices. When Jesus finally begins ministry, Mary appears alone - the assumption is that Joseph has died and Mary is a widow.
I think of Joseph as a man of integrity. He was a carpenter - not quite untouchable, but close to the lowest of the low. Yet he was also fluent in several languages - he would have to be, in order to work in the town of Sepphoris near Nazareth, where Greek, Roman and many other cultures rubbed elbows. He would also have been able to read. He seems like a man who plans carefully. When he was secure enough, he began to think about marriage, and approached Mary’s parents. Then he discovered that his bride-to-be was pregnant. As a man of integrity he wanted to do the right thing, in the right way. He considered divorcing Mary when he learned of her pregnancy, but wanted to do so without calling attention to the reason. Instead, he risks being questioned about Mary’s pregnancy and marries her. In those days, a marriage contract was worked out between families, and the engaged couple continued to live with their parents till their wedding. The townspeople could well have thought Mary and Joseph didn’t wait till their wedding. Joseph protected their reputation by moving up the wedding date, and the Roman census took them far away from the town’s questioning eyes.
Although Joseph came from the royal lineage of King David (thanks to the Gospel genealogy), we can easily picture him as a humble man. The brief portrait of him in Scripture suggests he was a quiet, unobtrusive man, available when needed, willing to endure hardship and disappointment. Looking forward to fathering his own child, his first was a child not his own. He accepted the humbling circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth, and he trusted God as much as Mary did.
Instead of being indignant, Joseph accepted this child as his own. Joseph accepted the revealed will of God. He followed the instructions—journeying from Nazareth to Bethlehem, then to Egypt, then back to Nazareth. Instead of putting Mary aside, or rejecting the child, Joseph received the child as a gift from God.
I think it’s high time we take Joseph out from the back of the creche and put him up front, with Mary.
Ann Weems, a Presbyterian elder and lecturer, wrote this poem, called “Getting to the Front of the Stable” (read).
**Note: because of copyright issues, it isn't possible to include the poem here.
Sources:
1. “Getting to the Front of the Stable”, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota, Christmas 2005.
2. “Joseph and the Virgin Birth”, a sermon by Rev. Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, WA.
3. “Joseph—Father of Jesus” a sermon by Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts
4. “Getting to the Front of the Stable”, a poem by Ann Weems. From “Kneeling in Bethlehem”. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia. 1987.
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