Four Views of Jesus’ Coming: Matthew
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Matt. 1:18-25
December 12, 2010
It’s
always interesting to me how different artists portray historical
figures like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Sometimes
portraits of the same person can look very different because each
artist portrays a different aspect or strength of the person
in his or her painting. In a similar way, the four gospel
writers give us different portraits of the same Jesus. By
reading all four gospels, we obtain a fuller picture of who Jesus
really was and is.
During Advent, we’ve
been looking at the different ways in which the four gospel writers portray the
coming of Jesus. So far, we’ve looked at John, who takes a cosmic
view of Jesus’ coming, and Mark, who begins by telling us how John the
Baptist prepared the way for Jesus’ coming by calling the people to confession
and repentance. This morning we’ll look at Matthew’s gospel. Matthew
begins with a long 17-verse genealogy of Jesus, tracing his ancestry back to
Abraham, through David, and ending with Joseph, who he calls “the husband
of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.” (Matt.
1:16) I’m going to spare you reading the long genealogy, but you
can certainly do that on your own if you’d like to!
We’ll begin with
verse 18 in chapter 1, but a little background is in order. At the time
of Jesus’ birth, marriage customs were different than they are today. Most
marriages were arranged by parents, when the children were very young. At
some point, usually when the girl was around 14 years old, she was formally betrothed
or engaged to a young man, who was often a few years older. This engagement
was a binding marriage contract. It could only be broken by death or divorce. It
lasted one year. Then the couple began living together as husband and wife.
So with that in mind,
let’s begin reading.
18 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.
19 Her husband Joseph,
being a righteous man and
unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
20 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.
21 She will bear a
son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins."
22 All this
took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through
the prophet:
23 "Look,
the virgin shall
conceive and bear a
son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which
means, "God is
with us."
24 When Joseph awoke
from sleep, he did as the angel of
the Lord commanded
him; he took her as his wife,
25 but had
no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
There are a number of
things we could do with this passage, but I’d like us to focus on the character
of Joseph, who I believe has a lot to teach us today! After learning that
Mary was pregnant, he was under enormous pressure. He must have felt deeply
betrayed and publicly humiliated as the news spread. He also must have
felt very angry. But I’m intrigued by how he responded to this very
real crisis. “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling
to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (Matt.
1:19)
Adultery was a capital
offense, so Mary could have been executed by stoning, as is still done in some
Islamic societies today. At the very least, the law required that the engagement
be broken off. As I explained before, that required a divorce. Joseph
was prepared to fulfill the requirements of the law and divorce her. He
may have been eager to do so, given the seeming betrayal of the marriage covenant
that had occurred. But his sense of justice and righteousness was tempered
by compassion. In spite of the fact that he had been hurt deeply by her,
he still cared about Mary and didn’t want to make a public spectacle out
of the situation. He planned to end the engagement by quietly giving her
a certificate of divorce in front of two witnesses, rather than insisting on
a humiliating and potentially dangerous public trial.
That says a lot about
Joseph’s character to me. This is a young man who is able to look
out for the good of others, even when he has been hurt himself. He tempers
his righteousness with compassion.
On April 28, 2008 Sara
Tucholsky of Western Oregon came up to bat with two runners on against the Central
Washington University softball team, their conference rival. Sara, who
at 5’2” was the smallest player on the field, had never hit a home
run in high school or college. But this time she hit one over the center
field fence. In her excitement, she missed first base as she trotted around
it, so she quickly reversed course to touch the base. Somehow in doing
so she wrenched her knee, collapsing in agony as she crawled back to first. But
she could go no further.
Her teammates wanted to help her around the bases, but the umpire informed them
that if they did, Sara would be out. That didn’t seem fair to the
other team’s first baseman, Mallory Holtman. Even though it might
cost her team a chance to go to the playoffs, she reasoned that if Sara had hit
the ball over the fence, she should get the homerun. So she asked the first
base umpire what would happen if she helped Sara around the bases. The
umpire replied that there was no rule against that.
So Mallory and a teammate carried Sara around the bases, pausing to let her touch
each base with her good foot. Sara scored and got credit for the only home
run in her softball career. Her team went on to win the game, 4-2.
I think Joseph would have liked this story, because Mallory understood that rules
sometimes need to be tempered with mercy and compassion. How are you doing
at tempering rules with compassion?
Well, there’s more. I’m
also impressed with Joseph’s response to the angel’s words to him,
instructing him to take Mary as his wife and to name the child “Jesus.” “When
Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he
took her as his wife…” (Matt. 1:24) Now there was a cost
to this action. People would surmise that the child was his, that he had
transgressed the law forbidding sex outside of marriage. His good reputation
would never be the same in a culture that took these matters very seriously. This
was a courageous thing to do- to obey the word of the Lord when he knew it would
be costly. It also required a great deal of faith! Conception without
a father had not occurred since the beginning of the world, nor has it happened
since! But Joseph believed the word of God which came to him
through the angel. And he obeyed, even though I’m sure he didn’t
understand it, and may have even had reservations about raising a child who was
not his own. He chose to obey the word of the Lord.
Some of us struggle with
obeying God’s word in far less difficult circumstances. Most of us
understand God’s sexual standards for us, but many do not obey them. How
about the command to give generously of our time and treasure to help the poor
and support the Lord’s work? Commands not to covet what others have,
but rather to be content with what we’ve got. That one is pretty
challenging in a consumeristic culture like ours, especially at Christmas! Or,
how about the command to refrain from gossip? And how are we doing with
greed, rage, and jealousy? Joseph’s example calls us to a higher
standard- to have the courage to obey God’s commands.
Finally, I’m impressed
with Joseph’s self-control. He chose not to act on his sense of betrayal
and anger, as I’m sure he felt entitled to do. And he refrained
from acting on his sexual urges until the time was right. He exercised
self-control, another strong Christian virtue. Many of us put this virtue
to work when we are training for something- to run a race or play a sport, to
learn a musical instrument. Or, when we’re saving for something,
or when we’re studying so we can pass a course or earn a degree. We
need self-control so we can do the hard work required to reach our goal, rather
than doing what might be fun right now. Delayed gratification is a sign
of spiritual maturity. Unfortunately, many of us lack self-control. Personally,
I have very little self-control when it comes to cookies! Or, consider
the very high debt load that many of us carry, especially credit card debt. Sometimes
circumstances conspire to push us into heavy debt, but often debt is a result
of a failure to exercise self-control with our spending when easy credit is available. That
debt not only costs us dearly because of the interest we pay, but it places a
great deal of stress on marriages. Self-control is good for us and for
those we love.
Joseph was a man whose
sense of righteousness was tempered by compassion, who was obedient to God’s
Word even when it was costly, and who exercised the virtue of self-control. In
a few minutes we’ll be ordaining and installing elders and deacons for
service in the church. So I’d like to remind all our church officers
that these virtues of Joseph are virtues which make for good church leaders-
righteousness, compassion, obedience to God, and self-control. I challenge
you to learn them and put them into practice as you serve the Lord and his people
here!
I’d like to close with the first verse from an old gospel hymn
called “Trust and Obey” that I learned when I was young. “When
we walk with the Lord in the light of his Word, what a glory he sheds
on our way! While we do his good will, he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.” Trust and obedience. That
was Joseph. May it also be us.
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