Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for this meditation is written in the 1st Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 18 - 25
I think most people would understand Joseph’s problem at the beginning of today’s reading from the Gospel. He is caught between a rock and a hard place. He is already betrothed to Mary. That means he has made the commitment to care for Mary through thick and thin … come what may. The two of them are, in fact, already husband and wife. At the same time, they had not yet begun living together. That is what betrothed means … married, but not yet living together.
Then one day Joseph learned that Mary was going to have a baby and he knew he was not part of the process. Mary insisted that the baby was of the Holy Spirit … that the baby was the fulfilment of the prophesied coming of the Messiah. Mary insisted that she had not been unfaithful to Joseph, but such words are hard to believe under the circumstances.
You really can’t blame Joseph for characterising these words as the desperate attempt of a compromised woman to excuse the inexcusable. Perhaps the guilt of infidelity had driven her mad. Perhaps rape was involved and the trauma was more than Mary could bear. Maybe Mary was just plain lying. The Bible does not tell us what Joseph was thinking. It just says that he was struggling with the truth and had finally determined that the best course of action was a quick, quiet behind the scenes divorce.
Joseph is what every Christian should be in not exposing the sins of others. In his explanation of the commandment against bearing false witness, in the likeness of Jesus as. children of God, we should we avoid lying, and also we should also explain things in the kindest way. In broadcasting the misdeeds of others, we bring condemnation upon ourselves. Joseph determined to do what was right in the kindest possible way for Mary.
I can only imagine how hard it was for him to fall asleep that night. Never the less, the Bible tells us that he did sleep because it tells us that he had a dream. An angel came to him in that dream. The angel told Joseph that Mary was not crazy or lying. The child growing within her was indeed from the Holy Spirit. He was indeed the promised one, the Messiah. The angel even told Joseph to name the child Jesus … a name that means the Lord saves.
The Holy Spirit then inspired Matthew to remind his readers that this was the fulfilment of the prophecy that we read in the Old Testament book Isaiah 7: 14. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
When Joseph woke up, he acted on this new information. He took Mary into his house, but he had no physical relationship with her until after Jesus was born.
The virgin birth is a hardship on everyone involved. The community at large would not understand the working of the Holy Spirit. They would accuse both Mary and Joseph of all kinds of sin. Thirty years later, some of Jesus’ opponents would try to discredit His ministry by claiming that He was illegitimate. The virgin birth was a burden.
At the same time, the virgin birth was necessary. It was necessary because the person of Christ is both God and man. Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. If Jesus had been conceived in the normal way, He would be a mere man and nothing more. His conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary points to His divine Father and His human mother. Jesus Christ is one person with both a divine and human nature.
This dual nature of Christ is essential for our salvation. God’s eternal plan of salvation depends on the existence of a human being who could live a life of innocence in a sinful world. This innocent human being must then endure, as a substitute, the eternal punishment that sin deserves for each and every member of the human race. There is no ordinary descendant of Adam and Eve who could fulfil this plan. God Himself must enter history. In order to become a substitute for humanity, He must become human. At the same time, the overwhelming nature of the task means that He must retain His divinity.
Christ must be true man in order to take our place under the law and fulfil it perfectly. He must also be true man in order to submit to the Good Friday cruelty of shame, suffering, and death. Christ must also be God in order to fulfil the law to perfection. He must be God so that His suffering and death would be sufficient redemption, not just for one person, but for all humanity. He must be God in order to overcome death and the devil for us. Jesus is the only who is both divine and human. Therefore, He is the only one who is our Saviour.
Since it was necessary for Christ to have God as Father and Mary as mother, then the virgin birth is also necessary. This meant that it was necessary for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to bear the burden of the culture’s unjust condemnation.
Today’s Gospel shows us how God gave Joseph the strength and courage to endure this special burden. God’s Word came to Joseph through the mouth of the angel so that Joseph was now able to take up his special vocation as guardian to Jesus and husband of Mary.
In the creed, we confess, “… conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary …” Too often we say those words on autopilot. We don’t think about what these words mean.
Lives were turned upside down because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Joseph almost divorced Mary. Both Joseph and Mary had to endure the condemnation of the community. Jesus had to endure accusations that His ministry was null and void because His parentage was doubtful.
At the same time, these words are necessary for our salvation. These words tell us that Jesus is both God and man. Because Jesus is both God and man, when Jesus died, God died. Because Jesus is both God and man, His death paid for the sins of the entire world. Because Jesus is both God and man, He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Because Jesus is both God and man, a human being rules both heaven and earth. Because Jesus is both God and man, His human body and blood are available on altars everywhere at the same time for us Christians to eat and to drink. The Son of God took on our human flesh so that we may be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom.
As we read today’s Gospel, it is a good thing to study Joseph as an example of the Christian’s struggle to protect the reputation of others. However, the more important teaching of this reading is that Jesus must be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin because He is both God and man. As the only one who is both 100 % God and 100 % man, He is the only one who is qualified to redeem us from our sins so that God can declare us righteous for His sake. This is the gift that Jesus offers to you now as you hear this word. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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