Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In every Live Christmas Nativity scene I wonder if the first two actors needing to be cast are Joseph and Mary? So today and tomorrow, let’s make them the focus of our Christmas question: “WHO are Christmas Joseph & Mary”? Let’s consider Joseph today and tomorrow we’ll look at Mary.
The first page of the New Testament is both fascinating and boring, isn’t it? Matthew begins his Gospel account with a long list of names, perhaps you’ve skipped over those names many times in the past. But for Jews that list of names is priceless! Do you see it begins with Abraham, the father of the Jewish people; and includes David the man after God’s heart who was God’s selection to begin the royal line of the kings. The end of that long lineage in Matthew 1 reads like this: “… and Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.“(Matt. 1:15,16)
Do you remember what Matthew’s profession was? He was a tax collector (Matt. 9:9) and therefore Matthew had the skill of excellent record keeping both financially and with family lineage. It seems only natural, therefore, that Matthew opens his story of the life and ministry of Jesus with the family heritage of Joseph going all the way back to Abraham!
For Jewish men, their family lineage was very important, and they were often introduced by their name and the name of their father and even grandfather to make sure there was no misunderstanding of their unique identity.
Matthew wrote his account of Jesus’ life primarily to prove to the Jewish people that THIS Jesus is in fact the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Thus, this long lineage would be very important to any Jewish reader, anywhere in the world, in any generation, if they were searching to find their Messiah!
Did you notice the long Matthew 1 lineage always identifies father & son until we come to Joseph. “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the HUSBAND of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.” Do you see why Matthew was very careful to NOT use the word “father” with Joseph and Jesus?Matthew clarified that Joseph was husband to Mary since Jesus was born to Mary with no conception involvement of Joseph. Joseph was adoptive father to Jesus, not biological father.
It also is here, in this lineage that we discover Joseph’s father was named Jacob. Did you know that? Now think back, can you remember the significance of that father-son combination in the story of the Bible? For Jews, few in their history were more important than Jacob for he was the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham. (Gen. 25:19-26) Jacob was father to 12 sons and Jacob’s favorite son was Joseph. Remember the coat of many colors? (Gen. 37:3)
Perhaps most significant was that God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, (Gen. 35:9,10) thus Jacob’s 12 sons became the leaders of the “12 tribes of Israel” and even the land of Israel was divided into sections and each section given the name of one of Jacob’s sons! Now, with that in mind, can you imagine the excitement, many centuries later, when the Jacob of Matt. 1:16 agreed with his wife that they should name their son Joseph, surely in honor of the famous favorite son of the patriarch Jacob/Israel!
As young Christmas Joseph grew up how often do you suppose he and his father Jacob talked about the expectations both of them had of God’s blessing with such famous Jewish names Jacob and his son Joseph? I wonder if any of you have been born with the burden of being named with great expectations?
I imagine Joseph the husband of Mary studied those chapters in Genesis to learn all he could about the Genesis Joseph after whom he had been named, and oh my what a legacy! It stretches from Genesis 36 all the way to Genesis 50.
Do you remember the favorite son Joseph of Genesis 37 was sold by his brothers as a slave and he ended up in Egypt?
Do you remember God enabled that Genesis Joseph to remain pure in heart, mind and body even when seduced by the wife of his boss Potiphar? (Gen.39:1-12)
And do you remember that in a similar way of purity restraint Christmas Joseph obeyed God and took Mary to be his wife but he did not consummate their marriage until after her miracle son was born? (Matt. 1:24,25)
And do you remember Genesis Joseph was a slave in Egypt until God gave him the opportunity to interpret the Pharaoh’s dreams and then suddenly slave Joseph was elevated from slavery to become the second most important man in the world, second in authority only to the Pharaoh! (Gen. 41:39-43)
And do you remember it was with a dream that God instructed Christmas Joseph to take pregnant Mary as his wife and that the miracle child in her was a work of Almighty God, thus he would be earthly Daddy to God incarnate!? (Matt. 1:20)
What a remarkable, grand, significant calling for Christmas Joseph!!
Now pause a moment! Can we presume that frequently Christmas Joseph was looking at the events in his life and comparing them to Genesis Joseph, trying to understand what God might be doing in his life?
So, what do you suppose Christmas Joseph was thinking about as he led Mary and her infant son out of Bethlehem in the middle of the night heading toward that same Egypt that Genesis Joseph had been dragged to by slave traders? (Gen. 37:28,36; Matt. 2:13,14) I wonder if BOTH Joseph’s were greatly confused on their trips to Egypt wondering if God had forsaken His promises to His people?
Did both Genesis Joseph and Christmas Joseph cry out for God’s help and God’s protection fearful of what was ahead for them in Egypt? Have you ever found yourself in a confused, maybe desperate situation, crying out to God for help and hope?
And while living in Egypt as refugees, do you suppose Christmas Joseph prayed often that God would supply their daily needs as God had supplied Genesis Joseph’s family who came to live in Egypt to survive the famine? (Gen. 47:11,12)
As the Genesis Joseph neared the end of his life, he is perhaps best known for his challenge to his large family that they NOT bury him in Egypt after he died but take his bones back to the land God had given their family, Israel. (Gen. 50:22-26) And perhaps you remember that Egyptian made coffin, with Genesis Joseph’s bones, was finally carried, almost 300 years later, out of Egypt by Moses and the Hebrew slaves as they were delivered by God! (Ex. 13:19)
We know Christmas Joseph was a carpenter and young Jesus worked alongside Joseph in that Nazareth workshop and evidently Jesus became well known in Nazareth as a carpenter Himself. (Mark 6:1-3) I’ve often wondered as Christmas Joseph and Jesus worked together on tables, chairs and maybe even coffins, what did they talk about? How often did they discuss the comparisons between Genesis Joseph and Christmas Joseph?
And by the way, what questions do you suppose Christmas Joseph had for Jesus as they worked in that carpenter shop? The Bible does not tell us what belief Christmas Joseph had in the true identity and earthly mission of Mary’s miracle son Jesus. Did they talk about the heaven Jesus had come from to become God incarnate here on earth? Did they talk about the future and the difference Jesus would make in the world? Did they talk about when Joseph and Jesus would be reunited for all eternity in heaven?
How did Christmas Joseph try to help his family understand this Jesus and who He really was, when God blessed Christmas Joseph and his wife Mary with several other children? We don’t know how and when Christmas Joseph died, nor how his death affected Mary and her children? We don’t know all that much about Christmas Joseph after the Christmas events, for after Luke 2 and their return from the Jerusalem Passover when Jesus was 12, Joseph is never again mentioned in the Bible!
But we do know Christmas Joseph was a courageous man of great faith in and obedience to God, apparently very much like the Genesis Joseph after whom we presume he was named.
Let’s thank God for BOTH Joseph’s today and their important role in Biblical history, and let’s think about our role in our family heritage as we worship with this song that I’ve selected. and tomorrow I’ll meet you right back here again as we consider Christmas Mary.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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