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Good morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends… hey it’s the weekend and aren’t we glad?
These December weekends are often filled with Christmas concerts, gatherings of family and friends, and travel! Oh I hope your December 2019 is filled with wonderful memory making moments, that years from now will bring joy to your heart, as you remember this month.
The first page of the New Testament, Matthew 1, is a long list of names that likely you simply skipped over. After all, they’re just names and some you can’t even pronounce, right? So why bother? Oh my friends, this list of names was vital to the audience to which Matthew wrote his story of Jesus. Here’s why: Matthew was a tax collector and Jesus came to his ‘office’ one day and invited him to set aside his despicable, detestable vocation and follow Jesus as one of His disciples. You’ll find that interesting encounter in Matthew 9:9-13.
Why would I use such strong language in describing Matthew’s vocation? Tax collectors had several important criteria. First they were Jews, and their job was collecting the Roman taxes from their fellow Jewish countrymen. Thus they were less popular then IRS agents in the USA.
Second, the Roman government didn’t pay them well or reliably, and it was understood they had government permission to bribe the tax payers and inflate the rightful tax amount owed, by as much as they wanted… and they could keep for themselves whatever was paid over and above what was owed to Rome. Therefore they were worse than the Mafia, if I can use that example.
No living person was hated more than the tax collector. They flaunted their wealth and everyone knew that their wealth was the tax surcharge they had paid. This was Matthew. It’s fair to ask why in the world Jesus would chose someone like him to be a disciple?
Perhaps because God wanted the world to know every and any person is redeemable by Jesus, and when redeemed, they can be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into a man or woman who can live a God honoring life and make a significant contribution to our world. This Matthew not only was greatly changed as he ‘walked with Jesus’, but his story of Jesus’ life is especially powerful to Jews. Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospel writers, and Matthew has, as his main objective, to prove Jesus is the long awaited Jewish Messiah.
Ancestry has always been important to Jews the world over. Only recently is it becoming a big deal in the 21st century, for everyone, with several modern search businesses which will trace your DNA to help you know your ancestry. In the first 17 verses of Matthew, he traces Jesus’ ancestry proving Jesus was born into the royal line of King David, and the Hebrew ancestry all the way to Abraham. For Jews that is vital!
There are several interesting things about the lineage but may I point out just one. Lineage is normally traced in the MALE line, not the female line, but do you notice four women in this long list? Can you find them? Tamar (Gen. 38), Rahab (Joshua 2), Ruth (book of Ruth) and “Uriah’s wife” who was Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). The Scriptures I put in parenthesis are where you can find their stories in the Bible. But I warn you… they are painful stories, each of them. Once again we ask WHY? Why would Matthew be led of God to include them in the lineage of Jesus, why not simply omit them, overlook them, pretend their stories never happened?
That’s how we approach life isn’t it my friends. In fact in US politics right now there is an impeachment process taking place. In our natural human condition we love digging for dirt about other people. We feel better about ourselves, when we can point out flaws in others. That’s part of the ugly side of being human. Once again I believe God included these ladies because He’s an honest God, who wants us to see ourselves as we really are. He’s also a redeeming God, who can transform any life and can rise up from the ashes of despair, something wonderful for His glory!
Today let’s focus on Joseph as he is introduced into the Christmas story. Matthew chapter 1:18-25. While it’s the first chapter in the New Testament, as we’ve seen, the ‘Christmas story’ is already well along. In fact, Joseph is kind of a late comer to the party, if I can say it that way. It’s possible all of Luke 1 has already taken place before Joseph finds out his fiance Mary is pregnant.
Joseph’s response to Mary’s pregnancy gives us insight into his character, his mercy and his tender heart. Matthew writes “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her (Mary) to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” (Matt. 1:19) Please understand they were engaged, not yet married. The word “husband” is used figuratively. In Jewish custom a period of at least 1 year was expected for engagement. Long enough to be sure the couple remained pure, without sexual contact.
That engagement, however, was assumed to be as binding as marriage. The only thing which could normally be considered sufficient grounds to break the engagement, was pregnancy of the woman or the man caught being unfaithful with another woman. The word ‘divorce’ is used because that is how seriously engagement was taken and breaking of the engagement required a legal document and normally payment of a significant financial penalty to the girl’s family.
But there’s more. If infidelity was found either by the man or woman, during a period of engagement, it was considered ‘adultery’ and punishable by Old Testament law… at least public shame and a beating, even possible execution. An engaged woman found pregnant, then publicly shamed and divorced, would normally spend the rest of her life a marked woman, and no man would ever take her as his wife. Can you imagine such a terrible life of shame and poverty?
Please note God once again took the initiative, as He had with both Zechariah and Mary, by sending another angel, this time into Joseph’s dream. That’s important friends. God is CONTINUALLY working His eternal, global purposes, and inviting human beings into their strategic role. Can you see this in YOUR life? How has God reached to you, invited you to take steps of faith, opened doors of opportunity before you? And what has been your pattern of discerning when God is at work with you, and how have you responded?
This is mystical isn’t it, and yet often in the Old Testament dreams were very significant, as they foretold the future.
Remember these…
* Jacob’s dream at Bethel, (Genesis 28) of the ladder reaching to heaven and God’s repeat of His covenant promise to Abraham.
* Joseph’s dreams, which he described to his brothers (Genesis 37)
* The dreams of both Pharaoh’s Cupbearer and Baker (Genesis 40)
* Pharaoh’s dreams, which Joseph interpreted (Genesis 41)
* king Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, which Daniel interpreted (Daniel 2 & 4)
* Joseph, Mary’s husbands’, dreams (Matt. 1:20; 2:13; 2:19). He had at least three.
Now please don’t ask me to explain the mysterious manner in which God uses dreams, on some occasions, to give insight into future events. And I can’t explain exactly what Joseph experienced in his dreams. What I can say, is that in all the above dream examples, God helped an interpreter understand what the dreams meant and they did in fact come true. In Joseph’s case, an angel somehow entered into his dream and gave him clear explanation about Mary’s pregnancy and instructions about what action God wanted him to take.
When Joseph woke up, he was faced with the same decision you and I have faced many times in our lives, when God has reached to us and invited us to take faith steps with Him in participating with His purposes. Most missionaries can tell you a God story about their call to leave family, friends and familiar and head overseas for a lifetime. Many people I know can tell you such a God story about their call into business or education or health care or even politics. So I wonder what your God stories are my friends?
Matthew gives his Jewish readers an important explanation of the dream in vs. 22 & 23, but we can’t be sure Joseph knew that. Which is why Joseph’s actions in vs. 24 & 25 are so heroic in my opinion. “When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” That action marked Joseph for the rest of his life. Most people assumed he was admitting that he was in fact the father of her child and was taking responsibility for Mary and his child. No words could convince people otherwise, especially no preposterous story about God impregnating Mary by the Holy Spirit!
Do you see the immediacy of Joseph’s obedience? We can assume there was no glorious wedding. Probably a small ceremony with some appropriate town official giving this marriage legality. It’s safe to assume no Rabbi was present, perhaps not even Mary or Joseph’s family. We know it was legal, because Mary accompanied Joseph to Bethlehem, to register as his wife in the census.
Finally verse 25 is so powerful. I wonder what you see here? “But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.” Out of profound respect for what God was doing inside his wife Mary, Joseph was very careful to have no intimacy with her until after Jesus had been born. His role of protecting Mary and the miracle child had begun and would continue for as long as he lived, or until Jesus was old enough to care for Himself as an adult.
Now, this weekend, may I invite us all to spend some good time pondering this part of the Christmas story. What would God like you to see my friends, both in the ancestral names list, and in this critical part of the Christmas miracle? What do you learn about Joseph’s character and both his relationship with God and with Mary?
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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