The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

No More Family Disgrace:  Mt.1:18 – 25

 

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’ 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son; and he called his name Jesus.

 

          I’m sure Joseph was heartbroken.  He must have wondered, ‘Does she love another man?’  Surely, Joseph thought, after he and Mary followed the Jewish custom of the time, when they both personally ratified the betrothal that their parents had initiated years ago, that their wedding would be a sure thing.  Both he and Mary liked each other enough.  They were now in the one year engagement period before getting fully married.  During this time, Joseph referred to Mary both as his ‘wife,’ not his ‘fiancee’ as we do today, although they had not completed the marriage process and had not physically consummated their union.  Joseph was probably in his twenties.  Mary was probably fourteen years old, having reached womanhood at her bat mitzvah, and was thus ready to bear children (the practice of women marrying young maximized the child-bearing years of the woman).  Mary was spiritually devout, presumably physically healthy, and came from a good family.  All the ingredients of a happy and proper marriage were there.  Until this bit of news hit Joseph:  ‘Mary is already pregnant.’

          We don’t know how he found out.  Probably Mary herself waited a little while until her baby bump was showing.  Then she couldn’t hide it any longer.  She sent word to Joseph.  She claimed there was no human father, that the Spirit of God had acted directly within her womb to conceive a son, so-called ‘the heir of David.’  But that had never happened before in Israel.  Even Abraham had to have sex with his wife Sarah for that elderly couple to have a miracle child, Isaac.  No one had ever heard of God directly bypassing a man in conceiving a child in a woman’s womb.  He was supposed to believe this?

          And now Mary was claiming this child in her womb was going to be the heir of King David, the final heir, the Messianic Son of David.  Hmph.  ‘Son of David?’  As if that name meant that much anyways.  At the time of the Babylonian exile, God had cursed David’s royal line with futility.  God said about King Jeconiah, ‘Write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah’ (Jer.22:30, cf. 22:24 – 30).  Even though the royal line had continued on the other side of the exile (Hag.2:23; Mt.1:12), they were vassal kings under the Gentile empires, a mockery of the Golden Age that Israel had once had under the earlier sons of David.  The reign of David’s house was futile indeed.

          Nothing was going well for Joseph.  He could only do the only pious and emotionally appropriate thing:  ‘being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, [Joseph] planned to send her away secretly’ (Mt.1:19).  But then God sends an angel to set Joseph straight and lift his spirits.  In the dream, the angel reminds Joseph of his lineage, ‘son of David’ (Mt.1:20) and says that Mary’s word was true.  Joseph will get to name the child Y’shua (Joshua, or Jesus), because ‘he will save his people from their sins.’  So Jesus comes into the womb of Mary and family of Joseph.

          Whereas Luke focuses on Mary, the mother of Jesus, Matthew focuses on Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus.  Why?  I can think of three reasons.

          First, Joseph was part of the royal line of David, through King Solomon.  Joseph was not an accidental piece of the story that could have been discarded, as if Mary could have been a single mother.  Joseph was a necessary part of the story because Joseph gave Jesus legal claim to the throne of David.  Jesus’ claim on David’s throne is a major part of Matthew’s emphasis.  Luke emphasizes, by contrast, Jesus offering his own humanity, stemming back from Adam, for all humanity.

          Second, the union between Joseph and Mary was vital to undo the curse of futility on David’s throne.  Mary was descended from David by a different son, Nathan, who was not in the royal line (Lk.3:31).  So Jesus would be genetically related to King David and without the blood curse on the royal line, yet nevertheless able to legally inherit the throne, through Joseph.  This again meant Joseph was vital, not incidental, to Jesus’ life and mission.

          Third, Joseph goes through a dying and rising process as he welcomes Jesus into the world, which is archetypal of all Jesus’ people.  Joseph has to first receive a word from God through Mary that she is with child.  God does not send the angel to Joseph first.  Since he did not actually believe this word, he goes through a kind of dying.  This precious thing, his hope for his own marriage, died.  The angel needed to step in and ‘resurrect’ his love for Mary and his hope for their marriage.  But even if he had believed this word from God (hey Joseph, remember that prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 of a virgin birth?), Joseph would have still experienced a kind of dying and rising.  This shatters all Joseph’s expectations and longings for a nice, normal marriage to a nice, normal girl.  His family would be forever plagued with the accusation that Mary had been unfaithful (Jn.8:19 – 48), that Jesus was really a half-Jewish ‘Samaritan’, and that Joseph was just a resigned, impious fool with low self-esteem for marrying a girl who had a son that wasn’t his.  In the midst of those accusations, his spirit might have withered in a kind of emotional and social death.  Yet Joseph clung to this word from God.  In his inner being, as he watched this young boy grow up, his spirit rose with hope that he and his entire family line would be redeemed. 

Joseph would become a precursor of all Jesus’ people, including us.  Although we might be socially despised for following Jesus, although we might wrestle with the word from God, yet in our inner being, our spirits rise with hope that we and those we love might be redeemed by Jesus.