The Coming Promise
Day 20 - God with us
“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” -Matthew 1:18-25
(Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash)
Today we are looking at the story of Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective. In Luke’s gospel we read Mary’s perspective but Matthew gives us insight into Jesus’ earthly father, a person about whom we know extremely little. While there are some undeniable differences between the stories about Joseph and Mary, the essentials are the same: Jesus was born to Mary, who was a virgin, and they were both instructed to name Him Jesus.
Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel happens while she is awake, whereas Joseph is visited by an angel in a dream, and this would not be the only ‘dream encounter’ that he has. What stands out is the immediacy of Joseph’s response. We read that “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel commanded him…”. This is the same level of response that Joseph later has when another angelic encounter occurs and he is told to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt; again Joseph wakes up and packed up the family in the middle of the night! (Matt. 2:11-14).
How many times have each of us had a dream and later woke up and said to ourselves, “Oh, it was just a dream”. Something clearly unique happened to Joseph that he was so completely convinced that God was instructing him through his own dream. (It seems very likely that the angel of the Lord was able to make quite an impression!) The statement that Elizabeth made to Mary also could be applied to Joseph: “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said will be accomplished!” (Lk. 1:45)
Finally, in Joseph’s story we read another crucial detail that leads us to the bedrock of our hope this Advent season: the child is to be called Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’. This is the central theme of the Gospel account of Jesus’ entire earthly ministry. God has come to us and has taken on human form and fully embraced the human experience. It is for us the ultimate testimony that shows the depth of God’s love and concern for us. As the prolific author N.T. Wright points out, in Jesus, God has done what should be regarded as ‘inconceivable’. God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (Jn. 1:14).
Praise be to God.