Parenthood, whether it be as a mother or as a father, is nothing less than a life-long ministry. A few weeks ago I shared some thoughts on motherhood as an act of faith, thoughts that were born out of reflection on Mary's story as we find it in Luke. This past Sunday I took a very similar approach as we considered fatherhood through the lens of faith, except of course this time our subject was Joseph rather than Mary, and the context was the gospel of Matthew rather than the gospel of Luke.
The more you study the gospels, the more you appreciate the reasons why we have more than one. Each gospel gives us a different perspective on the story of Jesus. Often times that difference in perspective is the result of experiencing the story through different characters in the narrative. While Joseph is hardly mentioned in Luke, in Matthew he takes a more central role, particularly in the period leading up to Jesus' birth. The story of Joseph reveals to us that while motherhood and fatherhood are both roles to be accepted in faith, they are also roles that differ in significant ways.
One of the things that is pretty noticeable in Matthew is that Joseph's response is less passive than Mary's. That is not to say that Mary wasn't involved, as we know she was the most involved of all! However, Mary's action is of the passive kind. After assenting to play the role of Jesus' mother, she has no choice but to be actively involved, as she spends every minute of the next nine months carrying the Messiah in her womb. Joseph on the other hand, must make a choice to be involved. His participation in the story is in no way guaranteed, a reality that is driven home by the notable absence of so many fathers in the world around us today.
As we study Joseph's story, we are told by Matthew that it is actually the beginning of Jesus story, at least in terms of Jesus life as the incarnate Word. Matthew uses the Greek word "genesis" in verse 18 to described the "beginning" of Jesus. Some translations, including the one I use (the ESV), translate this as "birth". However, when Matthew wants to refer to "birth" as in the act of bearing a child, he uses an entirely different word. No, here Matthew is telling us of the beginning of Jesus, linking it to events in the life of Joseph that take place months before Jesus' actual birth. This tells us something very powerful about the role of the father, namely that the decisions that a father makes- specifically the decision as to whether to play an active role in their child's life- begin impacting the child even before they are born.
As you might imagine, the story begins to get a little messy here, as Mary turns up pregnant before her and Joseph have come together as husband and wife. Engagement and marriage worked differently in Jesus' day and time than it does in ours. For us, breaking off an engagement is a social, but not legal or religious act. For them, an engagement functioned as part of the marriage. Once you were engaged, you were as good as married in the eyes of the law, the difference being that the girl continued to live with her parents during the period of engagement, usually because she wasn't old enough to marry and begin to bear children. The transitioning of the girl from her family's house to that of her husband marked the transition from engagement to marriage, but again, there was no legal change. That's why when Mary is discovered to be pregnant, Joseph must decide how he will go about divorcing her. According to the law, divorcing Mary was the right thing to do, which is why Joseph is referred to as a "righteous" man, he desires to follow the law. And yet, he has options in terms of how he goes about adhering to the law, and we see Joseph's character come out in the method that he chooses. He decides to divorce Mary quietly, with only the necessary number of witnesses present, rather than divorcing her in a showy trial that would have no doubt brought more embarrassment on Mary, exposing her to even more public ridicule. Through Joseph's actions a theme emerges that will appear in Matthew a number of times, the theme of following the law while maintaining compassion and showing mercy whenever possible.
Before Joseph can take this more compassionate course of action, he is visited by an angel in a dream. Wehave read and heard the angel's proclamation numerous times, more than likely in the context of the Christmas story. While the angel's message tells us a good deal about who it is Mary will give birth to, it also tells us a few things about Joseph. First of all, he is of the lineage of David. This is important because it is through Joseph that Jesus will be able to claim David as his ancestor. Second, we learn that Joseph should go-ahead with his marriage to Mary, because despite all appearances, she is innocent of any wrong-doing. In fact, it is actually quite the opposite, as through faith Mary has consented to give birth to the Messiah. Joseph is told explicitly that it was actually the Holy Spirit that caused Mary to conceive the child (since this is about Joseph I will refrain from going into detail about the parallels present between Genesis 1 and the story of Jesus "genesis", but they are glaringly present). As Joseph attempts to digest what he has just learned, he is told that there is a specific action that he must take, in addition to moving forward with his marriage to Mary. He must name the child Jesus. While it's easy to get caught up in Jesus' name and it's etymology ("Yahweh saves"), the act of naming Jesus is just important. You see, in naming Jesus Joseph is quite literally claiming him as his own son, and formally adopting him as his heir. While this didn't put Jesus in line to inherit much money, it did make Him a descendent and heir of the Davidic line, justifying His claim to be the Davidic Messiah. Again, we learn something extremely important about the father-child relationship. Being a father has a lot less to do about biological kinship and bloodlines, and a lot more to do with love, provision, and a supporting presence. The fact that the Savior of the world was an adopted child should not go unnoticed, and should teach us that in the eyes of God there is nothing incomplete or lacking in the relationships built between adoptive parents and adoptive children. In fact, God has used and continues to use those relationships in very powerful ways to achieve his purposes.
In all probability Joseph was dead by the time Jesus began his ministry. The lifespan of a male in 1st-century Palestine was brief when compared to lifespans today. And yet, by all accounts Joseph made great use of the time that he had with Jesus. If all we know of Joseph is that he sought to please God while also showing compassion to those around him, and that he literally gave everything he had, including his lineage, to a child through adoption, then we know enough to see that Joseph is someone worth emulating. I have no doubt that our world would be a better place if every man followed Joseph in making the conscientious decision to be involved in the life of their child, and to see fatherhood not as a role determined by bloodlines and DNA, but as a nurturing relationship built on selfless love and compassion.
Well said.
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