Hey folks! This Sunday we move to week two of Advent!
Click here to read our introduction.
This week we’ll be talking about Jesus’s “foster” parent and Mary’s husband, Joseph.
Joseph, or St. Joseph as he is rightly known, is in the gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke thrust into a rather strange position, requiring a similar amount of trust as Mary and Zechariah.
Like Mary and Zechariah, Joseph was the recipient of a visit from an angel and instructed not to break off his engagement because, in short, this child was divine and was the long awaited savior of Israel, and the world.
Quite a thing to be asked to believe and trust!
But trust he did, and because of this trust Joseph took up his unique place in the history of God’s salvation: he was tasked with raising the God child—like Mary, but different because all the while he knew he wasn’t and couldn’t be the boy’s real father.
Nevertheless, as a “righteous man” (Matt. 1:19) he took up his vocation—unique in all the world—with faithful diligence.
However, perhaps most important for the sake of the promises of God in the Old Testament is Joseph’s family heritage: He is a man of the line of King David, the king “after God’s own heart” with whom God made a covenant (promise) to establish his throne for all eternity.
This lineage is highlighted specifically by Matthew, showing (among many other fascinating things) that Jesus is the shoot from the stump of Jesse (Jesse = David’s father), and he is so only because Joseph heeded God’s call to stay with Mary, even in the most strange of all circumstances.
We don’t hear much about Joseph after the birth and youth narratives in the Scriptures (only the disdainful questioning of Jesus’s neighbors, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” in Matt. 13:55). But all indications point to Joseph as a faithful husband and father with deep humility.
He is said to have died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, making him a kind of icon for a faithful life well-lived. He is also the patron saint of carpenters and workers more generally. In the West, he is important enough to have two days of commemoration, one on March 19, and the other on May 1, specifically celebrating his character as St. Joseph “the worker.”
Scripture to consider:
Matthew 1:1-25
John 1:1-14
Hebrews 1:1-3
Questions for your kids (read Matt. 1:18-25)
Why do you think the angel told Joseph to stay with Mary and marry her?
What do you think it might mean that Jesus is also called Immanuel (God with us)?
Peace,
Danny+