Abstract
The Character God Reveals
Knowing Jesus is important to our faith, lives, and understanding of the world. After all, the Epistle to the Colossians describes Jesus as ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Col. 1:15). Accordingly, the more we know about Jesus Christ, the more we understand God. Here, in Matthew 1.18–25, we learn not only about God’s activity in the world through Jesus Christ and his miraculous birth but also about those God calls to be a part of this work. Mary and Joseph are powerful examples of faith. By faithfully responding to God’s seeming interruption of their lives, they become a part of God’s transformative and life-giving work in the world, even amid a situation they may not have fully understood.
Matthew tells us that while ‘Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit’ (Mt. 1:18). Joseph, not yet aware that Mary is pregnant through the Holy Spirit, seems to be under the impression that Mary had a scandalous relationship with someone else. At this news, Joseph may have felt profound dismay, betrayal, hurt and sadness. Amplifying these possible reactions, Joseph, who is ‘faithful to the law’, might also have felt bewilderment between the person he believed Mary to be and who she seemed to be in this moment. This potential disbelief seems even more plausible from what we know about Mary elsewhere in the Bible.
While Matthew’s Gospel focuses on Joseph, Luke’s Gospel focuses on Mary. Luke recounts the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she was ‘highly favored’ and that the Lord was with her (Lk. 1:28). As known from the anointing of David, Joseph’s ancestor, ‘the Lord looks at the heart’ (1 Sam. 16:7). God did not choose Mary by chance, and this will be confirmed in her response to this call and extraordinary life, even as she watched her son upon the cross (Jn. 19:25). God knew Mary’s heart and identified her amazing potential to be of service to God’s kingdom. While a task unlike absolutely any other, God saw a potential for faith and service that was also identified in the Israelite patriarchs and matriarchs, Moses, the disciples, Paul, and so many others throughout the Bible.
The qualities God identified in Mary may have been the same qualities Joseph sensed in his soon-to-be wife. This might have contributed to the possible dissonance between who he believed Mary to be and what he experienced in these moments. Despite this momentary misunderstanding of Mary’s character, and any resulting emotions, Joseph ‘did not want to expose her to public disgrace’, and so ‘he had in mind to divorce quietly’ (Mt. 1:19). Just as Mary was chosen by God, Joseph was also chosen by God. It was not simply Joseph’s lineage, which runs from Abraham and the Israelite patriarchs and matriarchs through Ruth and King David, that made him a worthy choice, but likely also what God saw in his heart. Joseph’s character is revealed in how he intends to act towards Mary in these moments.
Joseph’s faithfulness to the law and his desire not to shame Mary represent a faithful response indicative of the loving and grace-filled justice Jesus will embody. As described in Deuteronomy 22, the law instructed the community to stone those found to have lost their virginity before marriage (Dt. 22:21). By intending ‘to divorce her quietly’, Joseph would spare Mary this fate. In this intention, even before we meet Jesus in the flesh and learn of his ministry, Joseph embodies something of the grace-filled obedience to the law that we will see in Jesus. Years later, when the Pharisees presented Jesus with a woman caught in the act of adultery, they cited the Law of Moses, which demanded her stoning. Jesus responded, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’ (Jn. 8:7). When no one was left, Jesus instructed the woman, ‘Go on your way, and from now on do not sin again’ (Jn. 8:11). While Mary is certainly not in the same position as this woman, and Joseph’s intended actions are not in response to what is really happening, but a momentary misconception of what he thinks has happened, referring to John 8 highlights how the grace Joseph intended to show Mary, is illustrative of the grace Jesus will show to the world.
The angel exonerates Mary of any suspicious behavior, telling Joseph in a dream, ‘do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’ (Mt. 1:20). With this revelation, Joseph may no longer have doubts about Mary’s faithfulness, but, nonetheless, dismay and confusion may still be present. This work of the Holy Spirit is truly miraculous! The virgin birth must have defied Joseph’s understandings and conceptions of the world, and certainly Mary’s as well. But the Gospel writers do not express any of this. Instead, Matthew and Luke both portray Joseph and Mary as the faithful servants of the Lord, even amid these awesome events (Mt. 1:24, Lk 1:38).
When Mary learns of the virgin birth, Gabriel tells Mary, ‘The Lord is with you’ (Lk. 1:28). In so doing, Gabriel echoes God’s assurance to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:12) and Gideon’s call to service (Jdgs. 6:12). Unlike Moses and Gideon, who question and seek additional assurance for their calls, Mary responds to Gabriel, saying, ‘I am the Lord’s servant’ (Lk. 1:38). Joseph demonstrates a similar faith when he ‘did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife’ (Mt. 1:24). The Epistle to the Hebrews defines faith as ‘confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see’ (Heb. 11:1). Joseph and Mary are powerful examples of faith in their trusting God. As they experienced a revolutionary event that may not have made total sense to them, they walked into their unknown future, trusting in God, who was with them.
The virgin birth, while an entirely new act, confirms the character of God revealed throughout the Bible. Just as ‘the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters’ at creation, the Holy Spirit would do a new act of creation through Mary and Joseph (Gen. 1:2). By bringing life to the womb of this virgin, God brought life and light to the world, which John beautifully describes, ‘In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (Jn. 1:4–5). God, who brought freedom to those enslaved in Egypt, made streams of water burst forth in the desert, now brings life and light to the world in Jesus Christ. As the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus Christ is Immanuel, ‘God with us’ (Mt. 1:23). As we celebrate God’s light, life, and love in Jesus Christ this Christmas, may we also learn from the examples of Mary and Joseph, who faithfully respond to God’s transformative interruption of their lives and, in so doing, become part of God’s redeeming work in the world.