A Christmas Meditation

By Carol Wollaston

As Christmas approaches we are accustomed to hearing much about Mary.  But what of the man Joseph, and his faith to father the Christ child?

Joseph would have understood that his earthly fathering of Jesus would be only for the short season, while the child grew in faith and in the understanding of the call of His heavenly Father upon His life.  This was born out when, at 12 years of age Jesus went missing.  He was eventually found in the temple by His distraught parents, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking questions.  Jesus’ response to his parents’ anxiety was simple.  ‘Why did you seek Me?  Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’  Joseph was now confronted by the extraordinary understanding that the boy possessed, so young and yet knowing His real Father.  I imagine Joseph had long since understood that the child was on loan to him for only a short period.  How would he have felt about that, and why did God choose Joseph to be the earthly father of Jesus?

The opening lines of the Gospel of Matthew give the genealogy of Jesus Christ which is, in reality, the genealogy of Joseph.  As earthly family trees go, this would seem to be an impeccable lineage.  Joseph represents the line of the great men of faith who, before their time, understood what God intended to do for the world.   At the same time, Mary, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, represents God’s divine intervention.  These two aspects are brought together in the parents of the Christ Child –  people like Joseph whose hearts are full of faith towards the will of God, are linked with divine intervention.

Looking down through the genealogy we see other interesting aspects of Joseph’s family culture.  In his family were people who, in the modern idiom, thought ‘outside the square’.  They were men and women who had hearts tuned into the heart of God. 

There was Abraham who left his father’s house and rich lifestyle to follow God into the land of promise.  He exemplified the whole lifestyle of sacrifice and offering that came from the heart. 
Then there was Salmon who took Rahab, a gentile prostitute, to be his wife.  He obviously had a heart to see those ‘afar off brought near’, and could see beyond the outward, into the inner person.  Then I can see Rahab, with the young Boaz on her knee, teaching him the ways of his family which were to take in the dispossessed, the alienated, the homeless and show them the Lord’s ways.  No wonder Boaz then became the man who saw the inner beauty and heart of Ruth, the foreigner, so that she who was afar off was brought near.

Three generations later David, who was to become King, was born to Jesse, the grandson of Boaz and Ruth.  What would Rahab have made of that?!  David was also a man who thought outside the square, especially when it came to worship.  He knew that the slaughter of bulls and goats was not really what God desired.  Instead, it was love and praise from the heart.  David shows us a man humbled by his sinful ways, understanding the rich mercy of God, and offering his whole life as a living sacrifice.

When Joseph became engaged to Mary he was following in the ways of his ancestors, thinking ‘outside the square’.  When Mary told him she was pregnant he sought a way to deal kindly with her rather than fulfilling the requirements of a harsh law.  A man of the spirit, when God spoke to him in a dream, he responded quickly to do the will of God and marry Mary.  He honoured her and God’s holy child above his own physical needs so that the Word of God could be fulfilled.  When God later spoke to him he responded again to save the child.  He had a keen sense of his responsibility towards the child’s destiny and towards the Everlasting Covenant, as did his ancestor Abraham.

When Joseph and Mary came to the temple to circumcise the young Jesus, they met Simeon and Anna who had been waiting to set eyes on the Lord’s anointed before they died.  I think of Simeon’s comments, tailor made to touch each of them.  To Mary he said, ‘Behold this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed – Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also.’  This word would hold her through the many doubts that would assail her in the future.  In Joseph’s hearing he prayed, ‘Lord, my eyes have seen Your salvation…a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles’.  This would have been wonderful news for Joseph whose family culture had always been to enlighten the gentiles and see salvation come.

Joseph was a man who listened to the voice of God and obeyed from the heart.  It would seem he died early in the life of Jesus and was certainly not around to bear the pain of seeing the crucifixion.  God, a merciful Father, took home another man after His own heart.

Perhaps this Christmas (and every day after) we can be inspired in the faith of Joseph to reach out to others.  In our families we may discover the outcast, the offended, the one who sees himself or herself ‘afar off’ from family involvement.  We can have a heart like God’s that responds, not through any sense of obligation, but in the royal law of love.