A Special Christmas Role

Matthew 1:18-25

Introduction

One of the things that I have enjoyed about Christmas are the nativity scenes. I like how we can bring together all the characters and participants in one place. And if you think about it, they all have their own special role. Obviously Jesus has to be there. And of course Mary is extremely important as this is about the birth of Jesus and you need a mother for a birth. Even though it is unlikely that the shepherds and the wise men were there at the same time, they are important as witnesses to the birth of the King. The Bible doesn’t say that angels were there at the birth, but we understand that they testify to the heavenly origin of what took place. Even the animals play their role as they symbolize the humble start to Jesus’ life, something that marked the rest of his ministry.

But what about Joseph? Would we even miss him if he wasn’t there? You don’t need a father to be present at the birth of a child. More than one father has dropped their wife off at the hospital and then picked up mother and child the next day.

But when it comes to the story of Jesus, Joseph seems even more unnecessary. Is’t the whole point of the virginal conception that a human father was never needed? This is reflected on our Christmas carols that have very few references to Joseph. It seems as if we could go through the Christmas story, remove all references to Joseph and our story would still be pretty much intact.

Or would it? I am going to argue that Joseph had a vital role in the Christmas story, far beyond providing transportation for Mary to get to Bethlehem.

Joseph and His Role

Only Matthew and Luke give us accounts of the announcement of and birth of Jesus. Luke focuses on Mary and provides the story from here perspective. Matthew focuses on Joseph and provides the story from his perspective. This should be our first clue that Joseph is important enough for Matthew to share his story, with very little mention of Mary.

Here is the story as recounted by Matthew. Joseph and Mary were engaged. This was much more than a modern engagement. Their engagement was the first step of a marriage commitment and it was so important that you needed a divorce to break it. There was no just leaving someone at the altar. During that time between the two stages of the marriage, Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant and it was not his. Presumably Mary told this to Joseph, which would have been an awkward conversation. I don’t know that her claim that the pregnancy was by the work of the Holy Spirit helped things as well. Joseph, as the wronged person in this situation, could have humiliated Mary and even had her punished for what would have been considered adultery. Instead, Joseph decided to quietly divorce her. He couldn’t go through with the wedding, because he could never trust Mary. But he didn’t want to ruin her life either. Joseph was just trying to be a good guy.

Before Joseph could do this, an angel appeared to him. It is important to note that the angel addresses him as “Joseph, son of David.” That is key to everything that happens afterward. God has established a line of kings from the family of David. That seemed to have come to an end with the Babylonian exile, centuries before the time of Joseph. There had been prophecies that God would once again restore the Davidic throne. But how could that happen? While there were descendants of David, there seemed little hope that that this could be any more than a naive dream. Joseph, while having the genetic link to David, was not particularly kingly. He didn’t live a royal life and probably didn’t advertise his pedigree.

The angel tells Jospeh not to divorce Mary as her story of the origin of the baby is true. And that is where we stop the story. Good for him for sticking with his fiancee.

But that is not the end of the story. This story ends with Joseph naming the baby Jesus. We pray to and sing songs to Jesus but do we ever think that it was Joseph that named him, based on the revelation of the angel, Jesus? But this is much more than giving an alternative to “hey you” to the baby. By naming the child, Joseph was formally adopting Jesus as his son. Joseph was not just Mary’s babysitting assistant. Joseph was really the father of Jesus, even if they were not genetically related. This is important because the Messiah was to be of the line of David and this connection was made through the adoption of Jesus by Joseph. You might think that adoption isn’t a strong enough connection. However, the ancients thought of things differently. We call the Roman emperors the Caesars. But none of them were directly related to Julius Caesar. That all began by Julius Caesar adopting Octavian, who became Augustus Caesar. As someone who was raised by an adoptive father and who is raising three adoptive children, I understand the strong bond of adoption. It doesn’t matter that my dad, myself and my son are not genetically related, the line is intact.

What we see here is that Joseph, even though he seems to be not as important to the story, it is crucial to the Christmas story. Many years later a blind man in a crowd will yell out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38) That statement only makes sense because of Joseph. Not only did Joseph name him Jesus, it was through his adoption that Jesus became a Son of David.

We Have Our Role

What we have heard is enough. It is good for us just to have seen how God used Joseph in his plans for Jesus to be Israel’s Messiah. But there is more.

I suspect that there are those of us who are trying to figure out what our role is. Are we just to show up on a Sunday and sit in a pew, or is there something more? Perhaps we are doing something but we wonder if any of it really matters. We look at what other people are doing and are not sure how we compare. We may feel completely overlooked.

We have already seen that it would be easy for us to pass over Joseph’s role and yet he is one of the most important people in the story. Each of us are essential as well.

It has nothing to do with formal titles or official ministry positions, not that they are wrong. But God is not limited by those things. God can use anything and anyone, no matter how people perceive it from the outside. I suspect that Joseph never thought of his family lineage as that helpful and yet it changed the world.

What is it about you that God can or does use? It may be your family background. It may be your experiences, for the good or for the bad. It may be your skills. It may be your eagerness and passion. It may be your financial resources.

But what if you don’t compare to how that other person is being used? Good, because we are not supposed to compare. Joseph didn’t have to be like Mary or the wise men, he just had to be like Joseph. You have a special role in the kingdom of God and you have a special role in this local congregation. Some people may not notice but that is okay. Most people don’t know the importance of Joseph. What is important is that you use what God has given you.

Conclusion

This Christmas you are going to be thinking about different characters in the Christmas story. we will sing about many of them in our carols. It will be easy for us to forget about Joseph but we should not. Not only did Joseph name Jesus and adopt him into his family, he is our reminder that God can does use anyone for his glory and his purposes. Our importance is not based on how much people notice us but by how we fulfill the role that God gives us. I’m thankful for Joseph and what he did for Jesus and how he inspires us in our own ministry. When we look at the nativity scenes, give adoration to Jesus, knowing that he is the Son of God, the Son or David and the Son of Joseph.