Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Matthew’s Gospel, the first chapter:
...When [Jesus'] mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins..."
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
So now, our text takes us into the celebration of Christmas. For indeed, this week is one of great joy and hope. But, as always, you cannot get to Christmas unless you first go through the rest of the story.
And so we see Joseph, the one who would adopt Jesus as his son. The one who would train this Jesus up in His life. The one who would begin to teach this little baby, this little boy, all the things of God from the Scriptures. The one who would apprentice Jesus in the way of carpentry. The one who would be as a father to this Jesus.
But Joseph isn’t there yet. Joseph is an honorable man, he is a man who wants to do the right thing. But, he’s also a scared man. He’s afraid of what would happen to Mary, even what would happen to him, should Mary be found to have conceived a son before they were to come together as man and wife. And so Joseph desires to leave her, and this little boy, behind.
It’s an understandable thing, actually. See, if Joseph were to stay betrothed to Mary, he would probably face some type of pressure, according to the Law of Moses, to have Mary stoned to death for sleeping with another man outside of their marriage. But, if he left Mary, in essence divorcing her before the marriage even began, then Mary would at least have some honor left to her. She could be seen as a prostitute, one who could be forgiven. Perhaps another man, at some point, would come along, but more than likely, she would be taken care of by her family, until her son, the one that she would bear, would be able to support her for the rest of her life.
In this last way, Joseph would leave Mary a little honor, a little dignity, though not much. But, at least she wouldn’t be dead. See, Joseph assumed, and not without cause, that Mary had been unfaithful. Every one else did as well. Perhaps it had been some Roman Centurion who had taken advantage of her. Perhaps it was some teenager, Mary’s age, who she was just fooling around with, and, well, you know how these things happen. Either way, according to the Law of Moses, she was to be stoned. And we’re not talking about drugs, here. We’re talking about thrown off a cliff and having boulders hurled onto your head kind of stoned.
But Joseph was a just man. He was a man who could not bear the thought of this woman, whom he loved, and the child within her womb, being crushed to death. Better she be seen as a whore than dead. So, he planned to simply divorce her, quietly and without show, so no one would know.
But that’s not what God planned. Gabriel had come to Mary with a message from God Almighty Himself to declare to her that she would give birth to the Messiah, that the Holy Spirit would come to her through her hearing of the Word, and conceive in her a Son. An ancient Church Father, John of Damascus, once pointed out here that Mary conceived through the ear. She heard the Word of God, and so the Holy Spirit entered her, went to her ovaries, and conceived this Child who would be born of the seed of woman, as it was promised all the way back in Genesis 3.
And so Mary was pregnant, not by the natural means of conception, but by a miraculous conception, fulfilling the word of Isaiah, '“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).' And so she did. She was a virgin when she conceived Jesus, and was until, as Matthew says, after the birth of Jesus, when Joseph knew her in the Biblical sense, giving birth to all of Jesus’ brothers and sisters the more natural way.
That’s what God had planned, though Joseph did not yet know it. Instead, he made his own plans, resolved to do them, and feeling justified in them, went to sleep. But an angel from the Lord came to him in his dream, and said nuh uh.
In fact, Joseph, the son of David, was to take Mary as his wife. He should have no fear, he should fear neither God nor man, for indeed, this is God’s plan. Not that Joseph is some special dude, but that Joseph will be the mask of God in caring for this struggling, gurgling, crying infant boy who will be born out of Mary. God’s desire was that Joseph would be a good father to God’s Son. God’s desire was that He would use Joseph and Mary to bring up His Son so that He might grow in wisdom and stature. God’s desire was that this Jesus, this God-boy, soon to be God-man, would grow, and live, so that He would die a horrible death. God’s plan was this Jesus would take on the sins of the world on that cross. And this would be done by Joseph raising Jesus in his own home.
See, God’s plans don’t look like how we normally expect them. It’s a very popular thing to go around today trying to discern God’s plans for our lives, or to say, “Well, I know God has a plan for me, I just need to trust Him.”
And maybe that’s true. But we often look in the wrong places to determine what this will of God is.
So, I’m going to ask you to stop looking. I’m just going to flat out tell you what God’s plan is for your life.
God wants you to be here. God desires to give you good gifts, gifts that Jesus Christ instituted for you, His Word, His Baptism, His Supper, His forgiveness. He wants you here, and He wants you here often. Here, you are fed and you are strengthened. Here, you conceive through your ears, not children as Mary did, but faith. In your ears, the Holy Spirit enters and creates, conceives, in you faith, faith to apprehend all that the Lord would have you know, faith to apprehend the cross of Christ.
But the Lord doesn’t stop there. The Lord desires that you be here, because the Word you hear in your ears tells you that the Lord has given the gift of the cross to you in the water of Baptism. So you conceive in your ears, and Baptism then washes away the sin that you know and have heard that you have. It cleanses you in a washing of renewal, not of your body, but of your whole sinful self, that it may be drowned and die, and that the water that poured from Jesus’ pierced side now washes over you.
And then, by the Holy Spirit conceiving faith in you, washing you clean from your sin, He then prompts you to come to the altar to receive the Lord’s true body and blood, the flesh that hung from the tree, the blood that poured out with the water. It strengthens you, giving you the strength you need to get through the 40-day trial and tribulation you are about to endure for the rest of your life. These 40-days will not end until the day you die or the Lord returns, but this strength will preserve you into that last and final day.
So, this is what God wants for you. This is His plan for you. But Christ’s plan for you does not end here. He then wants you to go home. He wants you to go to work. He wants you to go to school. And having faith in Him, being washed in His baptism, and strengthened by His flesh and blood, He wants you to go about your business. He wants you to be the best you can be when you serve your neighbor. He wants you to be a good father, good mother, good son, good daughter, good student, good teacher, good wife, good husband, good doctor, good electrician, good hunter, good administrator, good citizen, good baker, good sewer, good retiree, good neighbor. He wants you to serve your neighbor, not because you must do so to earn the gifts of salvation He gives to you, but BECAUSE He has given you these gifts to help you.
You see, even for Joseph, God desired that He would hear His Word, “But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” This is the Word of God that was delivered to Joseph. And God desired for Him to be a good father and neighbor to his adopted son, Jesus the Christ.
And so Joseph was. Joseph adopted this boy, brought Him into his family, raised Him up in the fear of the Lord, and told Him all that the angel had told him. And so, this Jesus grew in wisdom, and knowledge, and stature, so that one day He would take on the sins of the world on the cross. And, after the episode in the Temple with the twelve-year old Jesus, no more was heard from Joseph. Whether he died, whether he disappeared, whether he just was never mentioned in the Scriptures again after that, we don’t know. But we do know that Jesus Christ came into this world to save all, including His father. And we know that Joseph did well. He lived out his vocation towards this young child well. And we know that God is pleased with him, just as Christ is pleased also with you when you receive His gifts, and live out your vocations because you have received such gifts from the Father.
Know this, too, that when you fail, just as Joseph failed, just as Mary failed, there is One who did not fail. For you. That One is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the son of Mary and Joseph, and He has redeemed you, even when you are not here, even when you can’t receive His gifts, even when you falter and sin in your vocations. He has come into this world as a baby, lived to be a man, died a sinner’s death, and was resurrected into eternal life, so that you also would be. Lean on this child, lean on His manger, lean on His cross, for He won for you eternal life. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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