Going back to Mary and Joseph, during this time of preparation, the bride and groom were expected to stay celibate. So when Mary was discovered to be pregnant, it was a shock to Joseph. We know, and Mary knew, she was pregnant by a miracle through the Holy Spirit, but no one else knew that. Most people probably didn’t believe her story of the angel coming to her and telling her that God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah. Most people probably thought the baby was Joseph’s.

I imagine Joseph was very upset. He probably felt hurt, betrayed, angry, confused. This is not how things were supposed to happen. Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man, meaning he was someone who was virtuous, who was concerned with keeping the law of God from a sincere heart. It also means he was equitable and fair. He was a person of justice as well as righteousness and in the Bible, those two words are very closely related. It’s not really possible to separate the biblical ideas of justice and righteousness. They go together and Joseph understood this. So he is in a difficult position. How is he to pursue justice and righteousness when he believes the woman who has entered into a covenant relationship with him has been unfaithful? What is the best thing to do?

One option is to make a public example of her, which would result in her being stoned. This would preserve his reputation as a person who follows the law of God because he would be making a public statement that the child she carries is not his. But Matthew tells us that Joseph didn’t want to make a public example of Mary. He is a man of compassion and his sense of justice includes compassion for sinners. At this point he believes Mary has sinned and yet, this person who is so concerned for the law of God understands that there is also grace allowed under the law and so he has this idea in mind to divorce her quietly, to release her from their covenant, without making a big spectacle of it and without making her pay a horrible price. But he hasn’t definitely decided that this is the action he will take. Matthew tells us that after he had thought of this idea, after he had considered this, then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and gave him definite direction.

Joseph is open to choosing mercy and life, to spare Mary from stoning. It’s in his mind. But God is calling him to do much more that just spare her life. He wants Joseph to receive her as his wife. The first thing the angel in the dream says to Joseph is “Joseph, son of David.” The angel reminds Joseph of who he is, not who people in Nazareth say he is, not who people may be thinking he is now that Mary is pregnant, but who Joseph really is. He is a son, or a descendant, of King David, a member of the royal house and heir to the covenant God made with David. God’s covenant was that David’s house would be established and he would always have a descendant on the throne. The whole nation of Israel was expecting the Messiah to come from David’s descendants. Why does Joseph now think it is so unimaginable that God would do what he had promised his ancestor David He would do? Joseph needed to be reminded where he came from and the promises that God had spoken to his family. He needed to remember Deut. 7:9, when the people of Israel were told, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Even though it has been hundreds of years since a descendant of David sat on the throne, God is still faithful to the promise he made to David. So why shouldn’t Joseph be the recipient of that promise?

After reminding Joseph of who he is, the angel says, “do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.” Do not hesitate to do this. Do not be afraid of harm or of what people think or of doing the wrong thing. Receive Mary as your wife. Acknowledge her and accept her as your wife. Joseph wasn’t to be afraid that he would do the unrighteous thing, or the foolish thing, in fully accepting Mary as his wife. Yes, there would be people who would think Joseph fathered her baby. His reputation would not be pristine. But he wasn’t to fear this. God was at work in this situation. This child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was the promised Messiah. God is being faithful to His covenant and Joseph doesn’t need to be afraid of what it looks like to other people. God will work in unexpected ways, like we talked about last week.

Joseph also didn’t need to be afraid that Mary had sinned in some way and wonder whether he could really trust her. They wouldn’t have had a good marriage if Joseph was going into it doubting her story, wondering if she would run around on him. Likewise, Mary didn’t need to live with a man who would always be doubting her, maybe becoming jealous of her and demanding to know what she does with her time. Or perhaps Joseph would wonder if she were mentally stable, because it’s a pretty wild story to say you are pregnant by the Holy Spirit. God stepped in and put all those fears to rest. Joseph don’t be afraid to receive Mary as your wife because the one who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

There are times that God works, and we are not sure about it. From the outside it looks very different from how God has worked before. It’s unexpected. God has never done a virgin birth before. So, we can understand Joseph’s confusion and uncertainty. I don’t think people were really expecting the Messiah to come in this way. Joseph has to come to the understanding that the Messiah is going to be the literal Son of God and not just another human descendant of David’s. It’s a lot to wrap his mind around, that the Holy Spirit would do a miracle in causing a virgin to conceive a child, without some type of human assistance and that this child would be God With Us. But that’s just what God did and now Joseph is being called to participate in this work by being a husband to Mary and a father to Jesus.

There are times when God will do something in our lives, and it will look very different from what we might expect. God likes to shake things up every now and then. He’s creative like that. But God will also communicate with us about the new things He does. He doesn’t leave us in the dark with all our fears and anxieties, trying to figure out how to follow God when He’s taken a sudden turn. It might feel like that for a bit, but eventually God will direct us and make things clear. In my life, God has spoken through other people, through Bible verses that stand out to me, through songs, through a sense of shalom or wholeness in my spirit that lets me know I’m hearing from God, and in other ways. When we reach out to God for direction or confirmation, God will answer us. For Joseph, God sent a message through a dream.

The angel in the dream told Joseph that he was to give Mary’s child the name Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. As I said earlier, this name means “The Lord Saves.” This child is the Lord God in human flesh who has come to save His people from their sins, just as the angel said. The prophecy that Matthew refers to is from Isaiah 7 in which the name of the child is “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.” Joseph is one of the first people to understand that the Messiah is actually God with us, come to save us.

We aren’t told a whole lot about Joseph, except what we learn about him from the birth stories of Jesus. We see him again, briefly, in the account of Jesus staying in the Temple in Jerusalem when he was 12 years old and his parents lost him for 3 days. Most likely Joseph had died by the time Jesus started his public ministry. But his effect on Jesus’ life is profound. He saved Jesus’ life more than once. By taking Mary as his wife, when she was found to be pregnant, he protected her and the child she carried. After Jesus was born, when Herod decided to kill all the babies in Bethlehem, Joseph took Mary and Jesus in the middle of the night, fled to Egypt and stayed there until after Herod had died. When God told him to return to Israel, he went back to Nazareth to live, even though the people of Nazareth would remember that Mary got pregnant before her wedding.

Joseph also named Jesus. As God reminded Joseph of who he was, a son of David, Joseph also called out who Jesus is, “The Lord Saves.” Joseph wasn’t at the cross or at the empty tomb, so he didn’t see how the Lord would work to save humanity and provide for eternal life. But he would have spoken this purpose into Jesus’ life every time he called his name. He would have shared the stories of how the Lord saved this family in taking them to Egypt, being with them there and then bringing them back to Nazareth. He would have taught Jesus from a young age about the law and made sure he knew the scriptures. We know Jesus had a great knowledge of scripture that even surprised his parents. Joseph would have been a living example to Jesus of a person who is faithful, who is compassionate, who seeks to do the right thing and is quick to follow the Lord’s leading.

Joseph must have thought that all his dreams had turned to ash when he heard that Mary was pregnant. Yet God calmed his fears, reminded him of who he was, reminded him of the covenant promises that God had made to his ancestors, and called him to a new purpose in being a husband to Mary and father to Jesus. We don’t see fear being a driving motivation in Joseph’s life after the angel tells him in the dream to not be afraid. He certainly had reason to fear when Jesus’ life was threatened by Herod, but he acts quickly to follow God’s leading. He doesn’t hesitate out of fear. When Herod died, he didn’t hesitate to go back to Israel, although he was afraid to go back to Judea and so God guided him to go to Galilee instead.

I know for myself, I can hesitate to do things out of fear. I’m afraid of doing the wrong thing or of making a mess of things. I’m afraid this effort won’t turn out like I want it to. I can think of all the things that could go wrong and then be fearful of that. I can hesitate because I’m thinking “what if”. There are times I wish God would speak to me in a dream and tell me exactly what to do and when to do it. I wish sometimes God would just hand me a schedule every day and say “here’s what I have for you today. Go do these things just as I’ve spelled them out and all will be well. Success guaranteed!” But that’s not how God works. I’m sure Joseph wished for dreams at times and they didn’t come, and he had to figure some things out on his own. But God directed him when he needed it and God will direct us when we need it as well. We don’t need to let fear keep us from moving forward with God.

As we go into a new year, with all the uncertainty in the world, with all the problems our world faces, with the serious divisions in our country, there is a lot we could be afraid of. But God says to us “do not be afraid.” The Holy Spirit is at work among us and, as the Bride of Christ, we need to be doing the preparation work of getting ready for His return. That means actively seeking out what it is that the Holy Spirit is up to in the midst of all the uncertainty and division and fear that infects our society. That means asking for the Holy Spirit to give us dreams and visions, inspiration and direction, and when the Spirit speaks, to not hesitate to obey. It means we need to remember who we are, the Church of Jesus Christ, and live into our purpose as God’s people. As the worship team comes, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to be at work among us and through us, and to fill us with confidence that we not be afraid or hesitate to follow the Lord’s leading. And let’s rejoice that Jesus, the Lord who saves, has been born and that God is with us.