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 Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 11:21 am
This is just something I've kinda been thinking about, and it makes sense to me. This is partially to get it into words, but also to see what other people thought about it.
It's Christmas time, and yet another chance to hear the Story that has been drilled into our heads since we ourselves were children. So much so that it has almost become mundane and boring. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love the story and I'll never tire of it, but when one has heard something over and over again, it becomes hard to grasp everything from it. I was sitting in service last Sunday, I believe, and the pastor was talking about Joseph. Now, what I am about to present has nothing to do with what he was speaking about, because I wasn't really paying attention to that (that's another story for another time...). I don't remember the point of the message, but I will throw out with what my little mind came up with during that particualr service.
I think that there's one character who kinda gets shoved under the carpet, in a sense. There's always talk about Jesus (obviously) Mary, the shepards, the angels, the wisemen...even the animals. Countelss children's plays have been centred around the donkeys and sheep in the barn. So what about Joseph? I don't mean to say that we forget about him, but I don't think we give him enough credit. I mean, yes Mary agreed to give birth to Jesus, and the wisemen aid in making sure Herod doesn't find Jesus to kill him, and that's all fine and well. Jesus never would have made it if those things hadn't happened. And Joseph; there he is on the sidelines, being a nice, passive husband. He doesn't even get a speaking part.
But I think that there's more to Joseph than we give him credit for. Just think about it. He had to be in love with Mary. Yes it was a betrothal and he would have been considerably older, but I think that things would have turned out differently had he not been in love with her. Think about it. You are engaged to a beautiful young woman. She is everything you've ever wanted; kind, gentle, a hard-worker, pretty...all that stuff. You have such faith in her, and you know that she loves you too. Then, something happens. You've had a small period of separation, and time is close for you to get married. You are so happy, for you are finally going to be with the woman you love. You meet again after this separation, and she informs you that she is pregnant. Just imagine what must have been going through Joseph's head. Her telling him that she had not actually slept with anyone and she was with child through the Holy Spirit is just a story. Honestly, if I were in Joseph's place, I wouldn't believe her. But at this point we've heard the story so many times that we don't take into consideration the details of what was going on. Some might see Joseph as nuts for not believing her. But think about it. It's not like they had something to tell them what was going on. Joseph was a carpenter; a normal man. He wasn't an overly spiritual guy. He was practical. In his mind, there was only one way for a woman to get pregnant.
So, Scripture says that he 'was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had it in mind to divorce her quietly' (Matt 1:19). This is one of those verses that we take for granted. We think it's so horrible that he would want to divorce her. In reality, he was doing a really really nice thing. That's even an understatement. A woman in that society who ended up pregnant before she was married (especially by a man other than her finace) was stoned to death. Joseph would have known this, and he probably would have been expected to throw the first stone. But he didn't want to. He wanted Mary to live. To me, this speaks volumes. I think that if this was merely a relationship planned by other people, and there was indifference on both sides, that he would have been perfectly fine. The injustice had been done to him. And it wasn't like people didn't know Mary was pregnant. You could probably see it. Even if the angel came to him before it started to show, people would still talk and he probably wouldn't have been thought of too highly. He was going to let the woman that had disgraced him live. He wasn't going to punish her. To me, that says that he loved her.
So then the angel comes to Joseph in a dream. My honest opinion is that Joseph was 'slain in the Spirit', as we pentecostals and charismatics like to call it today. I mean, think about it. The man is distraught. The woman he loves has just commited the ultimate sin against him. He doens't know what to do. He knows what soical reprecussions his decision to allow her to live will have. Heck, I wouldn't just be falling asleep out of the blue. Even when I did fall asleep, I wouldn't be so for long, and it wouldn't be a nice, happy sleep. No, it would be broken up and troubled. So, God says 'zap' and Joseph is out cold. Now the angel can speak to him.
But suppose it was really just natural sleep. Waking up in the morning, I think Joseph was still a little confused about it. I don't know how many times someone has told me something, or I've watched a movie or read a book, and I've dreamed about it last night (I watched Eragon yesterday...last night I had a dream that the Ra'zac were coming for me and that I had to find my dragon and get out of there quick xd ). What if his dream was just his mind forming something that would have made him happy? He must have considered this. I would have. But he didn't. He believed it to be the True Word of God and decided to marry her anyways. Now here would come even more social problems; not only was he letting her live but he was marrying her. I'm sure people would have just believed that it was in fact his child, he was just denying it for his own sake.
Joseph abandoned everything to do what he did. He could have easily, in his hurt and feelings of having been betrayd, killed Mary, thus killing the baby too. That would be the end; no Christmas before it even began. But he didn't do that. Instead he stayed true to her, and true to God as well.
So yeah...those are my thoughts. Just wonderin' what y'all think of them...
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 11:36 am
i dont think joseph really believed in jesus as he wasnt there at jesus' crucifixation and he didnt visit the tomb and theres no mention to him praying for jesus at the crucifixtion.either that or he was dead by then.its also of note that jesus' siblings didnt support him.(please dont say joseph and mary wouldnt have had sex as a married couple.and sex=children)
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 6:10 pm
I think that Joseph very much believed in Jesus. I was thinking about it one day...why wasn't he mentioned later on in the Bible? Then it dawned on me. It's cause he was probably dead. People didn't live as long as we do, and Joseph was older than Mary (who was around mid-teens, I think). Thirty-three years later, when Jesus died, Mary would have been in her late forties. Joseph would have probably been around sixty, and I don't think men lived that long. I'm sure he was a good father, and yes, I do know that they did have a union after Jesus was born, hence the fact that Jesus had brothers (maybe he even had sisters...). I think that Joseph would have been at the cross, were he actually alive. It wasn't that his siblings didn't support him, they just didn't think he should be spending so much time with other people. I mean, if my brother was the Son of God, I'd want Him spending time with me, not the rest of the population who don't really even care about Him.
But these are only my conclusions, and they certainly have faults.
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