The Pastor's Windshield for Christmas 2023
The Virgin Mary tends to be in the spotlight at Christmas – and for good reason. After all, she is the mother of our Lord Jesus! Christmas songs ask questions like “Mary, did you know?” and ponder how much she realized about what her Son and His future would be like. But what about Joseph? It’s a shame that he is sometimes the forgotten father figure of Christmas, but there’s much that we can learn from Joseph’s faithfulness as well.
The Gospels make it clear that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, but His guardian. Joseph was likely a few years older than Mary. It is reasonably assumed that Joseph died sometime after the family’s Passover pilgrimage when Jesus was twelve (Luke 2:41-52) and before Jesus’ ministry began when He was around thirty. When Jesus preached His first “sermon” at Nazareth (based on Isaiah 61), His neighbors still assumed that He was merely Joseph’s son (Luke 4:22).
Admittedly, we have only a small amount of detail about Joseph. The Christmas narratives rightly place most of the focus on the coming of Jesus Himself. None of Joseph’s words are recorded for us. However, we can still draw some helpful conclusions about Joseph from his actions.
Joseph was a good man. Unlike his royal ancestors in the house of David, Joseph does not have any negative marks against his reputation. This does not mean that Joseph was without sin. He still needed the salvation provided by Jesus. Yet Joseph was also a faithful husband, a reliable tradesman, and an upright example for his children. Jesus was submissive to His earthly parents (Luke 2:51) and while under their care, “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Joseph taught Jesus his trade (Mark 6:3), and he and Mary went on to have a large family (Mark 6:30).
Joseph was quietly humble. I bet you can think of men in your family who exhibit a type of quiet strength. They don’t say a lot, but when they do speak, they mean what they say, and you listen. Joseph seems like the kind of man who kept his composure, yet he wasn’t afraid to take action for the good of his family.
Joseph was obedient to the Lord. On four occasions, the Lord’s angels instructed him through dreams, telling him to take Mary as his wife and to name her son, Jesus (Matt. 1:20-21); telling him to take his family and flee to Egypt (Matt 2:13); telling him to return home to Israel (Matt. 2:19); and telling him to beware of Herod’s son in Judea (Matt. 2:22). In all these cases, Joseph obeyed without question.
Joseph was faithful. When considering how to respond to Mary’s apparent infidelity, Joseph wanted to be faithful to God’s law prohibiting a man from marrying an adulterous woman, yet Joseph also wanted to deal kindly and quietly with Mary (Matt. 2:19). Joseph later saw that Jesus’ circumcision and Mary’s purification were carried out on schedule (Luke 2:21-24). Once their situation had settled down, they made annual pilgrimages from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover (Luke 2:41). Joseph seemingly instilled the custom of regular Sabbath worship in his family (Luke 4:16).
Joseph was a protective husband and father. Joseph protected Mary from potentially being stoned to death for adultery. He guided Mary to Bethlehem for the census while she was “great with child” (Luke 2:5). And later, Joseph shepherded his family safely to Egypt and eventually back home to Nazareth while taking care to steer clear of two ruthless kings.
Fathers set a tone for their families, and both during the action-packed years around the first Christmas and during the normalcy of the years that followed, Joseph certainly did this for his family.
May the Lord bless all Christian fathers with the courage, humility, and faithfulness of Joseph! And may God bless us all with steadfast faith in Joseph’s adopted Son, our Savior Jesus.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Kory Janneke