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Musings on anything. |
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My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| I've been studying about Joseph, you know, father of baby Jesus. (Adoptive) There isn't a lot about him in the Bible. The first time we run across him, he is being visited by Gabriel, one of the head angels. The gospel writer Matthew tells us that he was an upright man. In that community that meant he was well-respected, possibly like a Sunday School teacher or a deacon by today's comparisons. He would sit with the men and discuss scripture. He was virtuous and moral. The translators have spent a lot on the wording to figure the context for this man who for most of us is just a figure in a nativity scene. From around the gospels, we know Joseph had a brother named Clopas, who married Mary, one of the women at the tomb, so she was a follower of Jesus. Joseph had a father named Jacob, and four other sons named James, Simon, Judas and Joseph Jr. So Jesus had a grandfather, brothers, and an uncle who usually get ignored. Bottom line, he had family ties. Joseph would suffer not only public humiliation for this situation, but some family whisperings, too. We know that Joseph was a blue-collar worker, the working-class poor. As a carpenter, he would have had calloused hands and sawdust on his clothes. Carpentry at that time was functional, not decorative. He would have made tools or yoke for oxen, basic stuff. They weren't into dining chairs, nightstands, etc. Nails would have been wooden pegs driven into drilled holes. He would not have been the best provider for a baby who created the heaven and earth. But he was chosen to usher God into the world. The laws of his day would have required him to charge her parents with breaking their contract. The parents would have the responsibility of proving she was a virgin when they were married. Bringing up charges would cause her to be stoned to death immediately by the men of the village. Her parents would be disgraced and mistreated. Because Joseph was an upright man, he didn't want her to be harmed. Yet he was tormented by the fear of his reputation being dragged through the mud. He wrestled with obeying God and self-reservation. He did provide for his family. Most likely he was the only midwife for Mary. In those quiet moments before the shepherds showed up, did he wonder, "What have I gotten into?" Was his life turned upside down, long before they had to flee to Egypt? His absence is conspicuous after the circumcision of the baby, the recognition by a prophet and prophetess and then appears again when the boy is 12. He fades from view after that. The takeway is that he was given a difficult task, did it humbly, without fanfare and proved worthy. If God himself wanted us to do a job, would we do as well? |
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