Joseph's Part:

Luke & Matthew

tell us about

the birth of Jesus

and His early life

(Matthew 1-2; Luke 1-2)

Bruce Wearne © December 2002

When Mary told the story of her son, she also needed to explain the part played by Joseph, her husband. It was not an easy story to tell. Quite some time before she passed on what she knew to Luke and Matthew, Joseph had died. But Joseph had accepted God's call to be the child's earthly father and so he had played a very important part in Jesus' story.

Mary collected all the stories she could about her son. She passed them on with the help of God's Spirit to others and ever since these stories have helped students in Jesus' school to understand their Rabbi and what He had come to do. Mary was part of an artistic family network. Elisabeth, her cousin, was married to Zechariah, a priest, who wrote songs. Mary wrote lyrics for songs, and kept a diary.

Mary's most famous song was written after an angel visited her. "You'll have a baby," the angel said, "and it will be God's own son." "OK," said Mary, "but I'm only engaged." The angel said: "God is taking care of you, there is nothing to fear." "OK" said Mary "since God knows what He's doing it's OK by me."

Getting married was a year-long process, and Mary and Joseph had been looking forward to their wedding party at the end of the year. Their future marriage had been announced to all the people of the town at their first party. The people also expected the second party. But now, with Mary pregnant, Joseph knew the second party couldn't happen. In fact, at first he decided to call off the marriage. But then something else very strange happened.

The angel visited Joseph in a dream to tell him what was happening. The messenger also delivered a special request. God wanted Joseph to go ahead and marry Mary and act as the baby's father.

God's angel told him not to worry, and so Joseph calmed down and thought it best to marry Mary straight away rather than wait until the baby was born. So she moved in with him. When you are pregnant you have to rest and not have too much stress.

Joseph loved Mary a lot. He weathered the disruptions in his life by trusting that God would tie up all the loose ends. That's the kind of guy God wanted him to be.

Because Joseph believed what the angel had said Mary found he was willing to believe what she said too. To show Joseph that God really wanted him to act as the father, the angel gave him the name for the baby. This was even before they had discovered whether it was a boy. The naming of the child was Joseph's special task. God had given it to him.

Joseph had a cool head in a crisis. This was important. Not long after Mary moved to his house their plans were disrupted again. Caesar Augustus had issued a decree for a census and so Joseph had to register in his home town Bethlehem. But guess what? The day on which he had to register was around the time that Mary was due to give birth. Joseph decided that he couldn't leave Mary by herself in Nazareth. Sure, she could look after herself. She knew what had to be done with all that women's stuff about birth and so on. But the people of the town could not be relied upon; besides, the angel had explicitly spoken to Joseph, not to the people in the town. God made him responsible for the baby. So there was nothing else for it but to take Mary with him to Bethlehem.

As they rode into Bethlehem, Mary's waters broke. Joseph thought he knew some places where they should be able to find a room but the only place he could find was a garage, at the back of a hotel where the animals were kept. All rooms had been taken. There was not even one small room left for a mother to give birth to her baby.

So Jesus just had to be born there among the animals and Joseph made sure it was as clean and comfy as possible. He really didn't seem to mind. He had done the registration and in a week or so it would be back to Nazareth, again.

Then came a knock at the door. In trooped some shepherds, carrying some baby lambs, singing songs about God's promises and getting all excited about the lamb who would take away the sins of the world. When they finally left after an early breakfast, Jesus was sleeping soundly. Mary was washing her clothes. And Joseph dosed off feeling rather satisfied. He had done what God had asked him to do. The baby was born and now for a good morning's nap.

But he couldn't sleep peacefully. He started having dreams. He started feeling that they were in some kind of danger.

In a few days they were visited by some very strange guests who had come on a long journey, strange rulers, men of wisdom visiting from eastern regions, far, far away. These were the presents they brought for the baby Jesus:

· Gold

· Incense and perfume

· Medicine

Joseph talked with the visitors and they discussed together why they had come, where they had been and what they were going to do. Joseph told them about the baby and how God wanted him to look after Jesus and Mary. The visitors realized King Herod was not to be trusted and that night they left on the road due east, and did not take the one which would bring them back to Herod's palace.

All that day Joseph was worried. Then he had another restless night. He tossed and turned until he had another dream, in which another angel came and calmed his fears. So next morning while they were eating the porridge Joseph had prepared, he told his dream to Mary. Together they realised that they would have to become asylum seekers in Egypt. Truly, the last person Herod wanted to see was God's own Son and Herod was well known for the evil he did. He was superstitious and his advisors would tell him about Bethlehem, the City of David. So Joseph and Mary packed up and got on the road but instead of returning to Nazareth, they reckoned that the safest road was the one taking them straight to Jerusalem.

Mary needed rest but what else could they do? On their way south to Egypt, Mary and Joseph would first made a detour to the temple in Jerusalem. They brought two turtle doves, the poor person's sin offering, and followed the purification rituals which were the custom of that time. They would remember this visit all their lives. A special treat was to meet a couple of God-fearing prophets who knew God's plans for the redemption of His people and who identified the baby boy. Simeon was old and going blind and lived in the temple. Anna, also told them that of God's special promises for their baby. Joseph wondered how they knew; maybe it was the same angel who had spoken to him. And Mary also wrote down the songs they composed for the occasion.

That's the main gist of what Matthew and Luke wrote down about Joseph in relation to the story of Jesus' birth. They wrote down their stories so all the students in Jesus' school could understand their Rabbi's early life. They wrote so we could know what Jesus was like. He had been a young man like you and like me and He was loved and cared for by His parents. Joseph cared for Mary and Jesus. He took them down to Egypt and after Herod died he brought them back home to Nazareth and looked after them. Jesus grew up in the carpentry shop of his father. Joseph knew God calls people to do their work and that can mean being a carpenter. Joseph knew that he had been called by God to help Jesus grow up and do the work He had to do.