There is something else about Joseph. Matthew goes to great pains to show that Joseph by all rights would be king had not 400 years of foreign occupation interrupted the reign of David’s throne. By his time Joseph’s royal lineage meant little more than an interesting subject for conversation.
Joseph’s happy plans were rudely interrupted when he discovered Mary, his betrothed, was with child. How could this be? How could she have been unfaithful to him? Because of the legal arrangement of their betrothal this amounted to adultery, and if Joseph pressed it he could call for her to be stoned or at least publicly humiliated.
What should Joseph do? Being a just man, Joseph decided he must interrupt the engagement with Mary. She was with child, and the child was not his. Through bitter disappointment and feelings of betrayal Joseph decided he did not want to further humiliate her. A bill of divorcement, with the minimum number of witnesses, would be sufficient. He would go on with his life, and leave Mary to go on with hers. He would forego charging her with adultery.
But Joseph’s plans to divorce Mary were interrupted when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “don’t be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. That which is conceived within her is of the Holy Spirit.” The angel went on to explain that the child in Mary’s womb was the one foretold by prophets of old as the anointed one who would save his people from their sins.”
This meant that Joseph’s plan to maintain a righteous reputation was interrupted because he would now be implicated with Mary in the scandal of out-of-wedlock pregnancy. In the Jewish culture of the first century righteous reputation was extremely important, and a stigma like this would follow Joseph the rest of his life.
Any plans Joseph had for a happy honeymoon were interrupted too. He took Mary as wife but did not consummate the marriage until the child was born months later.
Why did God intrude on this couple this way? Matthew tells us Joseph was a just man, and Luke says that Mary had found favor with God and that she was blessed among women. Why did God interrupt their lovely plans for a wonderful life together with scandal, hardship, and anguish? Because he needed to use them to bring salvation and restoration to the world corrupted by the sin of the first couple.
Here is the good news in all this. The first couple, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and chose to eat from the forbidden tree. They corrupted themselves and their offspring. He needed to bring about restoration through a couple that had not defiled themselves, but would take on the pain of scandal so that they could bring about the messiah of righteousness. Because of their sacrifice we can, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, be restored and baptized into the eternal kingdom.
God interrupted Joseph’s plans because God had a plan. I am reminded of God’s promise to the Israelites in Jeremiah 29:11. “I know the plans I have toward you, God says. Plans of good and not evil, to bring you to an expected end.” Joseph’s plan for a just-so life was interrupted and he gladly sacrificed it for God’s greater plan.
Joseph is not the only one. Many of us begin our adult lives with well-laid plans that eventually are interrupted. We may not understand at the time, and like Joseph, we may face difficult days and painful decisions. In my own life I ran from the call to ministry as long as I could, planning for a career in newspaper journalism. That plan was interrupted my senior year of college by a call to ministry I could not refuse. “But God,” I remember asking, “what will I do in ministry with a degree in communications?” I remember the Lord responding, “You will communicate the gospel.” And so I have.
I don’t like interruptions. In fact, as I wrote this my daughter interrupted me to ask me to help her connect something on the computer. I was tempted to have a bad attitude. Then I remembered that God works many times in the interruptions, calling me beyond my own plans and inviting me to take part in his.
That is what the kingdom is all about. Living not unto ourselves and our own plans, but into the greater plan God has for the restoration of the world through Jesus Christ. Somehow I think Joseph, son of David, had an inkling of that, and willingly allowed his plans to be interrupted to become part of God’s greater plan.
This Fourth Sunday of Advent, think about the ways Jesus comes to interrupt our plans with invitations to be a part of his greater plan to restore the world. Willingly yield to his interruption, and see how God will work through you to extend his kingdom.
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)4 Advent A 2013
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