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December 24, 2007, 11:00 PM
Matthew 1:18-25The Rev. David A. Davis
“By Any Other Name?”
How about a word on behalf of Joseph? Matthew tells us he was “a righteous man”. You can count on less than one hand the number of men described in all of scripture as “righteous”. There’s Noah, way back there in the Old Testament. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.” (Gen 6) At the end of Luke’s Gospel, it is Joseph of Arimathea who went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. He wrapped in it a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb cut into the rock. Luke introduces Joseph to his readers as “a good and righteous man.” (Luke 23) Job, that infamous victim of all suffering, the bible labels him as “blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil” (Job 1). That’s almost righteous. And Simeon, the old man in the temple who took the child Jesus into his arms to offer a blessing. Luke tells us that Simeon was “righteous and devout” and that the Holy Spirit rested on him. (Luke 2) Simeon. Joseph of Arimathea. Job. Noah.
And Joseph, who had been engaged to Mary, and before they lived together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. “Joseph” Matthew writes, “being a righteous man”, like he’s describing the color of his hair or what he was wearing or where he was from! “Joseph, since he was from Piscataway, he was unwilling to let be publicly humiliated.” He was a righteous man and apparently, there weren’t all that many. Joseph, the son of Jacob, the one betrothed to Mary, the carpenter, who was of the house and lineage of David and of Abraham, he was a righteous man! He was devout, and he turned from evil. He was blameless and upright. He was good and he walked with God. Joseph was a righteous man!
Mary had the benefit of a conversation with the Angel Gabriel, a bit of give and take. Joseph, he had to settle for a dream. Mary was able to visit with Elizabeth who was carrying John the Baptist in her belly at the time. They talked about babies kicking and the Lord blessing and the Mighty One doing great things. That’s when Mary sang about God scattering the proud and bringing down the powerful and lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things. Luke reports that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months while she was pregnant. I’d sort of forgotten that part. Joseph didn’t have anybody. He was a guy. He didn’t talk to anyone and he certainly didn’t share his feelings. In the tradition of the Evangelists, here in the four gospels, he never even says a word. Joseph, he must have been out pounding nails and wondering what on earth was happening to him and to Mary, what on earth would happen to this child.
On of Rembrandt’s religious etchings dated from 1654 is titled “The Virgin and Child with Cat and Snake.” Mary is depicted in a familiar pose cradling the Child and bending forward so that mother and child are just about cheek to cheek. To Mary’s right on the floor is cat curled up sleeping. The snake is slithering on the floor out from underneath Mary’s skirt, pretty much right in the center there at the bottom. The scene is a room in a house, more homey than a barn or a stable, but not much more.
If one does just a bit of research on “The Virgin and the Child with a Cat and a Snake” Rembrandt (1654), you can easily find some commentary out there. The web site of National Gallery of Art explains that there is a legend that “the cat of the Madonna” gave birth to a litter of cats there in the stable where Christ was born. And experts are quick to point out the symbolism of the snake as the Devil, the one who will take on the Baby Jesus in his lifetime. To make us all feel better, some even suggest that Mary is actually stomping on the snake though you can’t see that from the picture itself.
Folks write about the snake and the cat, but no one writes about Joseph. In the Rembrandt etching Joseph is there. But he’s actually outside the room, on the other side of the window, peering in. The cat is all set. The snake is in the center. Joseph is on the outside looking in, and no one seems to notice, much less care! Even Mary, if we’re honest. Her focus is on the baby. She doesn’t even know Joseph is there, at the window, on the outside, looking in.
How about a word for Joseph? Joseph standing there looking, on behalf of all who have ever felt a bit removed, a bit distant, a bit shut out. Joseph, standing out there on behalf of any who thought they were just trying to do the right thing, those who experienced a rather complicated and sudden turn in life, those who weren’t able to see or comprehend, let alone explain what God might be doing here. Joseph, looking in, on behalf of all who yearn to be closer to the promise, to know just a little of what Mary pondered in her heart, to share more in the embrace of divine love; on behalf of those desperate to look right into the eyes of God’s grace. Joseph, standing there on behalf of any who have been silenced by the tradition, shut out by the church, looked down upon and judged by the overly pious and the arrogantly religious. As when the crowds, much later in Matthew’s Gospel, when they were astounded by what Jesus did and taught and they said, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?”
Joseph was a righteous man. He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took Mary as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son. And then? And then, when the child was born, according to scripture, this minor character in salvation’s pageant, he didn’t sing like Zechariah, he didn’t ponder like Mary, he didn’t rejoice like shepherds or pay homage like the Magi, he didn’t preach like Peter, he didn’t pray like Paul…he named him Jesus. Joseph named him Jesus. For as the angel had said in the dream, “You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” He did more than sing. Joseph. He did more than speak. Joseph named him Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins.
Jesus. He will save. Save from sins. Bring into relationship with God. Offer forgiveness. Repair the alienation, stand in the gap, narrow the distance between humanity and God. Save. Save from sins. Write names in the book of life. Give a second chance. Open the door to eternal life. Usher in the kingdom of God. Conquer all evil. Spark a light that darkness shall never overcome. Stomp on death and proclaim a victory of abundant and everlasting life forever in the presence of God. Save. Save from sins. The perfect sacrifice. A blood sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. Atonement. Ransom. An emptying of self. Redeeming those who were under the law. Crucifixion. Resurrection. Jesus. He will save.
There’s no shortage of terminology and metaphor when it comes to figuring the “save” part. One can find volumes of theological literature on the “save” part. Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. It’s the “he will” part that we ought not to miss. “He will save”. The future tense. Joseph and Mary, they became husband and wife, and when she had the baby, he named him Jesus, for the baby, the child, for this one will save. Not right then, not there in Mary’s arms, but tomorrow, or the next day, or one day. At some point, in the future, he will save. When he named the child Jesus, Joseph wasn’t just being righteous, he wasn’t just being obedient to the angel’s command, he was claiming a future, God’s future, for him and for God’s people. Joseph was grabbing on to hope. Jesus. He will save.
When our kids were very young, language came before the concept of time. You know what I mean, for years parents can get away with phrases like “in a moment” or “soon”, or “we’re almost there” or “in two minutes”! Then when children become teenagers, we parents change the rules and time is expected to be exact (when you will be home, remember curfew). One of the phrases from our kids was “last day”. It could have been yesterday, last week, last year. “Do you remember “last day” when we went to grandma’s?” In a young child’s mind, “last day” was a memory with no concept of time attached.
Jesus. He will save. Joseph grabbing on to a future with hope. And the time? Was it then? Was it now? And the answer’s yes. Of course that’s child’s life and death and resurrection rest at the very center of time. And when someone asks you when you were saved, if they’re looking for a date and time, you ought to tell them you were saved at Calvary when Jesus died on the cross for sins of the world. The cross and the resurrection; that’s pretty much the definition of time! But with Joseph and that name, the name of Jesus, he will save, there is this persistent future tense to it all. The first Christmas, and the next, and the next. “Joseph, you have to name the Child again this year. Jesus. He will save!” Look around! We’re not there yet, Joseph!
Save us! From sin, from one another, from ourselves. From broken relationships, from broken hearts, from broken lives. From the darkness of a day that has no future, from the haze that falls when purpose and meaning and truth is lost, from the shadows that come when you win at any cost, when you profit at any cost, when you gain at any cost. From the greed that convinces us that more is always better. From bigotry that never goes away. From an arrogant piety that demands to be right, and religion that divides, and proclamation that demonizes. From self-serving politics, and an ever-widening distribution of wealth, and the inability to see the face of God in the stranger, in the immigrant, even in the enemy. Or in the words of the Harry Emerson Fosdick hymn (1930):
Cure Thy children’s warring madness, Bend our pride to Thy contol;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, lest we miss thy Kingdom’s goal
Lest we miss thy Kingdom’s goalIt wasn’t any other name! It was Jesus. And he will save his people from their sin.
Even, so come Lord Jesus, come quickly! That’s the Advent, now Christmas Eve, soon to be Christmas Day prayer, isn’t it? Even so, come Lord Jesus, come quickly! Last day, on Palm Sunday, the prayer was “Hosanna”. Save us! The prayers are pretty much the same! Language with no concept of time, other than now, right now
Save us. Save us now.
© 2007, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
Contact the church to obtain reprint permission