One of the great temptations of Christmas is retelling the story as if twinkle lights adorn the room where the Angel appears to Mary. As if the air breathes crisp. As if the stars radiate over the place where Mary gives birth. As if snowflakes dance while Joseph dozes under a moonlit window.
But the story of Christmas should never be sugarcoated. Attempts to spiffy the story of Christmas reduce its potency. We must remember the gift of its grittiness.
Christ’s arrives into a world of terror. The entire nation experiences the horror of Herod’s murderous rampage. Jesus’ family must race to Egypt to escape.
Reflections of Christmas often circle joy and peace, silent nights and stunning stars.
We’re less likely to reflect on the fear and frustration, anxiety and grief that surrounded the infant’s birth.
The Christmas story looms with uncertainty.
For every person—including Joseph.
When Joseph fell asleep the night described in Matthew 1:20, he was trying to wrap his head around his fiancée pregnancy. Joseph likely tosses and turns attempting to piece together a dignified strategy to cut Mary loose from the betrothal.
“Betrothal with the Jews was a serious matter, not lightly entered into and not lightly broken. The man who betrothed a maiden was legally husband (Gen. 29:21; Deut. 22:23f.) and ‘an informal cancelling of betrothal was impossible’ (McNeile).
Though they did not live together as husband and wife until actual marriage, breach of faithfulness on the part of the betrothed was treated as adultery and punished with death.”*
Joseph had faith in the culture of his time, believing that as they obeyed God’s law, they pleased God. Yet, at the same time, he believed the law must to be acted upon and the punishment for adultery was death.
Joseph was afraid to violate the Mosaic Law and yet afraid to keep it.
Sometimes we read this and think that Joseph is merely afraid to do what God is telling him. But the fear Joseph feels happens before the angel arrives.
“The issue is not that Joseph fears to wed Mary because he recognizes the virgin conception; the angel has not yet informed him that the Holy Spirit is the cause of the pregnancy, and he considers a divorce less shameful for her rather than more (1:19).
“Joseph plans to divorce Mary not because he believes that God caused her to conceive but because he assumes her to be guilty of unfaithfulness.”***
Once the angel clears up the origin of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph acts in faith.
In the Greek culture around him, it wasn’t unusual for gods to have their way with human women. “The delicate way in which both Matthew and Luke express the process of Jesus’ conception contrasts sharply with Greek and Roman stories of gods (often having assumed the form of a male human or even animal) having intercourse with human women, resulting in the birth of demigod heroes like Heracles.”****
Joseph’s faith had conflicting objects, either the culture of his day deserved his allegiance, or some implausible, pagan story that had suddenly broken into his righteous, orthodox life, was true.
In this tangled moment, the angel appeared to him in a dream to help him settle his fear.
Sometimes we think fear is the absence of faith, but fear is unfocused faith.
“Fear does not negate faith. In fact fear stems from faith. If we didn’t believe something so completely, so utterly in every part of ourselves, then we wouldn’t experience the level of fear that we do. But we also wouldn’t experience the level of love.”*****
In essence, the angel told Joseph to let go of the faith he had in his culture and grab on to the faith he had in God.
The angel answers both of Joseph’s fears; the culture will not banish him (he will get to take Mary home), and the conception was indeed divine (not pagan).
As you prepare your heart for Christ’s arrival through Advent, pay attention to the gritty details of Christ’s story. Joyful discoveries wait for you.
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What have you been discovering about Christ’s birth this year?
* A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Mt 1:18.
*** Craig Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 91.
**** R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 51.
***** Matthew A. Elliott, Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotion in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2006), 203.
