Looking Up To Our Teens: What Mary and Joseph Teach Us About Living Lives of Faith
If you go through my advent devotional titled Getting Ready To Get Ready you will glean some of the very same thoughts I am expounding on here, particularly as we get to Mary and Joseph.
The reality is there is a lot of intrigue around the way God worked in and through this couple. For starters, it is probable that Mary was between 12-14 years old and Joseph just a few years older. Isn’t it a little bit of a wonder that God would choose someone so young to carry such a huge responsibility? Perhaps it is fitting with the overall narrative: Jesus was born in lowly town of Bethlehem in a stable that was cold and smelly and noisy from the animals. Oh, and he was carried by a young teenage girl who didn’t even have her drivers license yet. And the shadiness and difficulty doesn’t stop there. Let me point out a few more things surrounding the birth of Christ that might help us to appreciate the meaning of Jesus entering the world.
Jesus Inherits A Bad Genealogy
You probably wouldn’t like it much if your genealogy was recorded as clearly as it was for Jesus and published for the world to see. Interestingly, Matthew records Jesus’ genealogy and there are five women that are included. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. The Bible isn’t sexist, as some people say. The reason women were excluded from genealogies is simply that Jewish custom was to record family lines through the fathers. Yet there are five women mentioned when it isn’t customary to do so.
You will also notice that all five women highlight controversy. Tamar was raped, Rahab was a prostitute, Ruth was not an Israelite, Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah) was an adultress, and Mary was blameless yet mistaken as a fornicator. In other words, you wouldn’t go out of your way to include these women, especially when it wasn’t customary to do so in the first place. One is left wondering why? Was Matthew trying to paint Jesus in a particularly unflattering light? How would you like to find out your family tree included rape, prostitution, adultery, outcast and controversy? Ignorance is bliss, as they say. If those things are a part of your family tree you would probably rather not know about it.
Yet Jesus, the Savior of the world, inherits a genealogy as ugly as this one probably because he was going to save people from their sins. And this salvation extends to all, even the sexually broken, the untouchables, the outcasts, the people who were not invited, the ones who nobody understands or believes but God alone.
Mary And Joseph Demonstrate Surrender to God
Why select two youngsters and subject them to public shame, scorn, possibly death? It doesn't seem safe to impregnate a teenage girl without a job, without an education in a culture that carried the death sentence for someone who would get pregnant out of wedlock. This is Mary. At least she could say that the baby wasn't Joseph's offspring, that it was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Surely that would solve her dilemma, right? Oh wait. Nobody would believe her. If they didn't stone her she would probably wind up in a psych ward...and I'll bet dollars to donuts (whatever that means) that first century psych wards were dodgy at best.
So Mary and Joseph were completely cornered...and it was God's design, not their sin that got them into this mess. It leaves us to wonder, why would God do it this way? Jesus was supposed to be good news of great joy...how would Mary and Joseph think about this? Would they receive this as good news?
Mary's response in Luke 1:38 is intriguing: "And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her." It didn't dawn on me until recently that it would have taken great surrender to God for Mary to say, let it be to me according to your word. Until recently I assumed her response was more akin to someone winning the lottery..."let it be to me according to your word." However, she probably would have realized the trouble this would cause her and Joseph and yet she says, "let it be." What a lesson from the teenager, rather than questioning the goodness of God she simply surrenders to his will.
Mary and Joseph Demonstrate Faith In God
Most of the time that I battle faith in God it isn't that I don't believe in God. Since becoming a believer I have never struggled believing that God exists. The battle to believe has more to do with believing in the goodness and wisdom of God. When God calls us to believe in him he is asking us to trust his wisdom above our own, especially when things don't seem to add up. Nothing added up in Mary and Joseph's situation and yet Mary surrendered and believed that Jesus truly was good news and that God was good.
Joseph Shows Courage and Faithfulness
You might say Joseph decided to divorce Mary quietly, therefore, he wasn't faithful? Well, this was no easy decision and if you look at it carefully we can see Joseph wanted to do the best thing possible for Mary. In some ways, this whole thing hinged upon Joseph's response. What would it have been like for Joseph to learn that his soon to be wife was already pregnant? How believing was he that she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit? Could you imagine how difficult it would have been for him to make sense of this? Even if he does believe Mary's story they still have a problem, his betrothed wife was pregnant. There are only a few options and none of them are good: A) Divorce Mary publicly (and by so doing she will likely face death). B) Stay with Mary and let people assume they sinned together, putting them both in danger. C) Divorce Mary quietly, avoiding a scene in hopes that both of them come out safely. He is a teenager and he had some big decisions to make. If he would have reacted strongly he could have caused some real problems.
Eventually the angel of the Lord comes to him and tells him what to do, which was the most dangerous path and most sacrificial one for him: stay with Mary and do not fear. Joseph's willingness to obey God shows his courage and faith and faithfulness.
Good News!
The birth of Jesus is good news of great joy. It is the birth of the Savior of the world who inherited a sinful family line so that he could save all mankind who has inherited a sin nature and sin legacy from their family line. It is the good news to believers that God's purposes always transcend our immediate circumstances. It is the good news that God indeed always works things together for good and in the gospel there is always a plan to redeem our lives from any pit, no matter how deep. Perhaps none of this would be true or could be true if Jesus had an ideal entry into our world? We can speculate. One thing we can be sure of, his ways are always higher than our ways (Isaiah 55). And we can look to Mary and Joseph, a couple of teenagers, to show us what it looks like to put our trust in this great God.
In Christ,
Pastor Kevin
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