The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2022

Matthew 1, 18–24

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

“Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man.”  St. Matthew, writing for the first generation of Jewish Christians, emphasizes righteousness in his Gospel, the essential attribute of God which humans could share in through following the Law of Moses.  For this reason, he shows the righteousness of the Lord’s parents.  He does not merely state that Joseph and Mary were righteous, but shows it in their words and actions.  In doing this, Matthew shows himself to be a reliable source since he does not wince at mentioning difficult situations but admits them freely, then presents Joseph and Mary as navigating through them in the way righteous people should.  

Here, he shows that Mary and Joseph are betrothed: he has formally gone to the house of her parents and asked for her hand, she has consented to be his wife, and the parents have signaled their approval.  She is to remain with her parents until Joseph can arrange the reception at his house to which he will lead her.  Weeks or months may pass first.  But then Matthew tells us that before Joseph can do this, she “was found with child through the Holy Spirit”.  That is, accounting for the Hebrew idiom Matthew undoubtedly used, Joseph found that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  How did he find this out?  Not through an angel, for an angel comes to him after he has learned this to guide him.  As the Fathers tell us, Mary told him, for only Mary could have known that she was with child “through the Holy Spirit”.  Joseph, then, as a righteous man must decide for himself what course he is to take in this unprecedented situation.  If he were not a righteous man and had not believed Mary, he would have denounced her.  

It is precisely because of his determination to act righteously that he has to decide what his place is.  Right away he rules out exposing her to “shame”, as the lectionary has it, though the Greek actually means “publicly announcing her secret”.  If her miraculous pregnancy was meant to be publicized, it would be the work of the angels, not of a carpenter.  Thinking over what Mary has told him, he cannot think of a role for him in her life and in the life of her Child.  Gabriel had said nothing to Mary about living with Joseph as his wife.  He concludes that he is supposed to simply walk away, thoroughly unworthy as he knows himself to be part of the life of the Virgin Mary and of the Son of God who would be born of her.  The matter of “divorce”, as the lectionary has it, does not come up for him.  The Greek, in fact, means “separation”.  There is no need of a divorce anyway, as she has not come to live with him.  

Through his prayers for divine assistance and his absolute determination to act righteously, God sent an angel (very possibly Gabriel) to point out to Joseph the most righteous course of action: to take the Virgin into his home as his wife.  He had not considered the lowliness with which the Son of God would come into the world and live in it.  According to the Pharisees, the arrival of the Messiah would be accompanied by great pomp and circumstance.  That the Son of God would live in the house of a carpenter in a remote town in Galilee required greater faith from him than that Mary, whom he knew to be holy, had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”  As a righteous man, he obeyed at once the command of the Lord as relayed to him by the angel.  Perhaps the reception was ready, perhaps not.  But God must be obeyed.  This obedience is the key to righteousness.  It marks the Incarnation itself in which the Son obeyed the Father in leaving his glory behind in heaven to walk the harsh roads of earth.  It marks the ready consent of the Virgin Mary to God’s plan for her to be both Virgin and Mother.  It marks the ready consent of Joseph, once he learned of God’s will, to throw away the plan he had made in good conscience and to humbly take his place as the foster father of God’s Son.  

Joseph never ceased to live righteously, and it awed him to look on his Lord growing up in his home and to know that Almighty God wanted him to be there with him.