I think our familiarity with the story (along with the commonness of modern day promiscuity) has blinded our eyes to the drama of it all. An unmarried teenager from an upstanding and spiritually faithful family turns up pregnant. Can you picture the scandal of that for Mary and her household? Everywhere she, her parents or her siblings walked they were followed by condemning eyes and accusing whispers. Former friends distanced themselves, shopkeepers gossiped and we don’t even want to think about what it must have been like for them to walk into the synagogue in Nazareth.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like for that poor teenager, Mary. But, at least you can make the point that she had no choice. It was thrust upon her by God, Himself, and she seems to bear up willingly and with a faithful heart.
But Joseph falls into a different category. His situation was far different than Mary’s in one key area…he could have walked away. I mean, after all, it wasn’t his baby. Even after it was revealed to him that the child was from God, he was under no obligation to hang around. But he did. We are told that, after a visit from an angel, “he took Mary home as his wife.”
It is easy to breeze right past that little nugget and not even notice it, but this is incredible. By making that decision, Joseph not only chose to honor his betrothal to Mary, but he chose to accept Jesus as his own son. And, in so doing, he implicated himself in the whole baby-making process. This man who seemed to consistently do the right thing suddenly became the guy who got his girlfriend pregnant, thus immersing himself as a key player in the scandal. Overnight, he became the guy that everyone thought had done the wrong thing simply because he did the right thing.
And that has me thinking, would I make the same decision as Joseph? Would I be willing to do the right thing even if it meant that everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) would think I had done the wrong thing? Or is the opinion of others too important to me? Would I be willing to let everyone think that I had blatantly sinned and be content with knowing that God knows the truth?
I hope so, but I wonder. I can be so hung up at times on what others think. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a follower and I have no problem going against the flow when I think I am right. But I have a handful (okay, a large handful) of people whom I respect and want them to respect me as well. And I find myself wondering if I would be willing to sacrifice their respect and friendship in order to simple obey God and do the right thing. Would I be okay standing solely in the approval of One? I want to be a Joseph kind of guy. I really do.
In light of Joseph’s story, I also thought about the child who caused the scandal…Jesus. About 33 years later He found Himself condemned, beaten, and nailed to a cross for doing the rightest thing that anyone has ever or could ever do. He was accused of being an ego-maniac, even as He made the most selfless sacrifice in human history. He was accused of being a cult leader, even while leading people back to the only true faith. And He was accused of being a liar, even though He was the Standard of Truth wrapped in human flesh. And, long before He stepped from eternity into human time, He knew that would be the response.
Tomorrow we will celebrate the fact that He chose to make that step anyway. And, in so doing, has given us the opportunity to know Him and, through that relationship, become the kind of people who will live for the approval of One and only One. Lord, help this to become true in me.
Merry Christmas!
Daryl, Wanda, Brittney, Krishauna, Teisha, Carissa, Taryn, Jeremiah, Joshua, Kimmie and Jonathan
