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| Joseph's dream |
MATTHEW 1
Hopes and dreams
Fourteen generations. Between Abraham,
David, the Babylonian Exile and Jesus; this number is significant. It signifies
blessing and perfection. In the earthiness of it all is the holy (Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob). In the tragedy and sorrow there is yet joy (Uriah and Bathsheba
and David; the ransomed of the Lord are redeemed, the returning exiles).
And into the mystery of this
long-enduring salvation plan, enter Joseph and Mary and an internal drama of
doubt, despair, loyalty, faithfulness and obedience to an inner prompting in
the dark recesses of the dream-world of night. A fiancée tells her
husband-to-be that she is pregnant. We don’t hear her voice. We just are
plunged into his turmoil. What to do? He plans to do all he can to protect Mary
from scandal and gossip. He plans to ‘quietly’ do things to break the
engagement while, somehow, sheltering Mary from becoming an outcast in her
home, her village, her family. This much we know. He has made up his mind.
Then he sleeps on it. And in his dream, the
first of four key dreams for this Joseph, we learn that God has a different
message, a different way forward. Joseph had resolved to do things quietly –
not in a rage or out of concern for his own honour.
And so, out of a very human domestic
drama springs the salvation plan for the whole world. Out of the dream-world of
a worried man springs hope for the nations. Out of the silence of the night
comes the earth-shattering message – marry Mary for she is the mother of God.
The Holy Spirit brings hope. The Holy
Spirit gives birth to hope. The Holy Spirit is the go-between God, who links
heaven and earth. The Holy Spirit makes sense out of turmoil. God with us.
My heart always goes out to Joseph, usually standing at the back in the ceramic Christmas tableaux, behind the action with the shepherds and even the sheep taking centre stage worshipping Jesus. He is eclipsed by the wise men with their rich gifts and rich clothes. Yet Joseph, as Matthew tells us, was a righteous man, whose actions were dictated by his relationship with God. So close was that bond that God became part of his dreams, and he allowed God to dictate the actions he took to protect and nurture the young child. More dreams would come when the baby was liable to be killed, and when it was safe to return home, but again he responded to the voice of God.
ReplyDeleteJoseph proved to be righteous, but also a wise man and a shepherd to his new family. Perhaps he represents all of us in the Christmas story, an ordinary person with a quiet role, less glamorous, but no less important, in those events. So spare him a thought for his faith, his humble acceptance and his quietly heroic actions. Although he disappears from the gospels after a few chapters, without him hearing the voice of God, and responding to it, there may have been no Gospel to proclaim!
I'm drawn to the even less glamorous women in the genealogy. I wasn't sure who Tamar was but found a rather strange story in Genesis 38. Not at all glamorous to become pregnant by your father in law while pretending to be a prostitute. Then there's Rahab, another prostitute; Ruth,a Moabite foreigner, the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba, who David seduced, committed adultery with, and then had Uriah killed; and Mary, an unmarried pregnant mother. Matthew includes all these unlikely women in God's loving plan of salvation without passing a word of condemnation. God so loved the world that he came to save us not condemn us.
DeleteI am using a New Living Life application study bible and the how's and why's interest me. In the comments I read that Matthew traced the genealogy back to Abraham because he wrote to the Jews. Like wrote to the Gentiles, so he emphasized Jesus as the Savior of all.
ReplyDeleteThere were probably more generations than the ones listed here, the father can be translated as ancestor.
And the Jewish marriage really surprised me. There were three steps. First the two families agreed to the union. Second a public announcement was made at which point the couple were engaged, like an engagement today except that their relationship could be broken only through death or divorce, even though sexuality relations had not yet been permitted. Third, the couple were married and began living together. Because of Mary's condition, Joseph could have divorced her and the Jewish authorities could have had her stoned to death.
This all sounds very barbaric to us today.
Sorry about the predicted text.
ReplyDeleteThe five women in the genealogy are a remarkable combination. Tamar was a Canaanite, Rahab a prostitute, Ruth a Moabite, Bathsheba a woman who was ignominiously stolen by David, and Mary was accused of scandal. The five accounts of each respectively repay study. As it was unusual to include women in a genealogy, their inclusion cannot be without a purpose: three non-Hebrews, a prostitute, a glamorous woman moved as an object from one man to another, after the murder of the first - and then Mary. It's still a list mainly of men, but the women in it speak loudly to many a contemporary situation. They are part of the ‘make-up’, so to speak, of the person of Christ we follow
ReplyDeleteMore personally, I first heard this expounded in 1990 in a black Pentecostal church in Chicago. I was on Sabbatical leave, seeing how Black Theology was being taught in the US; the preacher was the first Pentecostal minister I’d heard and he was obviously as well educated theologically as his counterparts in more ‘mainstream’ denominations. His refrain, I remember, was “Whatcha sayin’ Matthew?" which, I noted, is a critically informed question. He was not ‘reading off’ from the text as simply words dictated by God, but was acknowledging the 'incarnate’ nature of Scripture.
I love the way God uses the fallen, people who are outsiders and imperfect to bring about his will. These were outsiders,intruders, never at home even in their country of origin. May God use us all through our imperfections and strangeness, as He did these women and men . I like to remember Daniel, a Jew and a great leader in a pagan land. I am sure he wondered why God placed him where He did.
ReplyDelete