Matthew 1:18-25
“Our Divine Companion”
A woman was driving during a heavy snow and did not know where she
was. She was driving an old Honda Civic and kept losing her way because she
didn’t have directions. Then she got on a road usually reserved for four wheel drive
trucks. Eventually she found herself in a truck stop. Two truckers came to her and
ask her, "Where are you headed?" She replied, "Whitehorse." The trucker laughed.
"In that little Civic? No way! The pass is dangerous in weather like this." "Well,
I’m determined to try" she told them. "Then I guess we’re going to have to hug
you," the trucker told her. She immediately said to them, "There’s no way I’m
going to let you touch me." The trucker laughed, "Not like that. We’ll put one truck
in front of you and one in the rear. That way we’ll get you through the mountains."
That entire day she followed two red dots in the fog in front of her, as the two
trucks hugged her Honda Civic through the dangerous pass as she made her
journey to her destination.
This is how life was for us before we met Jesus Christ. We were traveling
on slippery slopes, on dark roads, and we kept losing our way with wrong choices
and poor decisions. We had no sense of direction. We were lost and confused.
We were not sure of anything. We had more questions than answers. What is life?
How should we live? How should we treat people who wrong us? What decisions
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should we make? Should we go against popular opinion? Are the majority always
right? Should we stand up for what we believe in and believe in what we stand up
for? We were confused and had no guidance, until we met Jesus and he became
our way, and the light on our path.
This is how it was for Joseph. Joseph and Mary were engaged to be married.
According to the tradition of the time, a young girl had to be a virgin when she got
married because it meant purity. If she was not, she would be considered a
disgrace to her family. The man could return her to her family and demand an
explanation. In some places a woman who was not a virgin was stoned to death or
killed by other means to restore honor to the family. So you can imagine Joseph’s
shock when he found out Mary was pregnant while they were engaged to be
married.
When Joseph discovered Mary was already pregnant, he was bothered by it.
But the Bible described him as a just man, a man who always did what was right.
Yes, he knew what the tradition said, and yes, he knew he could make a big deal
out of this situation and disgrace Mary’s entire family. But Joseph decided it was
not necessary to disgrace Mary and her family. You know, Church, sometimes the
decisions we make in life may not be the most popular ones. The decision may be
whether to save people from embarrassment and shame or disgrace them for a
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mistake they made; should we protect the good name of others and keep them from
humiliation and dishonor or drag their name in the mud? Joseph decided it would
not help him to discredit Mary and her family.
So, rather than doing what everyone else would have done by dragging Mary
to the public square and dragging her family’s name in the mud, Joseph decided he
would handle this quietly. He would break off the engagement quietly and move
on with his life. While he was thinking about how to handle this without calling
attention to Mary’s family, an angel of God came to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Her
child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you
will name him, Jesus, because he will save his people from sins.”
Joseph’s confusion suddenly disappeared and he knew what he had to do.
The decision to quietly send Mary back to her family turned into the bold act of
accepting her as his wife. It was not the popular decision but when we decide to
follow the will of God, it will not always be the most popular decisions. While the
world shuns the homeless, God tells us to welcome them. While the poor face so
many discriminations, Jesus calls on us to reach out to them. While the culture of
his time said “Don’t marry Mary,” Joseph was obedient to the message from God.
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In telling this history, Matthew added his understanding of what happened to
Mary and Joseph was a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 7 when he
declared a virgin would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit and have a son
who will be “Immanuel” meaning “God with us.” This was an extraordinary time.
Before the birth of Jesus, God spoke through the prophets, but something amazing
was taking place. The birth of Jesus meant that God was doing something never
before done in the history of the world, in the history of all religions.
In America, people often say, “”If you want to get something done, you have
to do it yourself.” This is what God was doing. God has sent Moses, Aaron,
Joshua, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so many prophets to bring
the world back into relationship and restore the fellowship that Adam and Eve
destroyed in the Garden of Eden. Now God was coming to restore that broken
fellowship and establish a complete and perfect relationship with God. God was
taking on human form to enter our world and live as one of us. God was coming to
experience our pain, our hurts, our joys and our humanity. His name would be
Jesus, “One who saves,” but he would also be “Immanuel,” “God with us.
God was coming to be our divine companion. A song goes, “It’s not an easy
road, we are travelling to heaven and many are the toils on the way. It’s not an
easy road, but the savior is with us, his presence gives us joy every day.” God was
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coming to walk with us each day and to be our constant friend so we never have to
ever be alone. Joseph was confused when they were engaged and he realized Mary
was already pregnant. But God helped him understand that Jesus would need an
earthly father and a family to be a part of. When he received the message, he
obeyed.
This would not be the last time Joseph would obey directions from God.
When Jesus was two years old and King Herod realized the three wise men had not
returned to him, he decided to kill all the boys who were born around the time of
the visit of these men. God sent another message to Joseph and told him to take
Jesus to Egypt. Joseph was obedient to God so Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to
Egypt as refugees because Herod wanted to kill the child.
With the birth of Christ, a new era was beginning. It was an era in which God
would be our divine companion to give us guidance and to show us Jesus cares for
us. An author explained in a poem about How much Jesus cares for us. The poem
reads: When you think you're alone
In the middle of the night,
When you've just had an awful dream
And you're shivering with fright,
You lie there alone and scared
And wonder if anyone cares.
If you look into your heart
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You'll always find Me there.
Sometimes life is just too hard
And you need to get away.
You need someone to talk to
Who will listen to what you say,
Someone who will let you know
That they'll always be there.
When you can't find anyone
Just remember that I care.
When there is nowhere else to go
You can always come to Me
I promise that I'll be there
In your greatest hour of need.
I'm sure you can find Me
If you take the time for prayer.
When the whole world seems to hate you
Just remember that I care.
ABC television has a program called, “What Would You Do?” In this
program, strangers are suddenly forced to watch embarrassing situations and they
have to decide what to do in this situation. Some of the embarrassing scenes have
been one where a shop owner refusing to sell to a woman because she is a Muslim;
another one was a woman yelling at her daughter in public because she says the
girl was overweight; there were mean girls bullying another girl in public, or senior
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citizens being abused where everyone could see. Although these scenes are set up,
in real life there are some real moral dilemmas that we will face each and every
day. What would you do if you faced one of those hard decisions in life? These
are called, “Moral dilemmas” where you are caught between a rock and a hard
place. Joseph faced a moral dilemma but God helped him do what others would not
have done. Today, we are blessed as Joseph was because we have a divine
companion, a very special friend in Jesus, who will help us make the right
decisions and do the right thing when the time comes. It may not always be
popular, but God is not in the popularity business. It may not always be acceptable
by all, but when the Holy Spirit convicts us it is the right thing to do, and we are
sure beyond a doubt this is God’s will, may we trust our divine companion and act
boldly for the sake of the Kingdom of God. May the Spirit give us a clear vision
on the road of life we travel to find our way to do God’s will as Joseph did, and
may God bless us all, amen.
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