We just read
Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus.
Interestingly though, nothing is said about… the birth of Jesus! Jesus
will be the main character of the story Matthew is about to tell but his birth
doesn’t seem to be about him. Verse 25,
where his birth is actually mentioned, is more about Joseph and Mary’s
relationship than anything else.
We can take this
story several directions. I think it is
insightful to look at a tension that is happening in the background. It probably was a tension in the lives of
Matthew’s original readers. And it may be
for us too. We see it in the actions of
Joseph.
We learn that Joseph
and Mary are engaged to be married, but then Mary is “found to be with child
from the Holy Spirit.” Joseph, we are told, is a righteous man. And there is the tension. What should a righteous man do in this situation?
When we hear the
word “righteous” our minds may think of someone who is self-righteous,
holier-than-thou, and altogether a pain to be around. But that is not the way Joseph is
described. Righteousness here means a
just man. He has built his life around decency
and honesty. He’s good. He’s kind.
He wants to honor both God and the people around him. For guys like Joseph, honoring God means
sincerely trying to live by the myriad of religious laws. They were a means to be in right relationship
with God.
But Mary’s
pregnancy creates a problem. Their
engagement was a binding arrangement. You
couldn’t just break an engagement the way you can today. Maybe they weren’t technically married yet
(marriage being when they began living together) but as we see in verse 19 when
we read, “Her husband Joseph…” the terms husband and wife apply to them.
We know nothing
of Mary’s side of things. That’s all in
Luke’s gospel. Here we get Joseph’s
side. What should he do with this
obviously unfaithful woman? It is clear
that she is not trustworthy. I mean, how
blind would he have to be if he still trusted her!?! There is no way he can build a healthy family
with this woman. But what to do with
her?
This is more than
just the risk of her being disgraced.
According to Deuteronomy 22:23-27 the religious laws required that she
be killed. The people of Israel were to
rid themselves of unfaithfulness in any form.
While history tells us this was seldom enforced, and it wasn’t really
done at Mary and Joseph’s time, this could still truly be a life and death
situation for her!
What should
Joseph do? He obviously loves her. And while he may be brokenhearted by her
unfaithfulness, he does not want her hurt or disgraced. Even that would ruin her life. But he also can’t trust her as a wife.
Keep this dilemma
in mind in the months ahead as we read through Matthew’s gospel. Over and over again we’re going to encounter
a conflict between technical righteousness and, let’s call it,… fundamental
decency. And over and over again we’re
going to find that fundamental decency wins out.
How do you handle
it when the rules demand one thing, but decency says another thing?
The story of
Marion Hungerford is a good example. She
is a late middle aged woman who has some serious mental health issues. A psychiatrist assessed her to have a “very
low capacity to assess reality” and “a very low level of intellectual
functioning.” Her long time husband
eventually left her and she began a relationship with a man with whom she
helped commit a series of armed robberies.
Her role in the crimes to was drive the getaway car and sometimes case
the places they were to hit. She never
actually participated in the robberies themselves and never handled the
gun. No one was every actually shot or hurt
in their robberies. Together they stole
less than $10 thousand. When they got
caught his sentence was 32 years. Her
sentence as a first time offender: a mandatory minimum 159 years in federal
prison.
I’m not going to
try to explain all the legal quirks that caused this mandatory sentence, for
though the judge said he thought it was unfair his hands were tied. I think we would all agree that while she
helped commit some serious crimes, and indeed she needs to be held accountable,
a first time offender with limited mental capacity who never actually did
anything violent does not deserve that kind of punishment. The letter of the law requires a punishment
beyond fundamental decency.
Fortunately for
Marion, her case was reviewed, a new prosecutor was appointed, and he actually
worked hard to have her sentence reduced to seven years. That, I think, is more in line with
fundamental decency.
That example, and
the second prosecutors actions take us to where our faith will take us in how
we live our lives.
Notice in the
gospel how Joseph, a faithful Jew, is thinking and preparing to act. Not all Jews are going to be like the
Pharisees and Sadducees who are sticklers for technical adherence to the
law. Many Jews are like Joseph, seeking
to truly live with decency, true integrity, and basic mercy.
Had Joseph not
had the dream which changes his mind about Mary I’m sure he would have
dismissed Mary as quietly and discretely as possible.
Sometimes people
describe the Old Testament as being full of wrath and the New Testament as
being filled with mercy, but that is an oversimplification. There is wrath in both testaments, and there
is mercy too. The real difference is
subtle, but you can see it in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew doesn’t
want us to think that Jesus has come to upend Judaism. He has not come to abolish the laws. He has not come to throw out the past or to
say it was wrong. Matthew wants us to
see Jesus as God’s next step – God’s ultimate step – in being in relationship
with people.
In the early
chapters of the gospel we’re going to see several things where Jesus is being
portrayed as the new Moses. You’ll
remember from the Old Testament that Moses is the one who receives the
religious laws from God. And those laws
are not so much about teaching what is right and what is wrong, as they are
about showing people how to be in a good and healthy relationship with God.
They teach God’s ideals, how to make
them reality, and how to fix things when something goes wrong. While we may think them harsh by today’s
standards, they really reflect similar legal codes of the time and actually
have lots of areas that show mercy.
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, “Do not
think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to
abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell
you until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a
letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
Yes, Jesus affirms the law in its
entirety. He does not condemn it. There is no condemnation for it. When we read the sermon on the mount we
discover that Jesus actually makes the law even more strict than its
letter. You’ll remember him teaching,
“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not
murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you
that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to
judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable…” and he goes on.
And who among us never gets
angry? Such a demand is impossible. Jesus takes the religious laws and pushes
them to such an extreme that everyone is caught in condemnation. That then, sets up the difference between the
Old Testament and the New Testament. To
pull in Romans 3, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And if all have sinned and fall short, then
all are in need of God’s grace.
That is the
trajectory that Matthew will follow. In
the birth story of Jesus we see that without Jesus there is still mercy and
kindness from an upstanding Jewish man.
But by the time we see the crucifixion at the end of the story we’ve
learned that kindness is not for kindness sake.
We are not driven to niceness because we want to be nice people. We are driven to see the world and act from
our brokenness before God and our need for grace.
The difference is subtle, but
profound. If you’re driven to be a nice
person then no matter how hard you try, if you succeed at being nice, you’ll
ultimately become arrogant and feel superior.
Whereas if you are driven to kindness and mercy because you know you are
undeservedly receiving it from God, then you will give and not feel
superior. Your giving will be
authentic. You will not look down upon
others. You will know when to reach out
and when to work hard. You will be able
to help hold people accountable for their actions while not being too harsh nor
too lenient.
Joseph receives a dream. We are usually drawn to the first part of the
dream which tells him to accept Mary. We
then forget what is an equally important part, “You are to name him
Jesus.” Which means, “he saves”.
Jesus’ coming will be God with
us. God with is not to destroy but to
save. God with us to establish a
relationship built on God’s eternal goodness and our need for it; rather than
our abilities to be good.
