Joseph’s Great Commission

First published December 8, 2020

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: after His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,

and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

— Matthew 1:18-25

Can you think of a less heralded man in the Bible than Joseph?

He doesn’t have much more than a “walk-on” role in this Divine Drama, but Joseph provides us with the perfect role model for nurturing Jesus and presenting Him to the world. It would require faith, obedience, firmness and over all, humility. It was Joseph’s Great Commission. God is the Father, but Joseph was “dad”. SPOILER ALERT: he pulled it off.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

— Luke 2:52

People who are “in favor with God” are not usually also “in favor with men”. Look at how the ancient prophets were considered. So it would take a strong dad, a good earthly role model, to raise a child who was, essentially, a good kid. So what made Joseph the right man for the job?

For one thing, Joseph was righteous, but not religious. When he discovered Mary was pregnant, he knew what the religious folks would expect him to do: cast her out. But he was a just man: he also knew what could happen to a woman who got pregnant by one man while she was engaged to another, and he would not want that to happen to Mary. It’s clear that he loved Mary and that their marriage was not an arranged one. If it had been, it would have been more likely that Joseph would have called everything off and probably gone after Mary’s father, for trying to saddle him with a slut. And in the process, Mary could have been stoned to death. No matter what, Joseph, the just man, would not have wanted that to happen.

(Remember that, years later, his Son would be challenged by Pharisees about a woman “taken in adultery” and due to be stoned to death.)

Indeed, Joseph’s love for Mary made him all the more willing to listen to the angel Gabriel when he showed up. Of course, the way Gabriel addressed him would have gotten his attention. “Joseph, son of David …” Matthew tells us that Joseph’s father was Jacob (1:16), so Gabriel was alerting Joseph to the fact that what he was about to hear related to his being from the lineage of “the branch of Jesse”.

Joseph’s craft tells us a lot about his fitness for the job. He was a carpenter. He was not a goldsmith or a silversmith — symbols of wealth and privilege — or even a blacksmith, turning out weaponry and shoes for horses — a symbol of war; he worked in wood, that most common of building materials.

A carpenter has to follow instructions and not deviate from the plans. One has to know that the chair will stay intact when someone sits in it, that the shelf will hold more than one magazine and that the table will be level. But at the same time, he or she has to have authority and confidence in the execution: when he said, for example, “We have to get out of here and get to Egypt — now!“, there was no contradicting him.

There was no contradicting him, either, when he named the child “Jesus”. Luke tells us that, when John the Baptist was born and Zacharias was still unable to speak, others in the family were surprised when Elizabeth told them the child would be called “John”. Tradition held that a child would be named after an ancestor, and there was no one else named John in the family. But Zacharias put his foot down and wrote, “His name is John” (at which point his power of speech returned), following Gabriel’s instructions.

In the same way, there was no one in Jesus’ lineage named “Jesus”, or even “Joshua” (Matthew’s and Luke’s lists of Jesus’ ancestors differ in a lot of ways, but they both agree on that point): so Joseph was non-religious enough that he, too, went against that tradition.

And there was one other thing that made Joseph the Right Man for this job: he was humble. Despite the adulation by the shepherds and the Magi, despite the prophecies spoken in the Temple when Jesus was circumcised, despite the teachers in the Temple marvelling at this twelve-year-old’s wisdom, Joseph did not parade Him about, saying, “this is the Son of God, folks! My boy: the Son of God!” In fact, Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph did not understand it when Jesus said, I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49-50). Talk about “decreasing” so He will “increase”!

Nope. Like a model father, Joseph raised Jesus as a worldly dad is called to do.

Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it.

— Proverbs 22:6

In short*, Joseph had the ultimate assignment to “be God’s hands and feet” on earth.

There was one other thing that made Joseph a perfect father and a role model for us: he obeyed the governing authorities. Often, you’ll see professing Christians make a public show of defying what they see as unjust or unGodly laws (the current restrictions on public gatherings and requirements to wear a mask due to COVID, for example), but that goes against what we are told in Scripture. Joseph was obedient. He shlepped his pregnant wife all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census and taxation. That’s a trek of over 100 kilometres as the crow flies, and much longer by the actual roads at the time. It would have been a “cruel and unusual” decree, but Joseph obeyed.

What does this all mean for us? Just like Joseph, we are called to present Jesus to the world. It’s up to us to ensure that He finds favor with men (people), by living and walking in His grace, love and non-judgmentalism. We’re the ones who have to walk in faith and obedience — both to God and governing authorities — and in general, live so that people see what we do and rather than pat us on the back, glorify God.

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*Too late!