Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and redeemer.

Immanuel, God is with us!

What a wonderful promise from Isaiah, fulfilled in Matthew with the birth of Jesus to a virgin called Mary.  This promise is repeated in the very last verse of Matthew by Jesus himself; And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Jesus is with us, right now, here as we worship.

Jesus is with you when you get up in the morning, when you go about your daily business, when you go to bed at night.  He never stops being with us.

The gospel writer Matthew loves to point out the many times where Jesus fulfills prophesies from many years ago.  He begins doing so in his first chapter.  He recognizes that Mary is the ‘virgin, giving birth to a son, called Immanuel’ as the one spoken of by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 7.

The Lord, through Isaiah, was speaking to King Ahaz of Judah when under attack from Syria and Israel.  Jerusalem and the royal family are under siege.   Ahaz doesn’t want a sign from God, because he wasn’t trusting God to save them.  He had already approached Assyria’s King, Tiglath Pileser, to ‘save him’ from the threat.

But God says he is going to give Ahaz a sign anyway.  It must have sounded like a very strange sign, a virgin giving birth to a son named Immanuel.

A sign not fulfilled for many years.  But Matthew remembers the prophesy and the promise and attributes it to Jesus.

Jesus – God saves.  Jesus, Immanuel – God with us.

This is the message that the Lord’s angel gives Joseph in a dream, to assure him that Mary was his loyal betrothed, that God was at work, she had not conceived through an adulterous affair.  Rather she was carrying God’s own son, sent to save the world from their sin.  Joseph is told to call the child ‘Jesus’, meaning God saves.

The gospel of Luke focuses on Mary’s story and visitation by the Angel Gabriel, while Matthew focuses on Joseph and speaks of Joseph being visited by an angel three times.  After Jesus is born, Joseph is warned to take his family to Egypt and then again told by an angel when the time was right for them to return to Nazareth.

Each time Joseph listens and obeys the angels’ instructions.

We read that Joseph is a kind and compassionate man.  When he discovers that Mary, his betrothed, is pregnant he had in his mind to divorce her quietly.

He was faithful to the law but did not want to expose her to public disgrace.

Naturally he thought that Mary had committed adultery.  He obviously hadn’t had sexual relations with her, so it must have been someone else.  According to Deuteronomy 22 he had every right to have Mary stoned at the city gate.  Although by this time under Roman law the Jews were no longer permitted to do this, but still it was his right to divorce her, and to publicly humiliate and disgrace her.

Joseph is kind and doesn’t want to cause Mary harm in this way, but he is also a righteous man who seeks to follow the law, hence his decision to divorce her quietly.

After considering this, his decision is changed when visited by an angel who informs him that he is to take Mary as his wife, that she is not an adulteress, but has conceived through the Holy Spirit.

We hear of no response from Joseph, only that he is obedient to the angel’s command.   

As with almost every angel encounter this angel begins his conversation with ‘do not be afraid’.   But rather than ‘do not be afraid of me’ it seems to be more tied to ‘do not be afraid…to take Mary home as your wife’.

I think he is assuring Joseph that in God’s eyes he would be doing the right thing to carry on and marry Mary.  Joseph initially thought that the ‘righteous’ thing to do was to follow the law and divorce Mary and being kind he would do the ‘right thing’ by her and do it quietly.

But God tells him otherwise.  Joseph and Mary have together been chosen to be the earthly parents of Jesus.  Mary was favoured by God, and Joseph was a good, kind and righteous man who followed God’s commands.  And he was of the right lineage to be Jesus’ earthly father.

The gospel writer Matthew knows all about that.  The saviour had been prophesied to be born of King David’s line.

Immediately preceding the scripture passage we heard this morning, is the opening of Matthews gospel with a long genealogy of Jesus.  He begins with Abraham and carries on to David and then finishes with ‘Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.’

The final words are cleverly written.  They put Joseph in David’s line, but don’t say that he is the ‘father’ of Jesus, but rather that he was married to Mary who gave birth to Jesus.

It is important to Matthew to point out that Jesus is God’s son, not conceived in the normal way with earthly parents.  Hence, he says that while Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph (this is even a tighter commitment to the term ‘engaged’ we use), it was ‘before they came together’ ie before they had sexual relations, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Mary must have told him that it was the Holy Spirit, but it would have seemed a very fanciful story to Joseph.  Can you put yourself in his shoes for a minute?  How would you have reacted?

We don’t really get much of a picture of Joseph, we don’t hear his words.  We just see his actions.  As we know actions can speak louder than words.

Aside from his planned kindness toward Mary to try and limit her disgrace, we just know that after he wakes from the dream where he had met with the angel, he just did what the angel commanded.

Joseph is kind and obedient to God.  He is a righteous, God-fearing Jew who would have known the scriptures.  Like the gospel writer Matthew, did Joseph reflect on the words from Isaiah 7 and recognize that Mary was the virgin who would give birth to a son called Immanuel.

I think maybe Joseph did believe this.  I think Joseph knew that God was with him.  He had been visited by an angel of the Lord in his dreams.  Rather than do what other Jewish men would have expected him to do, he trusted and was obedient to God.  While saving Mary from scandal, he might then have copped some himself.

Joseph also seems to be the perfect gentleman.  After taking Mary as his wife, he did not presume to be sexually intimate with her until after the birth.

Again, Matthew clearly states this so no-one can suggest that Jesus is their naturally conceived son.  Jesus was supernaturally conceived.

Jesus is God’s son…Immanuel – God with us.

Joseph continues his obedience to the commands from the angel in his dream and when the baby is born, he names the baby ‘Jesus’ meaning God saves.

Mary’s role is to bear a son, and Joseph’s role is to name him.  By naming him he makes Jesus part of his family line, the house of David.

The name Jesus is related to the name Joshua.  We have recently studied the book of Joshua, the successor of Moses.  Joshua was used by God to lead people into the promised land and to save them from their enemies.

How will Jesus save us?  The angel tells Joseph that this baby will save people from their sins.

Joseph accepted his role in God’s plan, seemingly without question.  We can only imagine him wondering how on earth this little baby, who appeared on the outside to be like any other baby, was going to save people from their sins.

Joseph put his trust in God.  We understand he played the role of caring for Jesus as a young boy, bringing him up in the faith, taking him to the temple, teaching him carpentry skills.  Once Jesus has begun his ministry, we don’t hear anything more of Joseph, while we do keep hearing of Mary.  We can presume that Joseph must have died.  He was most likely several years older than Mary.

Joseph didn’t see Jesus turning water into wine or healing the sick and casting out demons.  He didn’t see Jesus crucified as King of the Jews or raised to life on the third day.  But the gospel writer Matthew tells us the story from the beginning to the end of Jesus’ time on earth.  Matthew tells us how Jesus saves us from our sins by taking them upon himself and putting them to death on the cross.  Matthew tells us that Jesus rose again, showing that he was indeed God, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, he was not the natural son of Joseph and Mary.

Matthew affirms his opening message that this baby who came to save us, who came to live as God present in the world, is still with us today.  Jesus promises that he will be with us to the very end of the age.   He sends the Holy Spirit to live in us, to be with us always.

Jesus’ message comes with a command to his disciples and to us, will we hear his message and obey like Joseph?

Jesus’ command in Matthew 28 is to ‘go and make disciples of all nations…, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you to the very end of the age’.

We may not all be public evangelists or preachers, but we are all called to follow and obey God in the way he has gifted us.  Joseph is an example of a quiet, faithful follower of God.  He brought his family up in the faith.  He was good and kind, he was chosen by God to be part of his story.

This Christmas, knowing that God is with us, calling us to follow and obey him, will we follow Jesus’ command and tell others about the good news of Jesus…the real reason for celebrating Christmas.  Myers advertising is ‘The season is the reason’ (to spend money on gifts) but, we know that Jesus is the reason for the season. Tell others that God loves them, and that Jesus is the gift we celebrate.

So many in our world today do not know this message.  As I spoke to the kids at our carols last Sunday night, one child asked ‘who is Jesus’?

How will they know if we don’t tell them?

Let’s pray:  God thank you for sending Jesus to be born and raised by faithful earthly parents, Mary, and Joseph.  May we be obedient to you as they were.

As we celebrate Jesus this Christmas, may we remember that he is the one who saves us and is Immanuel, the one who is always with us, filling us with his love, joy, hope and peace.  Help us to share with others his gift to us this Christmas and always.  In his saving name we pray.  Amen.