In Joseph's Shoes

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” The beginning of our Gospel lesson sounds so clinical, so matter-of-fact; and compared to the Gospel of Luke, Matthew does not say much about Christmas. What Luke takes over a hundred verses to talk about, Matthew boils down to the eight we have before us. But what Matthew has to say is quite a bit.

Mary and Joseph are betrothed to one another: unlike today where the vows take place the same day of the wedding, they have already promised their lifelong commitment before God and man, but their wedding day still lies in the future. They have pledged their faithfulness to one another—and now Mary is found to be with child. Such scandals are not unknown in the history of mankind, but Mary's explanation might be a first: she says the Child is from the Holy Spirit. Uh huh, replies the world; of course He is.

Given the evidence before him, Joseph could have Mary stoned to death; but he resolves instead to divorce her quietly. But as he considers these things, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and says, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

So begins the Incarnation, and note Joseph's position from the very beginning: he can go by what his eyes see or what his ears hear.

He can be perfectly rational, dump Mary, and not look like a two-timed, gullible fool; because a lot of people—including a lot of respectable people whose favor he might enjoy—are going to shake their heads and write him off if he believes her story and goes on with the marriage. So he can go by what he sees and leave Mary behind; or he can trust in the Word of God that the angel has told him and trust that he is going to be the stepfather of God.

The Incarnation of Jesus will always be like that. The people of God do not walk by sight, but by faith—and faith comes by hearing the Word of God. When Jesus is born, He will be the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. He will not look like the Son of God at all. His first visitors will not help appearances: they will be shepherds, because the angels have told them the Word of God first that their Savior is born.

When the Son of God stands in the crowd at the Jordan River, no one will know He is anything more than an ordinary man until John points Him out and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” It takes the Word to know the Savior.

On Calvary, everything people see with their eyes will indicate that Jesus is a nothing, about to be dead and gone. But even so, a Roman centurion will be the one to confess the faith despite all appearances: “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”

But back to our Gospel lesson, and this seemingly scandalous start to the Incarnation of Jesus. Why does God do things this way? Matthew tells you, and the answer should not surprise you by this fourth Sunday of Advent: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” God did things this way because God said He would do things this way. You heard the prophecy from Isaiah 7 in our Old Testament lesson: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.” Apart from God‟s Word, Joseph has every reason to dump Mary and never look back.

But now Joseph has the prophecy from Isaiah, and that Word is feeding his faith. He has the angel's preaching that Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit. By faith, what the world thinks of him from here on out does not matter, because he has the Lord's Word to trust. So Joseph takes Mary as his wife. She gives birth to a Son, and Joseph names Him Jesus.

Christmas is just a few days away now, and as we prepare for the festival of Jesus' birth, our matter-of-fact Gospel lesson provides you an excellent opportunity to strengthen your faith. Remember: you walk by faith, not by sight; the wonderful truths of this text will feed your faith so that you might trust in Christ even in spite of what you see.

For one thing, we take this opportunity to acknowledge what the Scriptures plainly say and what we confess in the creeds each Sunday morning: the virgin conceived and bore a Son. This was not just a scandalous idea back then, but it remains so today. The world loves to attack the virgin birth, in part because it hates purity and so it wants to defame Mary. But more than that, all of the Gospel is built upon the virgin birth: if Jesus is conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary, then He is both fully God and fully man.

But if He is conceived by a man and born of Mary, then He is just another baby. He is a human being in need of redemption. That makes Christmas a silly festival. Why would the whole world celebrate the birth of just another baby boy, when babies get born all the time? That means He cannot carry your sins to the cross and die in your place. It means He cannot rise again to give you eternal life, nor will He live and reign forever. Jesus is conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary for a reason, for you. Fully man, He is able to die in your place for your sin. Fully God, He is able to die for the sins of all, then rise again on the third day.

Even so-called Christian theologians today write careful treatises about how Jesus was not really born of a virgin.

In a world that mocks virginity and has cheapened intimacy down to an antidote for boredom, it may seem like a silly lost cause to defend the virgin birth. And actually, we do not defend it, nor do we try to explain it: we simply confess it—we say what God says about it. And to those who demand how such a thing can be, we have no better answer to give than what the angel said to Mary: “with men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible.”

You are in the same boat as Joseph on this one. Like Joseph, you can go with how this world “always works,” or go with what the Lord tells you in His Word. You will either reject His Word and walk by sight, or trust in Him and live by faith. Oh, rejoice to confess that Jesus is conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary—for He is so conceived and born in order to be your Savior. Jesus kept this prophecy, too, so that He might be the Messiah for you. In a time when Christians are demanding to know “What does this text mean for me?”, rejoice simply to hear what the text says: Jesus deigned to become man to be your Savior. This news strengthens your faith.

The second matter goes with the first: it is the name “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” The Messiah is not just a man sent from God. The miracle of Christmas is that God Himself has become man to save. The presence of God with man is a theme that arcs throughout the Scriptures. In the Garden of Eden before the fall into sin, God is with Adam and Eve; after the fall, sinful man cannot dwell with God in His glory. Man is separated from God by sin. But God does not wash His hands or shake the dust off His feet and leave us to the hell of eternal separation; nor does He thunder from the heavens, “You got yourselves into this mess—you get yourselves back out!” God is love, and God by nature is a servant; so He goes about the plan for our salvation.

He cloaks His glory in human flesh and is born of Mary to be with His people—and to be with His people to save them. Christmas is not just a cute story of a baby born in a stable. It is “stage one” of a long-planned rescue mission in which God comes into the world to save. Immanuel: “God with us.” That baby in Mary's womb is her creator—and your redeemer.

Along with the virgin birth, this is also a problem for the world—especially our western world. It is okay to have God up there in heaven and good men like Jesus down here on earth, but the thought that God would become man is just too much of a departure from normal. It is not rational: the universe works according to a set of scientific laws that we can understand. The idea that God would break into this world against those laws and dwell among us in flesh is a truth too illogical for many to bow the knee.

But yet it is the truth that our Gospel lesson proclaims—and not only did God become man, but He became man to be a servant of all, to save all by His sacrifice on the cross. The almighty, eternal Son of God took on flesh that could be flayed with a scourge, nailed to a cross and pierced with a spear in order to be your Savior. Once again, you are in the same position as Joseph in our text: you may go with what your eyes see and say, “God in the flesh and on a cross does not make sense, so I will look for another redeemer.” Or, by faith given in the Word of God, you can confess, “Greater love has no one than this, that the Son of God would become flesh and lay down His life to save me.”

Speaking of names, our third point is the name “Jesus.” It is the Greek New Testament version of the Old Testament name “Joshua,” and it means, “The LORD saves.” Where the name Immanuel tells you who this baby is, the name Jesus tells you what He has come to do: The LORD has come to save. Specifically, He has come to save you from your sins. That is what the angel tells Joseph, and this is important to remember.

Jesus has not come to save you from higher taxes, poor business practices, awkward social moments, low self-esteem or bad habits. He has come to save you from your sins. That trips many people up, for they want a Savior to deliver them from whatever they perceive to be their greatest problem. But the greatest problem for anyone is sin, its ongoing attacks and its wages, death. Jesus is born to defeat these enemies for you. He may well permit these other trials to afflict you, perhaps for a lengthy time. It is not because He does not love you or that He has not come to save you. It is because you and I are so prone to forget about our need for His mercy and grace, that we are so quick to fall in love with the things of this world rather than the kingdom of heaven to come. But the things of this world are passing away, for they are all corrupted by sin. Jesus came to save you from your sins; and if He delivers you from those, then He will deliver you from all the other things that afflict you as well.

And remember: “Jesus” means “The LORD saves.” If it is the one true God who saves you, there is no one who can undo what He does. He has the final Word. When the devil tempts you to think that Jesus has not really saved you from your sin, you are free to say to that liar, “Jesus says He has saved me—the same Jesus who already defeated you at the cross. There is no way you can cancel what He says or what He has done.” If the LORD saves you, then salvation is yours.

In the same shoes as Joseph, it is especially in trial that you will be tempted to walk by sight, to say “I will trust in God when I see some results, when I see Him deliver me from this trial. I will believe it when I see it.” But the Lord grants you faith to say, “I know that the Lord has saved me from my sin already, and so He will deliver me from the rest of my trials.”

Our fourth and final matter is this: Jesus remains Immanuel, “God with us.” He is not “God used to be here.”

The season of Advent keeps telling us that the Lord Jesus is not far away, but He keeps breaking into this world, keeps visiting His people. When St. John's Gospel describes the Incarnation, it declares, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus, the Word made flesh, is present in His Word, saving from sin and giving salvation. Likewise, Jesus is never more Immanuel than in His Supper, where He gives you His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins—the same body and blood conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. It is by His Word and Supper that you know He says, “I have not just come to save the world, but I have come to save you. You can be sure, because I give you this salvation now.” You know this by faith, faith in Jesus' words, “This is My body.” Eyes see bread. Faith sees Christ present—body, blood and all. He remains Immanuel, “God with us,” as near as His Word and Supper.

I pray that this season of Advent has been a helpful time of preparing for Christmas. In these four weeks, you have heard again and again how Jesus proves Himself the Messiah by fulfilling the Word of God. You have heard that He comes to defeat sin, to reverse its curse, to save you from sin, give you salvation, and ultimately raise you up to eternal life—free from every sickness and affliction. Today, you stand in Joseph's shoes: you have not seen, but the Lord tells you—and as He tells you His salvation for you, He gives you the faith to believe it. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. And may the Lord bless your celebration of His birth, for in that manger is the Son of God. He is Immanuel, “God with us.” He is Jesus, the LORD come to save us from our sin. And because God is with you to save, you are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of Jesus. Amen