Matthew 1:18-25
Midweek Advent 2021
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace Lutheran Church
The Angelic Announcement to Joseph God Is with Us Dear Friends in Christ, you who are waiting for the Savior to come, Joseph and Mary had done everything right. They were promised to be married to each other. They had taken vows, which were binding just like marriage vows are for us, but they weren’t fully married yet according to their culture. According to their customs, breaking their promises to each other would have required a legal divorce. Scripture is careful to point out that they were not living as husband and wife; they were not sleeping together. This too was in accordance with their marriage customs. They would fully be man and wife sometime later after a marriage celebration with family and friends. God tells us and leaves us with the picture of both Mary and Joseph as god-fearing, righteous people. So, it is no surprise that though they certainly loved each other, they respected God’s will for marriage. Imagine Joseph’s shock and disappointment then, when he found out that Mary was pregnant. This was not the person Joseph thought he was marrying. How could she? We have been so influenced by a sinfully-relaxed view of sex and parenthood in our culture that we’re hardly offended when we hear that an unmarried couple is expecting or that a young woman is pregnant and doesn’t know who the dad is. We’re happy for the couple, and our heart goes out to the girl. Of course, God feels differently about all of this. He calls these things “sin.” And that is how it was viewed by God’s people back in Jesus’ time. So, this was a very serious situation. Joseph had options. He certainly would not be bound to fulfill his promise to marry this unfaithful woman. As I understand it, he could have followed the Old Testament law and had Mary stoned to death for being an adulteress, but it would have had to have been done outside the view of the Romans who had restricted this. But I think we see love in his reaction to this unexpected and devastating news. He cared enough about her to not have her killed or even disgraced publicly. In the most loving action he could take, he intended to make use of one of the Jewish laws pertaining to divorce. He would gather a few trusted friends as witnesses and present Mary with a written notice of divorce. He wouldn’t have even had to list a reason—and no doubt Joseph had no intention of doing so. That would have only embarrassed her. Only love could have moved him to take the most private, quiet, legal action to dissolve their marriage. Perhaps if you or I were stung with news of betrayal like that from the one we love, we would not be so kind and loving in return. Our sinful natures might prompt us to lash out in mean and hurtful ways. Just consider the sinful moments of revenge we’ve been guilty of in the past—or the vengeful thoughts we may have in our hearts right now. But that’s not the way Joseph responded to Mary.
It was this loving, righteous man that God the Father chose to be the earthly father of the coming Savior. The kind of love and concern Joseph showed as he was blindsided by the news of Mary’s pregnancy was exactly the kind of love the coming baby Savior would need in an earthly dad. Our loving heavenly Father provided that love and care in this righteous man named Joseph. In order for Joseph to not follow through on his plans to quietly divorce Mary, God sent an angel to him. His message was unusual. In fact, it was a one-of-a-kind announcement: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The angel’s announcement to Joseph was as simple as it was strange to hear. Mary would have a baby, but he would be God’s son—not Joseph’ or another man’s. He would be the One the prophets foretold—the Messiah who would save the people from their sins. Even though he would have never guessed that he would be involved, Joseph knew about this! Joseph was a righteous man who was looking forward to the promised Messiah. He knew the words of Isaiah that the gospel writer Matthew shares with us here: “Look, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will name him Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.” The angel announced that Joseph would serve as the earthly father for the Messiah. The righteous and obedient Joseph…did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary home as his wife, but he was not intimate with her until she gave birth to her firstborn son. And he named him Jesus. This account is pretty familiar to many of us, maybe most or all of us. We know about Joseph’s concern and the angel’s announcement that this child would be the Son of God. We are even familiar with the name Immanuel. If we were quizzed on the names and titles of Jesus, we might remember that the name Jesus means Savior, and we might even come up with God with us as the meaning of Immanuel. But let’s not pass that by as just another interesting piece of this beautiful account. Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on that a bit. Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, God’s people have always known that God was with them. Adam and Eve certainly did. Abraham did. Moses and his brother and sister Aaron and Miriam did. The Israelites as a people did. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, did. Deborah did. King David did. Elijah and Isaiah did. There is a long history of God being with his people. Besides speaking to his people, he even showed his presence occasionally—in a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire, a burning bush… Is this what the angel meant—that this child would be God and he would be at our side…visible… available?
It did mean that…but more than that! Isaiah shared a bunch of information about this One who would be born to the virgin. He would come to the people of Israel, but he would also be a light to the Gentiles as their Savior too. He would suffer and die—and Isaiah was quite specific about the things he would endure. Immanuel came to be God with us for a specific purpose. That purpose is why we set aside Wednesdays for worship as well as Sundays during this time of the year. The season of Advent is a time to get ready to celebrate Christmas, God coming to us as a baby who was born so that he could die. This is different from all other children who have been and will be born, isn’t it? It’s true that all who are born will one day die. None of us escapes death, unless we happen to be living at the return of Christ. Otherwise, all who are born will die one day—because we are sinful. Sin causes the breakdown of the body over time, and sin in the world means there are things that threaten our bodies and may indeed cause death. So, we are all born and will one day die. Jesus is different because he had and has no sinful nature and no sin, so death was not in his future. But Immanuel came to do just that—to die. God with us means that he came to share our humanity. God taking on human flesh. God living under his own divine laws and expectations that apply to all people. God suffering death, just like us. The “sameness” is clear; the differences are dramatic. Jesus became truly human, but is also true God. Jesus never broke the law of God that he lived under in this world. Jesus died, yes, but only because he gave himself over to it. And that he did because he had a perfect love for all people—a love beyond what we can imagine and a love that moved him to offer himself on a cross in order to pay for everyone’s sin. That means your sins too. Advent recalls the anticipation that existed in the hearts of God’s people prior to Jesus’ entrance into the world as Immanuel, God with us. That included Joseph and Mary. Advent remembers the Angelic Announcements that preceded his birth. Advent gives us the opportunity to think about why Jesus came—to be with us and to be for us, bringing forgiveness for our sins and eternal salvation. And Advent calls us to look ahead with expectation for Christ’s return, when the voice of an angel will be heard again, as it announces that we will then be with God. May we eagerly await that day! Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.