righteousness and mercy

4th Sunday of Advent

            It is odd to me that there aren’t Christmas cards that focus on Joseph the earthly father of Jesus.  Is there not much artwork that shows Mary and the child Jesus?  Does not the carol sing, “Round yon virgin mother and child”?  Not so many notes and lyrics devoted to Joseph.  It is odd, don’t you think, because Joseph also plays a key role in God’s saving purpose.  What’s more, it is Joseph’s role that is in the spotlight in today’s gospel lesson.

            To begin, let’s focus on Joseph himself.  Our gospel writer is careful to tell us that Joseph is “a righteous man.”  What that means is that Joseph lives by God’s laws.  He is not someone who does what he wants, ignoring God’s laws.  He doesn’t say, “Oh, that’s one of those laws we don’t really have to obey.”  On the contrary, for Matthew to say that Joseph is “a righteous man” is to introduce him to his readers as one who is careful to obey God’s laws.

            Now let’s us focus on Joseph’s situation.  Mary and Joseph are committed by a contract.  The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible says that Mary and Joseph are engaged, but that is not exactly the word.  Marriage in these days takes place in two stages.  The first stage is the marriage contract, the betrothal.  The man and the woman do not live together in this stage, but each in his or her parents’ home.  Sometime later, the couple comes together fully as husband and wife.  The husband “takes” the woman to be his wife.  That technical language is in our gospel lesson:  “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”  And later it says, “. . . he took her as his wife.”  That language is used still in our modern marriage service from the Book of Common Worship:  “I, Richard, take you, Beverly, to be my wife.”  This is stage two, the marriage itself.  What we find at the beginning of our gospel reading is that Mary and Joseph are in stage one.  They are committed to one another by contract, a contract that can only be broken by divorce, but they do not live together.

            We come back to the description that Joseph is a “righteous man.”  He has a problem.  Mary is pregnant.  Joseph does not know what we know at this stage, that the genesis of Mary’s baby is of divine origin and through divine initiation.  All Joseph knows is that Mary is pregnant.  He has every right to assume what anyone would, viewing the same situation.  He is a righteous man, so he knows the law.  Deuteronomy 22 calls for a woman found guilty of adultery—not fornication, for a betrothal is the same as being married, whether in stage one or two—a woman found guilty of adultery is to be stoned to death.  Joseph knows the law.

            But there is something else about him, our gospel writer lets us see clearly.  Joseph is also merciful.  Though he can submit Mary to public exposure and ultimately to capital punishment, he decides to divorce her “quietly.”  Secretly.  Joseph intends a cover-up for the purpose of being merciful.

            Joseph displays the virtues that Jesus will later call for.  “Jesus will say, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”  Joseph is already an example of the combination of righteousness and mercy.

            This combination of righteousness and mercy is difficult when one virtue is given greater force than the other.  One who is righteous, when looking upon the unrighteous, may be impatient, stern, and unmerciful.  I’m not talking about what might be called “tough love,” allowing someone to suffer his own logical and natural consequences out of love and out of a desire to teach an important life lesson.  Rather, one who is righteous, but without mercy, may desire for severe punishment for the one who is unrighteous.  On 9/11 we viewed ourselves as righteous, or, at least, innocent and unprovoked.  When we think of the ones who have done this to us, especially the leader of those who perpetrated this crime, we want swift and severe punishment.

            When someone in our family turns on us, unprovoked in our own minds, we see ourselves as righteous, or, at least, innocent.  Sometimes what our gut tells us is that we should exact some kind of punishment upon the guilty.

            But God acts toward us differently.  At the moment our righteous God had every right to crush humanity, God acted mercifully instead.  Instead of moving away from us, as we all have moved away from God, God moved toward us in mercy.  He did that in the baby Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

            Joseph becomes the first example in Matthew’s Gospel of one who exhibits both of the virtues Jesus will call for, righteousness and mercy.

            Let’s focus on the meaning of Mary’s pregnancy.  It is “from the Holy Spirit.”  That is to say, God’s power is involved in this special birth, signifying that God’s own saving activity will take place through the child to be born.  So divine power is involved as well as human agency.  Matthew is signaling to us that we will want to pay attention to the activity of this one who will be known as “the Son of God.”

            Let’s focus on Jesus’ name.  The name of Jesus is a salient feature of Matthew’s telling of the gospel.  The name “Jesus” is not uncommon in this time of Mary and Joseph.  “Jesus,” or “Yeshua,” is a variation of the name “Joshua,” or “Yehoshua.”  “Jesus” means “Yahweh saves.”  Matthew tells us that Jesus is to be given this name precisely because “he will save his people from their sins.”  Jesus’ name points to his function in God’s saving activity.  When Jesus grows up, he will stand before a paralyzed man, and he will say to him, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”  The result will be physical wholeness in this man to match the spiritual wholeness that God through Jesus will have just provided him.  Jesus will associate with sinners, answering his critics by saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”  And he will say, “. . . the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  And at the end of his life, he will take a cup, give thanks, and pass it around to his disciples, and he will say to them, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Not long after that, Jesus will die on the cross to “save his people from their sins.”  Jesus will live up to his name as he participates in God’s saving purpose.