A trustworthy man

There are two people called Joseph who have important roles in the Bible. The first is the son of the patriarch Jacob and his amazing story has several chapters devoted to it in the book of Genesis. The second is the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This Joseph wasn't actually Jesus' father, because Mary was still a virgin when Jesus was born, but he effectively adopted Jesus into his family, which gave the boy legal status in Joseph's tribe. Mary's husband, it might be thought, is very important in the story of Jesus' childhood, which is true; however, he's given only a few verses. That being said, we do know quite a lot about him.

Joseph was a Jew, a member of the tribe of Judah (Luke's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 23 - 33), which was by far the largest Isrealite tribe at the time. He lived in Nazareth, in Galilee (Luke 2:4), the northern territory of ancient Israel, where he was a carpenter or related type of craftsman (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13, verse 55). When the New Testament story starts, we find him engaged to a young lady called Mary (Luke 1:26,27 ) who, unsurprisingly, was a virgin. As far as we are aware, life was going well and they were looking forward to their forthcoming wedding. Then, suddenly, Mary says that she's going to stay for a while with her cousin Elizabeth in Judea, down south near the capital city, Jerusalem (Luke 1:39,40). Elizabeth was pregnant, so that's understandable. However, when Mary comes back, three months later, it's clear that she isn't quite what she used to be.

It turned out, of course, that Mary was pregnant. Now in that society, being engaged was a pretty definite thing. You couldn't go around trying out other partners in the meantime. That was almost adultery - and adultery carried a maximum penalty of death. Joseph was, of course, very upset that Mary had cheated on him. Moreover, she was lying through her teeth about it. There's only one way to get pregnant and she was adamant that she was still a virgin. There was this story she had made up about an angel saying that the baby had been conceived because the Holy Spirit had overshadowed her. What does that mean? He couldn't get his head around it. It was all clearly Mary trying to avoid getting into trouble.

So Joseph decided to break off the engagement, but to do it quietly, to ensure that Mary didn't get into trouble (Matthew 1:18,19). This is the first time that we learn something about Joseph's character: he was a good, kind and righteous man. He could easily have reported her and made her life very difficult, as many other men would have done, but he swallowed his pride and probably actually still loved Mary as well. God, though, had other ideas. He had in fact told Mary that the child she was bearing had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and was the Son of God (Luke 1:35); she had also been told to call him Jesus (Luke 1:30,31). So, because Joseph, understandably, didn't believe her, God repeated this to him in a dream (Matthew 1:20,21). After this he took Mary home as his wife, but they didn't lie together as husband and wife until after the baby had been born (Matthew 1:24,25).

Joseph seems to have been someone who was open to hear from God, recognize when he had, and then obey even when what he had been told was difficult. Of course, he was presumably pleased to find out that Mary had been faithful after all and over the moon that they could still marry. However, not everyone was going to go along with their story.

Joseph is a great example of a man whom God saw as trustworthy and so could entrust him with the care of what meant most to him - even his own Son.

The next we hear is that because of a Roman census, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem with his wife, although it seems that they had kept the marriage quiet and possibly had the ceremony later (Luke 2:1-5). She was just about due with Jesus, so it wouldn't have been a comfortable journey, and when they arrived there was nowhere to stay, so they ended up outside overnight, perhaps in a stable. The baby decided arrive then and so was put in a manger to sleep (Luke 2:6,7). Some angels turned up and sent shepherds to confirm that Jesus was the Son of God (Luke 2:15-20), which was probably particularly reassuring for Joseph, because Mary had already had an angelic encounter, whereas Joseph had had to rely on a dream. However, Joseph was now starting to get a better idea of the unconventional life that he had agreed to by marrying Mary.

Joseph had Jesus circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21), as normal, and also followed the custom of taking the boy to the Temple in Jerusalem when he was 40 days old (Luke 2:22-24). There they met a couple of prophets who where overjoyed to recognize the baby Messiah (Luke 2:25-38), but one of them had a rather tough message for Mary in particular. Life settled down after that though. It seems that they may have made a trip back to Narazeth (Luke 2:39), but then started a new life in Bethlehem, where Joseph must have continued his trade as a carpenter. Things perhaps weren't so bad after all with having responsibility for bringing up the Son of God. But then, one day near Jesus' second birthday, some Persian wise men turned up at the door saying that they had been given a sign in the sky and had come to worship the King of the Jews, having been sent on there from Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1-12). That's all very nice, but that night an angel woke Joseph up and told him to take his wife and Jesus to Egypt - now! King Herod was going to send men to find Jesus and kill him (Matthew 2:13).

So off they dashed, through the desert (Matthew 2:14,15), with whatever they could carry with them, to start another new life in a country whose language they probably couldn't speak and maybe not understand much of either. We don't know how long they were there, a few months to a few years, but after Herod had died, an angel told Joseph, in yet another dream, to take his family back to Israel (Matthew 2:19,20). A further dream pointed them on through Judea and Samaria up to Galilee in the north (Matthew 2:21-23). So Joseph and Mary returned home and he presumably took up workworking there again.

The last we know of Joseph is that he took the family regularly to the Temple for feasts (Luke 2:41). When Jesus was 12 years old, they went to the Passover in Jerusalem and after it was over Joseph and Mary didn't realize that Jesus hadn't joined the party until they had been walking north to Galilee for a day. Then Joseph took Mary back and they searched Jerusalem for three days before they found Jesus, safe and well, in the Temple (Luke 2:42-52). After that we know nothing of Joseph. Once Jesus has become an adult, we hear of Mary and her other children, but Joseph is nowhere to be seen, the implication being that he had died by the time Jesus was in his early 30s.

Joseph was a good, kind man, who listened to God and obeyed immediately and unquestioningly, even though much of what he was told to do was not easy. He must have been accused of sexual immorality with Mary before they were married by those who didn't understand, but took that on the chin. His life was disrupted by several enforced relocations and he had the responsibility of looking after the young Messiah, who came as part of the package with Mary. Losing him for five days have been highly traumatic. The untold story is how he also acted as a parent and male role model to Jesus. His Heavenly Father must have decided that Joseph was the best person for that task, which speaks implicitly of his impeccable character and great love for God. Let's learn from his life the great blessings and benefits of presenting ourselves to God as someone that he can trust at all times.

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Showing off

Do you ever like to show off? Never? Really, is that quite true? All the time? O dear! Some off us would never dream of it (well most of the time) and others are showy as a way of life. Being quiet is fine, of course, as is having a more extrovert nature, but most of us probably wouldn't want to admit that we actually show off too much. That has rather negative associations with pride or arrogance, doesn't it?

Do you think that Jesus ever showed off? After all, he was the Son of God, so if anyone could do it legitimately, he could. He did turn water into wine at a wedding in Cana, but only his mother and a couple of servants knew about that. He had at least four disciples with him there, who we are told knew about it as well (John's Gospel, chapter 2, verses 1 - 11). He fed 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish (Luke's Gospel, chapter 9, verses 10 - 17), and 4,000 men with seven loaves and a few fish (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 14, verses 13 - 21). On both occasions there were lots of women and children present, so we're talking about perhaps something like 20,000 people or more given a good meal from 12 loaves of bread and a couple of handfuls of fish - with several basketfuls left over afterwards! However, only his 12 closest disciples knew about this at the time, and maybe a few in the crowd caught on that something interesting was happening as well.

Perhaps the time when he came nearest to doing a magic trick was when he told Peter to catch a fish from the sea and the one he found would have a coin in it, which would be just enough to pay the tax collectors who had come to the door (Matthew 17:24-27). Yet, even on this occasion, it would have been only his closest followers who knew about it. And, yes, of course, Jesus twice told his fishermen disciples to cast their net out again, whereupon they had massive catches, after finding nothing beforehand (Luke 5:1-11; John 21:1-14). In the latter case the number of fish that Jesus allowed to be caught (153) was very possibly because that is an extremely fascinating number, as known in ancient times and maybe with earlier fishy connotations attached to it as well. I think that Jesus was making a point here to train his disciples, but being fun about it as well.

What we do for God is for God and the growth of his Kingdom, not for our glory. Even Jesus, himself the Son of God, didn't perform public spectacles to make himself look good.

So there were times when some or all of his disciples, and perhaps a few other people, knew that Jesus had done some kind of miraculous 'trick', but he didn't use this to publicize himself; they were performed for training purposes or out of compassion. In fact, he had made a decision early on not to use that method to attract attention. When he was in the wilderness after his baptism, one of the temptations that he faced after the 40 days was to jump off from the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and have angels come and catch him (Matthew 4:5-7). That would have been right in the middle of the busiest part of the most populated city in the country. Everyone would quickly have known that this was someone special whom God sent his angels to prevent landing heavily. The crowds would soon realize that he was the Messiah and lend their support to his cause, which would have been a quick win. Instead, Jesus chose a path of suffering and taught his followers that there was a high cost to being one of his disciples.

Had Jesus agreed to the devil's suggestion that he announce who he was through some dramatic, miraculous trickery, being cluched from a certain death by a group of angels suddenly appearing, then he would have by-passed his central mission. Jesus was actually very careful not to take all the glory himself, but point to his Father as the one whose will he obeyed. Are you a minister who can sway congregations through your sermons? Are you able to prophesy to people accurately? Are others healed regularly when you pray for them? Do people enter deeply into the presence of God when you lead a time of worship? Have you had friends become Christians when you've witnessed to them? Have your children grown up knowing God because of the way that you've brought them up and taught them when they were young? Most Christians probably have at least one thing that they can be proud of having done for God, but we mustn't hold on to that, keeping the glory for ourselves and attracting people to us.

It's a hard balance to strike. I want to do things for God and I want to do them successfully so that as many people as possible can get to know him better. However, we mustn't use that to justify our own existence or put ourselves on a pedestal. Jesus said that the wind blows where it wills and no one knows where it comes from or where it goes off to afterwards, but we just hear the sound; that is how it is with people born of the Spirit (John 3:1-8). No one needs to know who we are, so long as God's work is done, yet his work is seen through what we do, so we shouldn't hide that (Matthew 5:14,15). This is a difficult balance for successful ministries, but to be honest, probably many of us have a bit of a problem with it at times. We need to remember that even John the Baptist knew that he had to decrease in his ministry so that Jesus could increase (John 3:22-30); he was always adamant that his role was to point to Jesus, not to himself. If that was true for him, then it must be for us as well. So the party trick with three hats and two walking sticks is fine, but let's follow Jesus' example by not showing off in ministry.

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Being Christian

Sometimes people say to me that they try to be a good Christian. That often means that they don't go to church, don't know much about the Bible, probably don't pray a lot, if at all, and perhaps don't even believe in God, but, "I try to be a good Christian." What they are implying by this usually comes down to attempting to behave to some extent in accordance with Jesus' teaching. For example, he told us to love one another and to behave towards them as we would want them to treat us. This is, of course, all great. If we can hold onto these principles, then we're doing really well. Being Christian isn't based on going to church; it also isn't fundamentally about reading the Bible. These things help enormously, but don't define Christianity. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 13) famously wrote that if we do all sorts of other amazing Christian things, but don't love, then it all becomes rather meaningless.

So we can never downplay what people tell us about loving others and treating them well. Doing lots of 'spiritual' things, but being unpleasant isn't just not real Christianity, but also earns the church a reputation of hypocrisy. However, there is much more. Rather than just being good to people, even if that's to a major degree and forms an integral part of our lives, perhaps taking up a lot of our time, energy and money, we can also have an incredible relationship with God - the creator of the universe. So many people miss out on this aspect of being Christian. In fact, it's impossible really to be a Christian without having a personal relationship with God.

I was discussing this with some people from church a few days ago. One of the benefits of going to church is, of course, that we can hear directly from others why they believe in God, what he has done in their lives and what relating to him means to them, which encourages us in our faith. We can do the same for others as well. It was great to hear about their experiences of the power of prayer as God answered them, how he had transformed their lives, changing their perspective on life, making them new people. This wasn't God confined to a book, however good a book the Bible might be; it wasn't God confined to church services on Sunday mornings either. This was God in action in peope's lives, day to day, year on year. This was what Jesus died and rose again to achieve. This was real Christianity in action.

It was also really good to be able to talk about people's experiences of prayer. There are so many different ways to pray and we all approach God in a manner that reflects us and our relationship with him. It is good, though, to explore other ways of praying as well and that can sometimes deepen our relationship with God. The important thing, however, is that we pray. If we talk to God, then he answers in one way or another, especially if we take the time to listen, and that brings us into a deeper understanding of his ways. We learn to relate to God by spending time with him, as in any other relationship. We can stand, kneel, lift our hands, lie face down, dance; pray silently, whisper, talk normally, sing, shout; pray privately, with our family, with friends, or in public; at home, at church, at work, in the street, on the train, while cycling (as demonstrated above); use set prayers, pray passages of the Bible, make up our own prayers as we go along - some, or all of these. Personally I like them all.

Watchman Nee wrote a book on prayer and a pastor once told his church that it was very good, but we didn't need to bother reading it because it basically just says, "Pray!" So don't worry about how, where, or when - just pray. The Christian life is a life spent with God and if we don't pray then that just doesn't work. Reading the Bible is enormously useful and we learn in there how to pray, as well as many other things; going to church is enormously useful and we learn there how to pray, as well as many other things - I recommend doing both. Yet, it is only out of our own personal relationship with God in prayer, through his Holy Spirit training us, that we learn to love, treat others as we would have them treat us, and much more: we find that God is a God of changed lives and miracles, good, kind, loving and gracious, but not tame.

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