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December 20, 2009 |
| Immanuel!!! | ||
This lesson is named Immanuel for the lesson ends with the birth of Jesus. But this lesson is much more about honor, shame, and courage. Mary's pregnancy in her situation in that culture would have been a real problem, and a good part of the lesson will focus on the risks and actions involved.
The word "honor" has almost disappeared from our culture, and only survives in a real way in the armed forces. But it wasn't always that way. Thomas Jefferson penned these words in the United States Declaration of Independence:
We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor"
We fully understand what he meant by lives and fortunes, but the word "honor" is used so rarely now that many people don't know what it means.
"Honor may be defined as 'moral reputation.' To act honorably is to act in accordance with the recognized moral standards of one's community."1 Because it is a reputation of acting morally, it is built slowly over time but can be destroyed by a single act - and rebuilding that reputation will be a slow process. Elaborate
Our increasingly amoral and immoral society has little room for honor or its opposite, shame. Public figures when caught in an adulterous or immoral act are often quickly "rehabilitated" and return to society. Unwed pregnancies are common where once the families would have had to leave town to avoid the shame. The skills of dishonored sports stars are more important than the shame they carry and they soon find a new team.
In the world of Jesus' time, many societies were built on a code of shame and honor. People were motivated to act honorably because a shameful act would not only diminish them in the eyes of their society, but it would shame their family members too and sometimes the shame would travel down the family tree for many generations. Shamed people were avoided in all parts of society, including social life and business.
Thus it is that we find Joseph in a predicament as described in Luke and again here in Matthew chapter 1.
18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
We believe Joseph was older than Mary, probably 25 or 30 when they were married. This was not uncommon at the time. It is believed that Joseph was an established carpenter and it appears that he had business contacts in both Bethlehem and Nazareth, 70 miles apart. At his young age he may have served more as a construction worker, taking whatever jobs he could find. "The nature of the sacrifice Joseph and Mary offered when Jesus was eight days old indicates a family that was far from rich."2
We also see above that Mary was pledged to Joseph in an arranged marriage. Though not yet married this pledge would have been as unbreakable as a marriage. For a woman in her position to be found pregnant would have been scandalous and a great shame.
I'm sure that Mary would have told Joseph what the angel had said. But he could only have seen this pregnancy as a sign of unfaithfulness. Joseph's honor was at stake. If he was shamed it would seriously affect his business and his life. According to Jewish Law he could protect his honor by publicly declaring Mary's unfaithfulness. This would expose Mary and her family to public ridicule and in other times she might have been stoned to death3. Under Roman rule at the time, Jewish Law could not impose the death penalty. Only Roman law could do that.
19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
In his righteousness and for his honor he could not continue the marriage; in his mercy he would not shame her publicly. So his plan was to do it quietly. But, in a small town the word would eventually get out. There would be no stopping that.
It is nearly impossible for us to understand the seriousness of the situation this would have caused. There are still honor - shame cultures today and we occasionally hear about honor killings.
In 1994, a 32 year old Muslim in Jordan slashed the throat of his 16-year-old sister. He then ran into the street, waving the bloody knife and yelling, "I have killed my sister to cleanse my honor". His sister's "crime" was that she had been raped by another brother. Her uncle's convinced the brother who murdered her that she was too much of a disgrace to the family honor to be allowed to live. Other stories, no justice, twice a victim
Before Joseph can act on his plan, God sends an angel to him.
20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Joseph now has direct evidence of the truth of the story that Mary would have told him. He also has an explanation for what is going on. This is not an act of sin but an act of God. Righteousness will now dictate a new course of action.
The angel continues:
21"And she shall bring forth a son, and she shall call his name [Jesus], for he shall save his people from their sins."4
The angel's words match the meaning of the name Jesus, which we learned from the previous lesson means "God is savior" or "God is salvation". But instead of bringing salvation from destruction, as Joshua did in earlier times, this savior was to bring salvation from sins.
Also note that the angel informs Joseph of the name the child. Thus Joseph learns that he has been chosen for this purpose and his role is to act as father. He may have wondered
22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us."
We covered this in the previous lesson. He will be called Immanuel but will be named Jesus.
As we saw in a previous lesson on prophecies of a Messiah, Matthew's gospel goes out of the way to emphasize the prophetic connections to Jesus. This occurs here and in many other places in his gospel. He does this because the first converts to Christianity were Jews. And the primary obstacle to converting Jews to Christianity was convincing them that Jesus was the Messiah.
So, for the question, "Why a virgin birth", Matthew's answer is "because that was prophesied by Isaiah". It is the fulfillment of the sign that was promised to King Ahaz.
24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
Though his actions are righteous, Joseph knows he will still be treated by society as a shamed person. The people of his time could count the months from the wedding to the birth as well as we can. ! But he and Mary know the truth and are prepared to live with it. We must not undervalue the courage required here. This will impact their lives for many years. Is doing the right thing ever hard
25And he did not know her sexually until she delivered her firstborn son, and she called his name [Jesus].5
"There is no record of direction from the angel to avoid this [sex] during the pregnancy, but that is what Joseph does."6 Whether he did this according to the angel's instructions or from his own will, it was the fulfillment of prophecy. In verse 23 above, Isaiah says "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son". This is a compound sentence containing two thoughts "The virgin will be with child" and "The virgin will give birth to a son". Therefore the prophecy was also saying that she would be a virgin at birth.
Some churches go further and maintain a doctrine that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life (perpetual virginity). This seems to be easily contradicted by Mark 6:3. Here the names of 4 of Jesus' brothers are given and it is stated that he has sisters.
Holders to the perpetual virginity doctrine claim that these were children from an earlier marriage by Joseph. While there is no support for this claim in the Bible, there is support for using the words for brother, sister, father, and son in a much broader context than we do now.
Even so it's hard to imagine that Joseph, by age 25 to 30 would have been able to have and support a minimum of 6 children and enter into a second pre-arranged marriage agreement.
We have seen that maintaining one's honor can sometimes require the courage to do the right thing, when doing the wrong thing would be so much easier. In our society the military is frequently our model for honor and courage, as we saw recently. When the terrorist began shooting at Fort Hood, soldiers began running toward the gun shots.
Honor is different from pride. It is good to be proud of our honorable actions, though not in excess. "[But] honor […] is often portrayed as the outcome of humility (Proverbs 15:33, 29:23), the opposite of pride"7 An interesting thought. Proud man self over others. Will a proud man reject important of honor
What if obedience to God's will requires us to do something that would be seen as dishonorable in our society or to our peer group? What if society tries to use shame to motivate us to do something dishonorable before God? We must remember that the shame standard applied by our society is man-made. We can rest assured that God will never ask us to do anything that He considers shameful. What is an area where society tries to shame Christians into behaving differently
"The truth is that our lack of obedience is much more likely to be a matter of pride than a matter of honor. May we take a lesson from Joseph, who sought to obey God regardless of the cost."8
1 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary - Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 1, Lesson 3
2 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary
3 Leviticus 20:10
4 Aramaic NT
5 Aramaic NT
6 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary
7 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary
8 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary