In our Pastor Buddies Bible study today (a group of local Lutheran Pastors) we looked at Matthew's account of the story of the birth of Jesus. We began to imagine what it must have been like for Joseph.
His fiance' turns up pregnant--and not by him. When he demands an explanation she tells him it was the Holy Spirit. Yeah--right! His fiance' has brought public shame on him. She has embarrassed him. He has every right to break off the engagement.
An angel finally appears to set the story straight for Joseph. But that was in a dream.
Get this--as far as we can tell, Joseph never really got to see Jesus be...Jesus. Joseph is nowhere to be seen when Jesus is an adult. So he never saw Jesus heal. He never saw Jesus forgive others. He never heard Jesus teach about the Kingdom of God. He didn't see the death and resurrection. He lived every day for the rest of his life with the word of his wife and an angel in a dream that Jesus was the Son of God. Not much to go on!
But he took Mary as his wife and raised Jesus as his own.
That's faith.
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1 comment:
This is excellent and should be published. I know that I'll be emailing it around.
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