The Christmas story, or the birth of Jesus Christ, is one of the most well-known stories, whether you're a Christian or not. Everyone knows about the shepherds, the wise men and their gifts, and of course, Mary giving birth to Jesus Christ. But there's one person who easily fades into the background amidst everything that happens. This is Joseph, the son of David, better known as Jesus' earthly father. Joseph plays such an important role in the life of Jesus and in the Christmas story. Along with the important role he plays, Joseph was also an amazing example of a man who trusted God, had unconditional love towards his wife, and was a great father.
We first hear about Joseph in Matthew 1:18, where it says,
"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18, NIV)
There is also an alternate telling of the birth of Christ in the book of Luke, but they both tell the same story with just different details here and there. What we can see from the verse above is that Mary is pledged to be married to Joseph. We can also see that Mary is "found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit." Now, if you were Joseph in this situation, what would be going through your mind? You know that you and Mary have done nothing sexually because the marriage isn't official yet, and she comes to you saying that she's pregnant with the Christ-child. If I were Joseph, I would be skeptical. It would be hard for me to believe any of this and I'd probably be infuriated, but that's what separates me from Joseph. This is where we see just how much Joseph loved Mary. Joseph didn't get angry with her, instead he was going to quietly divorce her, which shows just how caring Joseph was because in this day and age, if a woman had cheated on her husband and became pregnant, not only would she be shamed by everyone in the city, she could also be stoned to death. This is what Mary could've faced, the possibility of death, but she was spared. Despite Joseph's broken heart, he still loved Mary and couldn't possibly publicly disgrace her, so he was going to divorce her quietly.
Now, after Joseph became aware of Mary's pregnancy and had thought about quietly divorcing her, an angel came to him.
"But 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.'" (Matthew 1:20, NIV)
Joseph was now faced with a predicament. Does he trust God and still take Mary as his wife, or does he continue with his plan to divorce her? Now Joseph had a tremendous faith in Christ because it says that as soon as he woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had said and took Mary as his wife. We get another example of Joseph's faith after Jesus' birth when Herod was threatening to kill all of the children in Bethlehem and surrounding areas. Another angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and told him to get up immediately and take his family to Egypt to escape from Herod, so what did he do? He got up immediately and left in the middle of the night with his family. There aren't a lot of moments where we can witness Joseph's faith, but from what we do see in Joseph trusting of God and His plans, we see Joseph's strong faith.
The last thing that we can take from Joseph is that he was a great father to Jesus. It took somebody with a great deal of integrity to be entrusted with raising the son of God. We can also take note of Joseph's humility in taking a child that isn't even his own and raising him like he was. It's pretty amazing when you think about what Joseph actually did. Now, it's pretty sad that there isn’t a detailed story into Jesus' life growing up because I'm sure that we would be able to see just how great of a father Joseph was to Jesus. We would be able to witness all of the teachings Joseph instilled into young Jesus and how that helped mold Jesus. God definitely chose the best man for the job in being the earthly father of Jesus, even though we don’t get to directly see Joseph through the life of Jesus.
In conclusion, don't forget about Joseph, the son of David. Joseph played an important role in the Christmas story and in the overall life of Jesus. Joseph was a man full of integrity, love, and humility and it's very evident in the minimal pieces of scripture we have of Joseph. There is a lot that can be learned from Joseph, we just have to dig a little bit. In the midst of this Christmas season when you look at the Christmas story, please remember Joseph and just everything he brought to the lives of Jesus and Mary.
