James Tissot
Read:
Matthew 1.18-25
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah
took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to
Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child
from the Holy Spirit.
Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
But just when he had resolved to do 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 as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy
Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’
All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Joseph is often
an unsung hero of the Christmas story. We know very little about him, but we do
know that he finds himself in an almost impossible situation. The young girl to
whom he is betrothed is pregnant, and he knows it is not by him. It looks
obvious that she has committed adultery, or been raped (which often, entirely
unfairly, brought disgrace and shame on the victim). Either way, by marrying
her, he risks shaming himself and his family. Some men would have publicly
denounced her, but to do so would expose her to real risk – adultery was
punishable by stoning. Tissot’s picture, one of a series of paintings attempting
to portray Biblical subjects in a realistic way, captures Joseph agonising over
this dilemma. He doesn’t want Mary to be harmed, but what can he do? Matthew tells us that an angel appears to him
in a dream telling him that the child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Whatever he understands this to mean, the message gets through and he finds the
courage to marry her and protect her and the child she bears.
- Have you ever had to take a risk to support someone in the face of the disapproval of others?
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