It is often quite difficult to spot Joseph in paintings of the Nativity. In some he is out at the back of the stable, tending to the animals, peripheral to the action. Brueghel has put him centre stage, immediately behind Mary, and given him a halo too, so we can’t miss him. But he isn’t the focus of the story in the way Mary and the child are, and he certainly isn’t pushing himself forward.
Instead, he is listening to someone in the crowd, a woman in
a red dress, who seems to be telling him something important. What could it be
that he is hearing? Neither of them looks very happy about it, whatever it is.
In Matthew’s Gospel, where the story of the Magi appears, it
is Joseph who drives the action. Mary doesn’t speak at all. It is to him that
the angel brings the news that Mary will bear the Son of God, and Matthew who
has to struggle with what that might mean for him. Will people mock him when
Mary’s pregnancy becomes obvious, either because they think he has got Mary
pregnant before marriage, or because they think someone else has, and he is
being taken for a fool. But bravely, he sticks with Mary, and later protects
her and Jesus, when he is warned in another dream that Herod is trying to get
rid of Jesus. Maybe this woman is telling him what others are saying about him?
Whatever it is, it doesn’t alter his commitment to Mary?
For Reflection
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the
wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day
and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their
fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. Psalm 1
Have you had a “Joseph” in your life, someone you could trust absolutely, who had your back, no matter what happened?
The whole picture:
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