Column on Joseph

On Christmas Eve, we would set out our manger scene. I was a bit perplexed a tone thing. All of the pictures we saw of Joseph were of an elderly man, even older than  I am now. In our manger scene, Joseph looked like a powerful middle-aged man. Of course, later I learned that the pictures were to indicate that  Joseph  would not have sired any children. The word for brother and sister in Mark  6:3 could possibly be loosely interpreted as kin, but I rather doubt that interpretation as tendentious to maintain the “perpetual virginity” of Mary.

The first Biblical Joseph was one who dreamed and could interpret them, perhaps in ways similar to the Magi. He too was taken to Egypt outside his will, with the threat of death hanging over him.

Jesus was under threat even in the womb. Joseph could have had  Mary killed due to his understandable suspicion that she was not faithful to him before their  one year engagement period. In Matthew he resolves to divorce her quietly. That would have placed Mary and the infant Jesus in a terribly untenable social condition of abject poverty. Joseph is told in a dream that God has brought the child into being. Joseph swallows his pride. He makes a choice to ignore the whispers that must have accompanied him and Mary. He makes a decision to start a family.

When the child was born, Joseph again heeds a dream. Knowing murderous Herod is after the child, he heads to Egypt. In that sense, Jesus was a refugee in early life as he was taken to flee a murderous regime. Tradition has all sorts of stops on the mew family’s journey in exile. Lovely legends include a well blessed by baby Jesus whose waters would heal. The Holy Family rested by a tree that dipped its branches in homage to the infant Jesus.. Even the Koran cites Mary resting on a palm tree.

Dreams propel Joseph into doing the right thing. Part of me thinks he responds to dreams as that God  has a hard time getting through to males. Another part thinks that Joseph needed to go past sheer rational ethical action.  So punishment was off the table, but how would she and the child within her live in that culture, in that time? In both instances, he moves in a radical direction in order to protect and sustain life.

At this time of year, many of us are moved to go beyond rational self-interest and to give of ourselves and even takes risks connected to generosity. At times we are pulled in two directions when attempting to make an ethical decision. The dreams of Joseph move him past ethical strictures into  a discernment of conscience.

Joseph is usually called a carpenter, but the Greek word tekton (where we get our word, technical) could indicate a craftsman of some sort, a skilled worker of some type. He is a spiritual craftsman as well. He is called righteous, in the sense of right  relationship with god and neighbor.

Every new parent  is struck by the enormity of the responsibility of a new life. No one is fully prepared to be a parent. Imagine taking on the task of being the father to Jesus. I like to think that Jesus could speak so easily of God as abba, father, since he had such a role model in Joseph. He disappears from the narrative of the life of Jesus. We could assume he died at some point as Jesus moved into adulthood. In this season, we remember this simple man, with reverence.