Ever have one of those moments where life gets turned upside down?
Things can change so fast.
It can even happen when things are going well. Maybe a new career move or God ushers in a new vision to pursue. It can move so quickly it makes your head spin, and you wonder if you will catch you footing.
It feels like the end life as we know it.
It’s A New Day
I started reading the four gospel accounts with the hopes of going through them getting through them in a couple weeks. For a week, I have been in Matthew 1, and it has reshaped my view about a lot of things, including the gospel!
Mathew 1 has a long list of the genealogy and birth line of Jesus which is highly tempting to read quickly in a mumbling voice trying to pronounce weird names.
My view of Mary and Joseph has changed drastically. I always saw them as lower class, labourers, countryish simpletons.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. I blame preachers for this misunderstanding with all their Christmas messages about Joseph and Mary with nothing but a donkey.
I lodged my grievance with my pastor. He agreed with the misunderstanding, validated the legitimacy of my beef but went on to expand my notion of their status.
Joseph’s dad was named Jacob and named after the father of the Twelve tribes of Isreal. The reestablishing of the Kingdom of God is clear.
Joseph, in the line King David and the tribe of Judah. Mary, in the priestly line of Aaron and the tribe of Levi.
Their marriage would have been two elite religious families coming together. In a broader sense, the kingly line and priestly line are coming together in union.
This brings significance to Psalm 110, the prophecy of the coming Messiah as the Priest-King:
The LORD said to my Lord:
Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool”…
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Psalm 110:1 & 4
When Life Gets Turned Upside Down
Lukes account of the birth of Jesus focuses on Mary. Mathews account Matt 1:18-25) focuses on Joseph. Joseph is a guy who gets his life turned upside down.
We know that Joseph is a builder, maybe a stonemason, who chisels stone to build buildings. He was betrothed to Mary, and they had been making a lot of plans about their big day.
He comes home from the job site one day to find that his fiance is pregnant. Because of his impeccable moral character, his conscious is clear, and he knows the child is not of his seed.
His dreams and plans of an ideal future with his lovely bride crumble in an instant. No matter how much you trust someone, your fiance getting pregnant by the Holy Spirit is a lot to fathom.
Joseph is just and compassionate. Because he is a righteous man, he doesn’t want Mary to be disgraced, so he resolves to divorce her quietly (Matt 1:19). Joseph is steeped in Jewish religious traditions. Following cultural norms. He makes a rational decision that makes logical sense.
Joseph wants to find a way out losing face, maintaining dignity, respect and honour that he had in the community. Abandon his fiance so that he won’t be abandoned an outcast from society.
There are no other options. Doing anything else would break an unbreakable law he had set up within himself.
Consider The Possibilities
The passage goes on to say that when Joseph considered these things further, held them in his heart, and pondered them, an angel of the Lord appeared to him (while he was asleep) and spoke to him.
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived of her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matt 1:21
The angel doesn’t just call him by name but calls him to his larger identity “son of David”. The angel speaks to his heart, tells him to not divorce Mary out of fear.
God is doing a new work in history, allow yourself to get swept up in it. This child, you get to name and raise, and one day he will save all people from their sins. The promised Savior. The Messiah. What a mission. What a call to an adventure with God!
The spirit was saying to Joseph, and maybe to me and you, don’t allow rules and traditions or ideas of how life should go stop you from getting swept up in God’s grace.
The passage goes on to say that Joseph “woke up” (Matt 1:24). I love that! I wonder if most of the spiritual journey is up waking up to God activity?
Joseph listed and followed the Holy Spirit in obedience. We know how the story ends, and Jospeh caught a glimpse of it. But there was adversity along the way. He took Mary to be his wife; they were exiled out of the country after Jesus was born. They are sent to Egypt, the place of their people’s slavery and captivity. Once they come back to Isreal they are outcast from the circles of the religious elite and make their home in Nazareth.
Through these trials, I am sure the Joseph held to the vision the Holy Spirit gave to him. He knew that God was with them the whole time, literally living under their roof! And that carried them through.
When life gets turned upside down, turns on a dime, it seems like the end of life as we know it, or it could be a new opportunity to walk with the One who is always with us.
This event you are facing may seem difficult, but consider the possibilities of a new way of life. Allow yourself to get swept up in the new grace that God is bringing into life.
–
All this took place to fulfil what the
Lord had said through the prophet:
“The Virgin will be with child and will
give birth to a son, and they will call him
Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.”
Mathew 1:22-23