Scripture Reading

Matthew 1: 18-25

Sermon Text

Today’s text is about Joseph, the husband of Mary. Two weeks ago, the Sunday sermon was about Mary and we heard from Reverend Ingee Kim that if we can see life as new possibility, that is the spirit of Christmas. Through God we can see new possibilities and new things in life and experience them. The gospel of Luke has the story of Mary. Not every gospel has this kind of story. It is unique to the gospel of Luke that has the story of Mary and today’s scripture. The gospel of Matthew has the story of Joseph. So it is meaningful to reflect on Joseph’s story today, as Christmas is just around the corner.

What is true righteousness?
Who was Joseph? The Bible doesn’t say much about him, but we know that he was from the town of Nazareth, he was a carpenter and he was the descendant of King David, the tribe of Judah. Then what does today’s text say about him? Today’s text says Joseph was that righteous man. Verse 19 says her husband, Joseph being a righteous men. You know, in the Bible, when a person is described as righteous, that tells you something about that person – not many in the Bible is described as righteous. First of all, from the old Testament, Noah comes to my mind. Genesis records Noah was a righteous man blameless among the people of his time and he walked faithfully with God. And there’s another person, Job, he was a righteous man too. In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright – He feared God and shunned evil. And now, here in the new Testament, Matthew puts Joseph in the same category as Noah, Job and others. For Matthew righteousness was so important to all of us living in this kind of world. Righteous? what the heck is that? We no longer have a sense of the concept of righteousness, but just bear with me. At the time, 2000 years ago, righteousness was so important to Matthew. In the gospel of Matthew words that have the same root with the word righteousness appeared 19 times! Whereas Mark only mentions it twice. It tells you something about that right?

Back then, being righteous was the main goal for every Jewish person. Unlike nowadays, there was no separation between religion and life. People wanted to appear righteous before God and before others as well. However, too much is as bad as too little. The law, God had given lost its’ purpose and it became mere a tool for people to justify their righteousness. Within this historical context, the author of Matthew wrote to his community where most of the members were Jews and under the heritage, talking mainly about the fulfillment of the Old Testament and righteousness with the kingdom of heaven. That same Matthew described Joseph as righteous in today’s text. Then what was Matthew’s reasoning to call Joseph righteous? If we follow the context and spirit of the time, a righteous person should be faithful to the law and in keeping the law. We would think this is why Matthew describes Joseph as righteous, but that’s not the case here. If Joseph was one of the Jews whose desire was to be righteous by obeying the law blindly, to show the world how faithful he was to the law and all that, Joseph would have exposed Mary’s pregnancy and break the marriage or engagement. He would have even allowed people to stone her to death because that was the requirement of the law at the time (remember the story of a woman who was caught in the adultery, in the gospel of John).

So did Joseph follow the customs of the day? Verse 19 is so strange. It says her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. Because of his righteousness he did not make a scene, but tried to dismiss her quietly. We can see that Joseph’s righteousness was totally different than that of the majority. We can even say Joseph’s righteousness was refreshing. It was not bound by the law and it was not bound by himself either. Joseph did not think about his own interest nor his reputation, but he showed mercy and concern for Mary and decided to do everything unnoticed. We can see that Joseph was not bound by the letters of the law, but tried to discern the will of God and live out the will of God. To me, it is radical but lifesaving decision.

Because of this, I have to ask myself, what does the righteousness we pursue have anything to do with the will of God? We all know how it was with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They took the love for their own interest in righteousness, but they had nothing to do with God’s will. In the same way, there are things that bind us like the law and paralyze us in our thinking and in our attitude towards God, the laws should not be only the Bible. Anything that replaces God makes us fall into legalism or into the establishment. It could be our own view of life or our own wisdom acquired from life that can make us fall into a type of legalism – meaning not being able to think out of boxes and that framework – we see through such small lens and make decisions by them. But as we continue to live like that, we will live more and more in the past. We will shut down the possibilities of God in the future. The more we rely on the past experiences and the past wisdom, the more we become enslaved by the past. That’s kind of legalism that will ruin us. Furthermore, such a tendency will make us more self centered. We will move within the boundary of only what we know. We will ruminate what we have achieved already and, as a result, become more self centered.

God’s Righteousness 
When a person falls into the trap of being self centered, Do you know what will happen to them? Divisions and conflicts will take place around that person. To that person, a community exist for his or her benefits. There’s no true contribution, no sacrifice for the community. But look at Joseph today. Look at the whole passage today. Did he boast about his righteousness to the world? Did he go up to the mountain and tell the world how righteous he was? I don’t think he was even aware of his own righteousness. Nobody except Mary noticed Joseph’s decision and action, but because of his righteousness, Joseph played a role in God’s history of sending Jesus to the world to save the humanity. Joseph’s righteousness shined when he was alone. I realized that if a person is righteous, when alone, that person is righteous before God. Joseph’s righteousness and his silent spirituality is something we need to ponder upon. So we realize the righteousness is not the achievement to show the world, but our lives’ attitude towards God.

It’s not something you can grasp or build, but it is our attitude towards God. That is righteousness. Even though Joseph decided to dismiss Mary quietly, didn’t he struggle with his decision? I think so. Verse 20 shows Joseph’s state of mind. “But just when he had resolve to do this” – other version of the English Bible use words like consider or ponder or think in place of resolve. So, I look at the original word for resolve and I found that it has a deeper meaning. Literally it is the combination of in and passion, meaning struggling with passion like Jacob at the river Jabbok to discern God’s will. Joseph did not simply give up and shut the door on his unbearable reality, but rather struggled with God asking earnestly God, where are you? What shall I do? Is this the right decision?

Joseph must have felt so lonely, but that’s the very moment he was able to find God and meet God. Right at that moment, tossing and turning at night, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. I believe my friends, God comes to those who earnestly seek God’s will and pray to God. And isn’t this what Emmanuel is all about? God is with us. God is with us – present tense, not in the past, not in the future, but our current reality. When we struggle, and pray to God, God is with us at that moment. And then the angel of the Lord gave God’s message to Joseph. And the salvation history of God had begun quietly and unnoticeable except in Mary and Joseph. My friends let us all pursue the righteousness of Joseph described in today’s passage. Not the religious righteousness, nor the achievement to show the world, but our life attitude towards God all the time.

Pursue God and his righteousness
Let us not pursue the things of the past things for myself, but pursue the living God, the God of Emmanuel so that we may be able to overcome the present time and enter into a future with God. So often we may not be able to understand why things happen in life, but let us continue to struggle to discern the gospel and let us be open to God’s mysterious ways for us. In any circumstance, God will be with us; believe in this and give your life to God’s hands. God will give you, God will give us, new righteousness, a new life attitude that is righteousness that the world cannot understand and offset, And we will be changed forever. A new Testament scholar, M J Fiddler, defines what righteousness is all about, and his definition is very helpful for us. Righteousness is both gift and demand of God, but the gift proceeds the demand.

You know what this means? God has given us this righteousness and we need to live a life according to such a gift. It’s in us already, it is our responsibility to live out that righteousness that is always open towards God. Pursue God. Joseph had this gift of righteousness by God already. Such righteousness, empowered him to overcome his limitations and to obey God’s mysterious guidance – and that’s what Joseph did, that’s what we all should do in life. God has called his people and God has given us the gift of righteousness and has asked us to live out that gift. Live a life, not bound by the law but following the living God. God has sent angels to us and helps us overcome fears by giving us his messages. My friends, pause for a moment and think about this: who gave you God’s message so that you may be able to overcome the fears in life and to give your life to God’s hands once again? Who gave God’s message to you? Aren’t they angels from God? When we look around the world nowadays, people are confused, fearful, and depressed. I hope we all can hear the voice of God, calling righteous women and men to fulfill God’s work for this broken world. Let us not live this life without thinking, let us not live this life just following the patterns of this world. Religious righteousness will not make any difference in the world. Didn’t you have that kind of disappointment when you’ve tried to be righteous before? Let us try the real thing. Let us pursue God and God’s gift of righteousness. Don’t you want to see in this world, that the signs of God’s hope is prevalent? Don’t you want to see in your life that God’s love is overflowing? Let us ask God for the gift of righteousness. The God of Emmanuel will give us his righteousness, change us and use us for God’s purpose. May God bless you with renewed commitment to pursue God’s righteousness in this season of Christmas.