“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in 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.” (Matthew 1:20-23,TNIV)
Although Mary doesn’t get a lot of coverage in the Gospels, her husband Joseph gets even less!
He is only mentioned at the beginnings of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, John’s Gospel only mentions him once, and Mark’s Gospel doesn’t mention him at all!
It’s quite remarkable - for the Jewish society was very patriarchal. We get some sense of that in the genealogies of Jesus, in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3. Both lists contain details only of the men, except for some of the female heroes of the Jewish nation.
So why is it that Joseph has such a low profile?
Perhaps one reason is that Joseph had gone before Jesus’ ministry began. We don’t know whether he died of an illness, or an accident, or from a violent act, or even if he just abandoned the family. The latter seems unlikely, but such a despicable act may explain the silence in the Gospels about his departure.
Another possible reason is that Joseph was a carpenter or builder. It’s not a high-status job building houses. On one occasion in Matthew’s Gospel (13:55), when Jesus is in his home town of Nazareth, Jesus is described disparagingly as the ‘Carpenter’s son’.
‘Ah kent his faither - and he wisnae worth much.’
Joseph must have been present until recently for him to be used as a family reference for Jesus.
However, one of the unusual features of the early church was its willingness to grant status and authority to women. Several congregations are described as being led by, or meeting in the house of, one or more women.
They didn’t feel the need to make Jesus' father a hero figure. They were content for his mother Mary to be the parental heroine. After all, she was the one whom God had made pregnant. Joseph was just a spectator, or a bystander.
But Joseph did play a big part in the life of Jesus. He had had every right to reject Mary and send her hame.
He had decided to do so, and it was only the intervention of the angelic dream that persuaded Joseph otherwise. So he took Mary as his wife, and cared for Jesus and their growing family.
Joseph was certainly still present when Jesus was twelve years old, for Luke tells us that his parents took him there for their annual visit. Jesus got left behind and they found him in the temple debating with the elders.
That was the last time we hear of Joseph in person other than the references to him being Jesus’ faither, as was commonly thought.
In human terms we might be sad that he never lived to see Jesus’ triumphant ministry and his victorious death and resurrection.
On the other hand, I am confident that Joseph 'earned' his way into God’s eternal Kingdom. I am sure that he was waiting with open arms to embrace ‘his’ boy, the son of Mary, who was also the Son of God.
He may not have been Joseph’s son, but I am sure that Joseph regarded him as his boy. They must have had a wild party when they met again. Builders certainly know how to celebrate!
In our present days, when a woman can be a surrogate mother on behalf of another woman, it is interesting to consider that Joseph may have been one of the first surrogate fathers.
Perhaps he was the first surrogate father to know who the real father was!
Whatever the facts of Joseph’s life and death, one thing is sure. We owe Joseph an enormous debt of gratitude, for standing by his fiancé Mary, and for bringing up Jesus safely and securely.
Hail Joseph!
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