There is a quote attributed to Mark Twain that goes something like this: “All stories are true and some really happen.” We are in the story time of year as we listen to our Gospels just before Christmas and for some time after it. Today’s Gospel is part of Matthew’s story or “infancy narrative” about Jesus’ birth. At the beginning of their Gospels, Matthew (and Luke) both included oral stories about Jesus’ early years that were circulating in the decades following his death. Some of the pieces of their narratives are the same, and some are unique to each. For example, Luke’s Gospel is the only one in which the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary. Matthew’s Gospel is the only one that has the annunciation to Joseph — our reading for today. In it, Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, has a dream in which the “angel of the Lord” appeared to him to reassure him about Mary’s pregnancy, and to tell him what this birth would mean.
Of course it is natural for us to wonder, did this really happen? But that is the wrong question to ask about a form of writing that is a narration. The correct question is why the author, Matthew, included this particular popular account as part of his introduction to Jesus’ life. Matthew writes for Jews who were following Jesus and beginning to form a separate new religion, Christianity. Matthew’s Gospel links events and teachings of Jesus with Hebrew Scripture in order to tell his Jewish Christians that it is the same God of faithful covenant at work in Jesus. Matthew does this in a couple of ways in today’s story about Joseph.
Just the name “Joseph” would have reminded Jewish ears of an earlier Joseph, interpreter of dreams but betrayed by his brothers who, when he becomes the right-hand man of the pharaoh of Egypt, saves those same brothers from famine (Gen 42-46). Joseph of our Christmas story is addressed by the angel as a “son of David,” the line from which Jews believed the messiah would come. He saves his family from Herod by taking them into Egypt, and then bringing them back out, a clear analogy to Moses leading the Hebrews to safety. Just to make sure we “get it,” Matthew tells us the purpose of this Gospel passage. All this took place, he writes, to fulfill what the LORD has said through the prophet [Is 7:14]: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” What a great lead-in to Christmas for us who live all these centuries after Matthew wrote. For God has indeed been with us, both by continuing his faithful covenant with the people of God we call Church, and also as we reflect on our personal lives, by bringing us to safety in times of trouble and accompanying us with love.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post December 21, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Joseph: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.