I want to stand up for Joseph. But what do we know about Joseph? In all the New Testament he never utters a word. Yet, he’s one of the principal figures in the Christmas drama. And so, let’s take just a moment to give Joseph his due.
Tradition has it that Joseph was a simple man of an honourable trade: A carpenter from Nazareth.
His place in the Christmas story, of course, is that of Mary’s husband. According to Matthew, Joseph and Mary were “betrothed,” but not yet married. William Barclay explains that there were three steps in a Jewish marriage: The engagement, which was often arranged by the parents through a matchmaker when the boy and girl were children; the betrothal, which was a formal ratification of the marriage-to-be, usually done a year before the couple was married; and the wedding itself, which lasted a whole week, at which time the marriage was consummated. During the betrothal, the couple were legally bound to each other so that, if the man died before the actual wedding took place, the woman was considered to be a widow. They were actually referred to as husband and wife, though they refrained from having sexual relations.
It’s at this particular stage in their relationship that Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant and, though the scripture is not specific at this point, I think it’s safe to say he probably blew a gasket. Like any husband-to-be, Joseph would’ve been beside himself to learn that his fiancé was pregnant.
He would’ve been angry and upset, to say the least. After all, if Mary were pregnant, the only explanation would’ve been that she’d been unfaithful, in which case, he had a legal right to have her stoned to death.
We went to a fabulous nine lessons and carols in the cathedral last night. The service included a very strange carol!
Joseph was an old man, an old man was he,
When he married sweet Mary, she's Queen of Galilee.
Now Joseph had wedded Mary and home had her brought.
Mary proved with child, but Joseph knew her not.
Oh, Joseph and Mary went walking in the grove,
They saw cherries and berries as red as any rose.
And up spoke young Mary, so meek and so mild,
“Oh, pick me cherries, Joseph, for I am with child.”
Then Joseph flew in anger, in anger flew he,
“Let the father of your baby pick cherries for thee.”
Then up spoke the baby Jesus, all in his mother's womb,
“Bow down low, you cherry tree, let my mother have some.”
And the very tall branches bowed low to her knee,
And Mary picked cherries by one, two and three.
Now Mary had a young son which she dandled on her knee,
“Come tell me, sweet baby, what will this world be?”
“Oh, this world,” he said, “is no other than stones in the street
But the sun, moon, and stars will sail under thy feet.
“And I must not be rocked in silver or gold
But in some wooden cradle like the babes are rocked all.
“And on the sixth day of January my birthday will be,
When the skies and the elements will tremble for me.”
The song could be based on a passage in the apocryphal "Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew," a Latin work of the ninth century. In it, a miracle took place after Jesus's birth. Joseph, Jesus, and Mary were fleeing from King Herod when Mary became faint from the heat. Joseph led her under a date palm tree to rest. Mary begged Joseph to get her some of the dates. Joseph refuses. He is angry. He is still questioning paternity. HereJesus (who was no more than two years old) commanded the palm, "Bow down, tree, and refresh my mother with your fruit." And bow down it did, and remained until Jesus ordered it to straighten up (and be carried up into heaven!)
And it came to pass on the third day of their journey, while they were walking, that the blessed Mary was fatigued by the excessive heat of the sun in the desert; and seeing a palm tree, she said to Joseph: Let me rest a little under the shade of this tree. Joseph therefore made haste, and led her to the palm, and made her come down from her beast.
And as the blessed Mary was sitting there, she looked up to the foliage of the palm, and saw it full of fruit, and said to Joseph: I wish it were possible to get some of the fruit of this palm. And Joseph said to her: I wonder that thou sayest this, when thou seest how high the palm tree is; and that thou thinkest of eating of its fruit. I am thinking more of the want of water, because the skins are now empty, and we have none wherewith to refresh ourselves and our cattle.
Then the child Jesus, with a joyful countenance, reposing in the bosom of His mother, said to the palm: O tree, bend thy branches, and refresh my mother with thy fruit. And immediately at these words the palm bent its top down to the very feet of the blessed Mary; and they gathered from it fruit, with which they were all refreshed. And after they had gathered all its fruit, it remained bent down, waiting the order to rise from Him who bad commanded it to stoop.
Then Jesus said to it: Raise thyself, O palm tree, and be strong, and be the companion of my trees, which are in the paradise of my Father; and open from thy roots a vein of water which has been hid in the earth, and let the waters flow, so that we may be satisfied from thee. And it rose up immediately, and at its root there began to come forth a spring of water exceedingly clear and cool and sparkling. And when they saw the spring of water, they rejoiced with great joy, and were satisfied, themselves and all their cattle and their beasts. Wherefore they gave thanks to God.
In the N plays, in fifteenth century Norfolk “Joseph’s Doubt,” was performed right after the “Annunciation” and before the “Nativity.” “Joseph’s Doubt” devotes 135 astonishing lines to back-and-forth between a distressed and angry Joseph and his increasingly anguished wife. Joseph’s scorn is unrelenting:
“God’s child? You lie! God never played thus with a maiden! … All men will despise me and say, ‘Old cuckold,’ thy bow is bent.”
Hearing of the angel’s visit to Mary, Joseph scoffs,
“An angel? Alas for shame. You sin by blaming it on an angel … it was some boy began this game.”
Helpless, Mary prays to God and the angel appears to set Joseph straight, at which point he apologises abjectly,
“I realize now I have acted amiss; I know I was never worthy to be your husband. I shall amend my ways and follow your example from now on, and serve you hand and foot.”
In the Bible, faced with Mary’s interesting condition,
“Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly”
No histrionics here. Joseph is rather more upset in the second-century apocryphal “Infancy Gospel of James”:
“[H]e smote his face,and cast himself down upon the ground on sackcloth and wept bitterly,” demanding of Mary, “‘Why have you done this? … Why have you humbled your soul?’ But she wept bitterly, saying, ‘I am pure and I know not a man.’”
I found this article. I also found its been sung by Eliza Carthy who we went to hear wassail in Halifax. There is big, dark, difficult stuff here. The Cherry Tree Carol finds what's unpredictable in the story of the Incarnation, what's dangerous about it: an angry man caught up in events he cannot understand or control, a child speaking from the womb, a tall tree which suddenly bows low, a baby who says he will make the skies tremble. Gods should be unpredictable; they should be outside human knowledge. One of the things which appeals to me most about medieval Christianity, by contrast with the modern variety, is that it has space for these kind of strange, uncomfortable stories. If you want a religion which appears reasonable and amenable and sophisticated and modern (and certainly not that dreaded word, medieval), you have to take away these myths and miracles, leaving only what can be argued about; this is how we get a church which can only talk about ethics and law and morality, without ever mentioning mystery and wonder and the supernatural.
Anyway!
It’s though at this point that Joseph proves his faithfulness, first to Mary and then, more importantly, to God.
According to Matthew, when Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, he was “not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly.” (Matthew 1:19)
Joseph was a man of quiet strength. He was a man of integrity, true to his convictions. Yet, he was compassionate and considerate of others. He found himself in a no-win situation. He couldn’t, in good conscience, go on with the wedding; yet, he couldn’t bring himself to humiliate Mary either, much less put her to death.
Breaking off the relationship, but not making a big deal of it, seemed to be the most honourable thing to do, and if Joseph’s part in the Christmas drama ended here, we could understand and respect him as a man of faith.
But there’s more. According to Matthew, Joseph had a dream in which an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that the child in Mary’s womb was of the Holy Spirit and that he should become as a father to the child.
Now, it’d be tempting for us, reading the story some two thousand years after the fact – knowing the rest of the story, as it were – simply to say, “Well, there you have it.” The angel explained everything.
But then, we’ve all had dreams, haven’t we? And we know how bizarre and elusive dreams can be. I don’t know many people who make major life decisions based upon what they think they saw or heard in a dream. Do you? Yet, according to Matthew, Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
And then, in one further act of faithfulness and obedience to God, Joseph publicly named the child. Matthew says simply, “he named him Jesus.” In so doing, he claimed the child as his own and gave him the benefit of a noble ancestry, making him a descendent of the house of David.
Because of the faithfulness of Joseph, Jesus would have a father and Joseph would have a place in the drama of God’s salvation.
What we learn from the Christmas story about Joseph is that God chose to father his son a man who was devout, full of faith, obedient, just, merciful, and one who loved and carefully guarded both Mary and the Child Jesus. He doesn’t utter a word but without him the story would have turned out very differently. No wonder in some traditions he’s known as the patron saint of changed plans!
