| I.
To desert a partnerwhich nowadays happens
more often than in the time of the parents of Jesusis an act for which
there are many reasons. The end of love can happen quietly, creeping in like
fog. Partners become strangers; they grow distant; they get tired of one
another. Its a gradual desertion, an inner exodus, before anybody outside
notices it.
Or it might be a sudden endinga painful
ripping of all trust, an ending by unfaithfulness. Suddenly it becomes obvious
that something different, something strange, has come between us. Like a sword
it divides two people who had once loved each other. Forgiveness or a new
beginning is especially difficult in the case of marital unfaithfulness. How
would it be possible to get rid of that strangeness that has come between us?
We cant just think it away. The old trust, that unshakeable
dependability, just wont come back. It cant come back, at least not
totally. Scars will remain. Divorce is usually the result.
But the birth of Jesus the Messiah took
place this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before
they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her
husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public
disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
The story of Mary, who, although not yet
married, already carried a baby that was not Josephs in her womb, and the
story of Joseph, who in spite of everything forgave and married her, this story
touches us.
Oh, you obedient and humble Mary, you were
neither asked if you wanted to bear this child announced to you as divine, nor
asked if under these circumstances you still wanted to marry your Joseph. Oh,
humble Mary, we are not even told when or how or with what emotion you broke
the news of your unexpected pregnancy to Joseph!
Oh, you obedient, courageous Joseph, you
permitted yourself to be convinced by just one dream in just one night, and you
then disciplined yourself a whole nine months so that your Mary could remain a
virgin. What a story! A humble Mary, a courageous Joseph, and a God, who had
everything in his grip, including the emotions of a young couple newly in love.
You see, there are many reasons for leaving a partner. There are also many
reasons not to leave. Of course it seldom happens that we are commanded by an
angel to stay.
II.
Friends, we cant help stating honestly
and clearly that this story is a pious legend, thought out and composed by
people of faith, to clarify a very important and for them unavoidable aspect of
the coming and life of Jesus Christ.
The one here expected and born is greatly
superior to all those conceived or born in the human way. He is a divine being,
a holy onesanctified by his conception, that was no human conception.
Whoever is conceived of the Holy Spirit is closer to God than one conceived by
humans.
The divinity of Jesus was for the evangelist
Matthew especially important. He has just finished listing all the generations
from which Jesus was descended, fourteen from Abraham to David, fourteen from
David to the Babylonian captivity, and from there fourteen generations to
Christ. In this way he established the position of Jesus as son of David. And
now he finds it necessary to establish the position of Jesus as son of God. He
does this by means of the virgin birth.
Friends, everybody who reads the Bible with
open eyes and mental alertness recognizes the tension between the explanation
of the genetic descent of Jesus and the picture of the miraculous nature of his
coming to life in one and the same gospel. Its a pious legend. And by the
way, it is not the only one! The Greek myths tell us that Perseus also was born
of a virginof Danae, who became a mother by Zeus by means of gold raining
down. Or Hercules, the virgin-born child of Alkemene. Yes, even about Plato it
was told that his mother Amphiktone was a virgin and Apollos was his father.
Spiritual heroes, mythical demigods, lords and landlordsabout many of
these we have stories of miraculous births. And all of these stories have the
same purpose: To make it clear that we have here a person of superhuman power
and intelligence, a person of divine nature and divine spirit.
Therefore, we find in Matthew also the word of
the prophet Isaiah, who foretold exactly such a superhuman son of God:
Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name
him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us. Therefore
also the name Emmanuel, God with us. God near us. God in the midst
of us in this person.
We should also take into consideration how much
truth we can find in this pious legend about humble Mary and courageous Joseph.
It might be an open question how much of it is history and how much legend.
That is often the case with biblical stories. Much more important is the answer
to the question, Why are we told that Joseph stayed with Mary? Why in the world
would an angel be concerned to tell the whole story to Joseph in a dream? Why
use the story of the miraculous nature of the whole situation to convince
Joseph that he should (1) not publicly announce Marys pregnancy so as to
protect Mary from judgment as an adulteress; that he should (2) not send Mary
away quietly; that he should (3) give the expected baby the name Jesus as
foreseen by God; and that he should (4) not touch Mary until the child is born?
Whats the purpose of all this?
When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as
the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no
marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him
Jesus.
Mary and Joseph were not to be separated. An
illegitimate child always bears the stress of living between two loved ones.
Such a child is and remains a stranger. What lives in such a child is constant
turmoil. Never can such turmoil be completely expelled from the life of a
couple, from the life of a family. The third person stands between them as an
invisible wall.
Engaged but also bondedso would it have
been with Joseph and Mary. Both of them were descendants of the Jewish people.
Both were reared in the faith in the almighty God of their fathers; they were
reared in the hope of all Jews that one day the son of David, the son of God
would come to forgive people of all the sins that burdened them and to
establish a new reign of peace and righteousness. This hope bound also the two
young person, Joseph of Nazareth, and his intended, Mary. And the child that
they were now expectinghowever miraculous or natural his conception might
have beenthat this child was the fulfillment of all those promises; that
must have bound the two of them ever closer together, even increasing their
expectant joy over the coming birth.
The hope of the people of Israel resided in
this child, this man Jesus of Nazareth. That alone was the decisive issue for
his parentsno matter what legends later Christianity developed around his
wondrous conception and birth.
III.
Can we remain neutral about this story? Should
we ignore from now on every Bible text that deals with humble Mary and
courageous Joseph?
Of course not! The hope that we place in this
man Jesus of Nazareth, this very hope binds us over the centuries with Mary and
Joseph, his parents, with the shepherds in the fields, with the wise men from
the orient, with the prophets and the patriarchs of Israel. They all placed
their hope, and we continue to place our hope on the reign of God among us.
Nothing binds persons together like a common hope and a common purpose: a world
in which peace and righteousness live and where God is with us. In Jesus Christ
this world has taken a big step in that direction.
Amen.
Dorothea
Zager, Wachenheim
E-Mail:
DWZager@t-online.de
translated by
Bruce E. Shields
Emmanuel
School of Religion
E-Mail:
ShieldsB@esr.edu |
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