Sermon Audio

What is a just man to do?

My betrothed is with child. I’m at a loss for what to do. This just isn’t right. She says that she has been with no man, but she carries the seed of another in her womb. She says that this is no seed of man, that the child that she carries is the Son of God. That’s...unbelievable.

What is a just man to do?

Mary has never been dishonest with me. Quite the contrary—she has always been forward with me, honest, up front...the very model of a wife. But then...this! I can’t go through with the marriage; it wouldn’t be right. But I don’t want to make an example of her, either. Like I said, she has been an upstanding betrothed. She doesn’t deserve what she’s going to get on account of that, but she is with child out of wedlock.

What is a just man to do?

I can’t stay with her. The child she carries is not mine, and it wouldn’t be right to care for her and him as if they were my own. Pretend all I want, the people would know. Her shame would be my disgrace. Imagine it: a man caring for a child not his conceived out of wedlock by his betrothed—a stepfather to a bastard; it’s unconscionable. Still, I cannot bear to see what will happen to her.

What is a just man to do?

Perhaps the best plan is to put her away secretly—call off the wedding in private. She can go her own way. She has relatives in the hill country, some town in Judah (cf. Luke 1:39); she can go there and wait things out for a while. Maybe the child will simply be seen as fatherless—a half-orphan—and Mary a widow.

Poor child, bearing another child into a world such as this. I’ll sleep on it...make sure I’m making a just and honorable decision.

What is a just man to do?

That’s when an angel of the Lord appeared to me. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Aroused from my sleep, thoughts and images rushed through my head. The many lessons at the rabbis’ feet flooded my imagination. But the one passage that kept returning to me, again and again, was what was written by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) Immanuel—God-with-us; could it really be? I mean, that was the Word of God, of course it could really be. But could it really be right now. Her? The child she carries? [startled look] ME?

Then, the next one, from the Torah, first book: “I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Dear God, why did I doubt the woman you are giving me? How could I have doubted You? There was no seed of man, for the one she carries is her Seed. The Son she carries is conceived of the Holy Spirit. My betrothed carries my God in her womb.

Immanuel and the Seed of the woman—one and the same, right here, right now. Oh, the thought of the Almighty and Omnipotent Adonai seeking to become one with us. He takes on flesh like my flesh and blood like my blood and will dwell among us. The fulfillment of all prophecy is happening now, in the womb of my Mary. Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, dwelling among people of unclean lips. And I have been in the presence of the King, the LORD of hosts. (cf. Isaiah 6:5)

What is a just man to do?

I will do as the angel of the Lord commanded me. I will take Mary to be my wife. I will care for the Son of God as my own. I will give Him the name Jesus. He will save His people from their sins. Come what may, “The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.” (Psalm 46:7) Wow, the LORD of hosts is with us—in the flesh, in the womb of my wife. He is one of us—one with us.

Oh, dear God, what do you have in store for Your Son? Again, the rabbis’ instruction comes to me:

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:2-7)

No, Adonai...may it not be! You are having my son—Your Son—led like a Lamb to the slaughter? You are doing this with the iniquity of us all laid upon Him? Please, Adonai, let there be another way!

Of course, I know there can be no other way. I mean, the only other way would be for me and for all to die for our own sins. And that is a death that will have no end—eternity in Sheol—there is no coming back from that for sinful man, for me, for Mary, for any. The thought of eternity outside of Adonai’s presence is horrible to me. But God sent His Son to be born of this woman—my wife—to be born under the Law He Himself has given. And He will redeem us who are under the same Law. (cf. Galatians 4:4-5)

No, He shall save His people from their sins—Jesus, Y’shua, that’s what His name means, and He will do it. He will do this by being THE sacrificial Lamb. Though He will have no beauty that we should desire Him—besides the fact that He will be my son and Mary’s Son—He will be without spot or blemish. The Seed of the woman, conceived without sin—though I was more than ready to accuse Mary of sin in His conception—will be perfect, and will take upon Himself the sins of His people as the lambs of Yom Kippur and Pesach; He will take them into that wonderfully human flesh that He is now assuming, and die with them. And if He takes our sins and dies with them in our place, then we will be without sin and will gain eternal life for His sake. This little boy, this infant to be born of my wife...He is the world’s Redeemer and Savior sent to shed His divine, human blood as the propitiation for the world—there’s no other way to put it.

My thoughts then turned to Mary. Surely, she must know that this is why the Holy Spirit came upon her and she conceived. Surely, she has to know that her Son is appointed to die for the sins of the world. I mean, her father received the same lessons I did from the rabbis, and he had to have taught them to her, too. What strength, to know that your Son will die for you, yet to hold it all in her heart. It is going to feel like a sword piercing that heart when He dies...every time she even thinks about it. (cf. Luke 2:35) If for no other reason, this just man will stay with her to comfort her when these thoughts occur to her again and again.

I guess it makes sense. That is why He had to be conceived and be born. That is why Adonai had to become one of us, so that He could die in our place. It is, after all, appointed for a man to die once (cf. Hebrews 9:27), and the Son of God is become man. I suppose one must always think of this Child’s death for the world upon the remembrance of this Child’s birth; as I said, in order to die for us is why the Child was born in the first place. To deny this of the Child—the Son of God—would be to deny what God had revealed of Himself through the prophets of old. (cf. Hebrews 1:1) To deny this of the Child—of Jesus—would be to deny God Himself as the Savior of all men, to reject Adonai and His Son, and the grace and forgiveness He is come to bring.

But, being very God, there is no way that death can be more powerful than Him. It’s overwhelming to ponder that this helpless infant who has been sent to die is more powerful than death, but being very God, He has to be. After all, it was the power of God that raised the son of the widow of Zarephath. (cf. 1 Kings 17:17-23)

So, the time came for the child to be born. We were in Bethlehem at the time, the City of David, because Augustus called for a census of the Roman world. It seemed like the whole world descended on that little town, there were no rooms anywhere. Of course, that doesn’t stop a baby that is ready to be born. One gentle innkeeper, though, seeing our condition, knew of a warm place that we could use. A stall—the place where animals were kept; it was good shelter, and animals birth here, so it would have to do. Finally, the Son of God was here. Mary, the dutiful mother, wrapped her Child in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. (cf. Luke 2:1-7)

There He is...the Son of God, God-with-us. I am looking upon Him with my own eyes and yet I live. What grace and mercy, that Adonai, the Almighty and Most Holy, would hide Himself in flesh like mine, with bones like mine, and blood like mine so that I can gaze upon my redemption—my redemption in the flesh. There He lies, the all-powerful God in a helpless infant, so peaceful, so mild, sleeping (though God never sleeps) in a trough fashioned from a tree. I can’t help but wonder by what method this son of mine, God’s Son, will be sacrificed. [slowly turn to look at the crucifix and ponder for a short while]

Yes, now God pitches His tent in human flesh. (cf. John 1:14) He is an infant wrapped in swaddling cloths. There He is, in a manger, the ultimate Just Man and One who justifies (cf. Romans 3:26), He who is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (cf. Isaiah 9:6), Creator of the Worlds (cf. Hebrews 1:2), Holy One (cf. Mark 1:24), Son of the Highest (cf. Luke 1:32), Immanuel, Jesus...the forgiveness of all of our sins.