Courageous Love: SALT's Commentary for Advent Week Four
Fourth Week of Advent (Year A): Matthew 1:18-25 and Isaiah 7:10-16
Check out SALT’s Strange New World podcast episodes on these passages, “The Poetry of Christmas - Part Four: The Question,” and “Understanding Christmas - Part Four: Rethinking Christmas.”
Big Picture:
1) In a traditional Advent wreath, this week’s light is a candle of love against the shadows of hate and fear. And in this week’s Gospel reading, Matthew casts Jesus’ arrival as a divine act of saving, sheltering love, and Joseph’s decisions as compassionate, courageous love.
2) According to Deuteronomy, if a man discovers that the woman he has just married or betrothed is not a virgin, “the men of her town shall stone her to death” (Deut 22:20-27). Matthew presents Joseph as “a righteous man,” which is to say, someone who was likely well aware of this brutal law (Mt 1:19).
3) One of Matthew’s primary concerns is to emphasize how Jesus stands in the stream of Jewish history and tradition, and accordingly, this week’s citation of Hebrew Scripture is the first of many in Matthew’s Gospel. In the referenced section of Isaiah, the prophet is assuring King Ahaz that God will protect Judah from external enemies — and as a sign of that abiding protection, a young woman will give birth to a child named, “Immanuel,” or “God is with us” (Isa 7:14).
Scripture:
1) This is the opening scene in Matthew’s Gospel, both following and filling out the last step of the introductory genealogy (Mt 1:1-17). Matthew’s point is that God’s salvation is unfolding in time over generations, with poetic symmetry and grace (Mt 1:17).
2) Mary’s pregnancy causes Joseph to make plans for a discreet divorce — but exactly why he does so is an intriguing question. The story suggests at least two possibilities.
3) The first and more familiar interpretation is that Joseph, “a righteous man,” is aware of laws like those in Deuteronomy 22, but compassionately plans to keep things quiet, so as to help Mary avoid “public disgrace” for what many will assume to be her infidelity (Mt 1:19). The distinguished preacher and scholar Fred Craddock has called Joseph the first great interpreter of scripture in the New Testament: in effect, Joseph subordinates texts like Deuteronomy 22 in favor of texts like, say, Micah 6:8: “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” In other words, Joseph wisely acts upon a justice deeper than what is merely “legal” (a theme his son, Jesus, will later expound at length in his preaching). Against the shadows of hateful violence dressed up as law, Joseph acts with merciful love — and the Gospel story begins.
4) Accordingly, Joseph plans “to dismiss Mary quietly” (Mt 1:19). But then an angel appears to him in a dream, assures him that Mary has in fact been faithful, that the pregnancy is from the Holy Spirit, and that he, Joseph, precisely as a “son of David,” has a role to play. He is to name the child, “Jesus” (meaning “God saves”), to serve as the child’s human father, and so to participate in the story of salvation, outlined in Matthew’s opening genealogy and echoed in the ancient words of Isaiah.
5) This familiar interpretation is both elegant and persuasive. And yet many careful students of scripture — including Aquinas, Jerome, and Origen — have argued for another reading instead, not least because three details in Matthew’s story don’t quite seem to fit with the familiar interpretation.
6) First, the familiar interpretation assumes that Joseph initially learns of Mary’s pregnancy without any explanation or reference to the Spirit, and only learns of the Spirit’s involvement in the dream. But Matthew plainly says the opposite: “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:18). Matthew seems to be saying that Joseph is aware of the Spirit’s involvement from the start.
7) Second, the word translated in the NRSV as “to expose her to public disgrace” is deigmatisai, which means “to expose” or “to make a spectacle of.” But exactly what Joseph doesn’t want to “expose” isn’t clear. Is it Mary’s supposedly illicit pregnancy, as the familiar interpretation would have it? Or is it Mary’s pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, which would surely “make a spectacle” of her, were it to become public? Or is it simply the divorce itself? Any of these possibilities would be consistent with deigmatisai.
8) Third, if Joseph thinks Mary has betrayed him, we might expect the angel in his dream to say, “do not be angry” or “do not be heartbroken” — but not “do not be afraid to marry her.” And on the other hand, in many scriptural stories, being afraid is indeed the first human response to divine presence, so it would make sense if Joseph’s first reaction to Mary’s divine-and-human pregnancy was fear. From this angle, we shouldn’t translate the angel’s message to him as, Hey, the child is from the Holy Spirit, not another man, so don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife..., but rather: Hey, don’t let the fact that the child is from the Holy Spirit make you afraid to take Mary as your wife…
9) What might Joseph be afraid of? Perhaps he’s afraid of getting in the way of God’s work. After all, doesn’t Isaiah’s vision of God’s “sign” feature a “young woman with child” — not an engaged couple? Or perhaps Joseph is afraid of overstepping his calling, unable to see a role for an ordinary man like him in God’s glorious play of redemption. Perhaps he considers himself unworthy of being the stepfather of God’s child (!!). Or perhaps he’s simply unnerved and bewildered that God — the author of creation, whom “no one may see and live” (Exodus 33:20) — has come so unimaginably, intimately near. It’s easy to imagine him thinking, Surely a child conceived from the Holy Spirit needs no human father!
10) But then the angel appears to Joseph in a dream. Do not be afraid, son of David! You have a role to play: to welcome the child into your lineage; to help name him; to help raise him; and to support Mary at every step along the way. Take courage, step up, and love!
11) Finally, Matthew contends that “all this took place” in connection with Isaiah’s vision: “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son…” (Mt 1:23). For Isaiah, however, the operative Hebrew term was ‘almah, “maiden,” not “virgin” (Matthew’s source here is the Greek translation of Isaiah, where ‘almah is rendered as parthenos, “virgin”). Isaiah continues: “...and shall name him Immanuel” (Isa 7:14). In the end, of course, following the angel’s instruction, Joseph names the child “Jesus” (or “God Saves”) — but for Matthew, Isaiah’s “Immanuel” (“God Is With Us”) nevertheless shines through. In effect, the newborn’s name will be: “The God Who Saves Is With Us.”
Takeaways:
1) What is Joseph afraid of? That Mary has betrayed him? Or that God has come wonderfully, fearfully close? Matthew’s account is open to either interpretation, or a blend of both. Biblical stories are often written in this kind of spare, open, multivalent style, making room for us to reflect on our own fears and hopes from multiple perspectives.
2) But either way, the angel calls Joseph to a love that doubles as a kind of courage. Courage to commit — though the neighbors may whisper and judge. Courage to nurture — though the child you raise is from the Holy Spirit. Courage to love — though the child you love is none other than Love, none other than “The God Who Saves Is With Us.”
3) And what is the source, the wellspring of such courage, in Joseph or in us today? God’s love, the love made flesh, the love that came to dwell with us, and save us, and love us back to life. The love Isaiah spoke of, reassuring an anxious king of God’s sheltering presence. The love Matthew spoke of, invoking Isaiah, reassuring an anxious community of disciples. The love Mary knew, the love that casts out hate and fear. Do not be afraid, sons and daughters of David, sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah, sons and daughters of Mary and Joseph! The God who saves is with us! Take courage, step up, and love!
Check out SALT’s Strange New World podcast episodes on these passages, “The Poetry of Christmas - Part Four: The Question,” and “Understanding Christmas - Part Four: Rethinking Christmas.”