A sports fan was sitting in the top row at the
Super Bowl, barely able to see the field. He noticed a vacant
seat about 3 rows from the field, on the 50-yard line. It was
still vacant when the second quarter started, so he went down
and asked the man seated next to it if anyone was sitting there.
The man said, "No, have a seat."
A few minutes later he asked the man if he knew whose seat this was and why they
weren't here at such an important event.
The man said that for ten years it had been his wife's seat but that she had
passed away.
Feeling sorry for the nice man, the fan asked if he didn't have a friend or family
member that he could have offered the seat to instead of just leaving it vacant.
"No,” the man said, “they're all at the funeral."
It’s amazing how nice, ordinary people can sometimes
look at the world and at life.
This morning we continue our series on the Nativity and
its impact on various people who were present at the
time of Christ’s birth. We’ve
looked at the lowly shepherds and at the evil King Herod.
From the brash and brutal Herod, we journey to the other end of the spectrum,
this morning, to Mary and Joseph. From evil and menacing to good and decent.
Matthew 1:18-25 tells of the birth of Jesus. Matthew’s version, unlike
Luke’s, doesn’t detail a lot of things about the journey to Bethlehem
or the stable or the shepherds. Matthew’s version focuses very much on
Mary and Joseph and the dilemma Mary’s pregnancy brought to them.
We know from Luke’s account that Mary had found favour with God. She
was a good and decent young girl. There were no skeletons in her closet or
her family’s. She was obedient to God.
Matthew also tells us about Joseph. He was a righteous man.
Again—no skeletons.
Neither Mary nor Joseph was perfect, but both were willing
to be God’s
instruments.
Both were willing to be obedient to God’s plan.
We know from Matthew that Joseph struggled greatly when he found out Mary
was pregnant. Who could blame him? After all they were engaged and, in Jewish
law, that meant they were as good as married. Joseph had never made love to
Mary and yet she was expecting!
He must have been very disappointed and angry. The woman he loved was an adulteress.
The woman he was to marry had already been with another man! It was the only
explanation.
What would he do?
The marriage couldn’t go on but he didn’t want
any harm to come to Mary.
Joseph had two options.
One was to publicly declare the engagement over. Mary would be exposed as
an adulteress. The law called for her to be stoned to death but that was no
longer done. She would, however, be shamed and ridiculed and shunned. Her child
would carry the label of illegitimate forever.
Joseph, though, loved Mary too much to take such action. He was too decent
to exact such revenge.
Joseph’s other option was to annul the marriage agreement quietly and
send her away. This way she wouldn’t be disgraced publicly. She could
start a new life with her child somewhere far away. Her reputation would
be protected.
It was an agonizing time and a torturous decision for Joseph. However, in
the midst of the struggle an angel appeared to Joseph to tell him all that
had happened.
There was a third option.
Mary was not an adulteress.
She was specially chosen.
She would be the mother of God’s Son, conceived in her by the Holy
Spirit.
God wanted Mary and Joseph to be the parents of God’s
Son.
This child was to be called Jesus, which meant “God
will save His people.”
And so Joseph, like Mary, was obedient to the Lord. Mary would be his wife.
He would bring the child up as his own.
He was a good and decent man!
Often when we picture the times of Jesus we paint a very
bleak picture of Judaism—the
legalism, the corruption, the maintenance of the status quo by the religious
leaders. We can look at the situation very narrowly. We can paint everyone
with the same brush we use for the corrupt Pharisees and Sadducees.
We can wonder how much goodness and decency was left in that society.
Now it’s true that the Jewish religious leadership
had basically grown stagnant, legalistic and self-perpetuating.
But not all the leaders were close-minded. The gospels tell
of Jewish leaders such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
who weren’t opposed to Jesus.
At the same time, the general population weren’t all like the blood-thirsty
mob who shouted “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” on Good Friday. Many
were open to God’s new revelation in Jesus Christ.
Many leaders and people, in general, were against the corruption that had
entered their religion. Many, like Mary and Joseph were good and decent people.
Yet Jesus came to this earth for them too.
He came to save the good and decent people as well as those who are more outwardly
bad and decadent.
Today our world is full of good and decent people.
Few of us are outwardly evil.
Few are the equivalent of King Herod—ordering babies to be slaughtered.
Few rob or maim or murder.
The worst that most of us do is swear at the guy who cuts
us off on the 401 or shout at the dog or fiddle with
our income tax deductions. We readily
admit we aren’t perfect, but we also adamantly hold to the fact that
we aren’t that bad, either.
It’s very hard for “normal—good and decent” people
to see that they have any real need for Christ.
We can be like the Rolls Royce company.
An Englishman was driving his Rolls in the Alps. As he was making a tight
turn a front spring broke. After limping into the nearest Swiss town, he
called Rolls Royce in England. The next day a company representative appeared,
replaced the spring and left.
Back in England the car owner wondered about not receiving a bill or documentation
of any kind about the spring. He called the company and asked them to look
up their records.
The company representative replied, “There must be some mistake
sir. There is no such thing as a broken spring on a Rolls Royce.”
But there is brokenness in our lives. There is sin in our
lives. So often, though people—particularly those outside the Church—say
there really is nothing wrong.
Yet, the truth is that we, as human beings, need Jesus Christ.
Specifically, there are two basic needs that Christ addresses.
They are the same for everyone—even
good and decent people.
The first need is to have our sins dealt with. The sins—the imperfections—in
our lives keep us away from God. But the things we have done wrong—the
things that we will do wrong can be cleansed away. Our relationship with
God, broken because of sin, can be repaired.
We all need forgiveness to deal with the sin and guilt that resides in our
lives.
Sins of commission and omission.
Guilt over many things—large and small—real and imagined.
We all need forgiveness in one way or another.
Forgiveness from those we have hurt knowingly or unknowingly.
Forgiveness for the stubbornness and pride that keeps us from being the person
God truly wants us to be.
Forgiveness from ourselves so we can stop beating ourselves up over this mistake
or that regret.
The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaims to us
that forgiveness—the
cleansing—the dealing with sin, is available through faith in Him.
Jesus answers our need whether we are Mary, Joseph, Herod, you or me.
Jesus answers that need.
The second basic need we have, that only Christ can fulfill, has to do with
purpose and meaning in life.
Every person seeks meaning for life.
Every person seeks some depth to life’s experiences.
Think of things that make life meaningful—other than
Super Bowl seats.
Things like love, peace, rest, joy, hope, light, happiness, strength, wisdom.
It’s been said that in Christ we have:
A LOVE that can never be fathomed.
A PEACE that can never be understood.
A REST that can never be disturbed.
A JOY that can never be diminished.
A HOPE that can never be disappointed.
A LIGHT that can never be darkened.
A HAPPINESS that can never be interrupted.
A STRENGTH that can never be weakened.
A WISDOM that can never be baffled.
In Christ we have:
RESOURCES that can never be exhausted.
Everyone has needs.
The rich and the poor need more than money.
The intelligent and the simple need more than knowledge.
The well and the ill need more than health.
The sociable and the lonely need more than company.
The helpers and the helped need more than service.
The thoughtful and the shallow minded need more than philosophy.
The ambitious and the lazy need more than goals.
The assured and the hesitant need more than confidence.
The good and the bad need more than rules.
All need to be cleansed from sin.
All need to be fulfilled.
All need Jesus Christ!
(1585)
© The Rev. Dennis Cook, St. Timothy’s Presbyterian Church, Ajax,
ON, Canada
