The Body Language of Advent - Leaning (Matthew 1:18-25) 🕯 🕯

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Very often in Manger Scenes, Joseph is standing close to Mary. Sometimes just behind her, with his arms out and around her. Very often, Joseph is portrayed as holding a staff.  

Sometimes, that staff has a hint of a shepherd's crook about it. He wasn't a shepherd. He was a carpenter, but the artists put a shepherd's crook in the hand of Joseph to communicate that Joseph's care for Mary and for Jesus was along the same lines of what we see in the 23rd Psalm:

The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
for the sake of His name.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me...

Joseph brought his family through hard times, finding them shelter and refuge. He provided for them, finding them rest and safety.  

More often, I think, based on what I've seen, Joseph's staff is more like a sturdy walking stick. It’s strong and straight. It’s the right length. It's solid: not going to break easily.  

Very often, in our Manger Scenes, Joseph is portrayed leaning—towards Mary, and over the child... and on his staff.  

Joseph was a regular guy. He was an ordinary, faithful Jewish guy, and a good man. Someone people could depend on. People could lean on him, but the question I want to ask today is this: what was Joseph leaning on? What was it that he was depending on?  

In the centuries before Jesus was born, in the centuries after that, life was not easy. It was complicated and dangerous. Joseph was a citizen of an occupied nation.  

He lived in Nazareth, far from the centres of power in jerusalem but whether Nazareth had or did not have a proper synagogue, Joseph knew Yahweh God. He knew his God. He had grown up, like all Jewish boys and men, studying the Torah—the Law, the instruction, that God had given His people of how they were to live. He’d grown up like all the rest, committing much of it to memory and holding it close. He had found himself a wife who also knew Yahweh God, who knew her scriptures, who knew her people's history, who held her faith close to her heart. And she had accepted him as her husband. 

The two of them one day had stood face to face in the presence of two witnesses and made a covenant with each other—a solemn, serious promise. Far beyond, “I promise you I won't forget to bring the coffee on Tuesday.” This was a promise before God. Made in the presence of two human witnesses, but the one who was going to hold you accountable for your covenant was Yahweh God Himself. Their covenant was rooted in their faith.  

Joseph probably wasn't worried when Mary said that she was going to go and visit Elizabeth for a few months. Elizabeth was an elderly relative. Mary could help. Plus, as a good Jewish woman, it would probably be nice for her to be that close to the temple, to have a chance to spend some time in Jerusalem.  

But when she came back... maybe Joseph sort of thought she looked a little bit different. And she told him why. She was three months pregnant.  

What was he going to do? Mary was not only telling him that she was three months pregnant, she was telling him it's ok—it's God's baby! He's gonna be the Messiah! Isn’t that great? The angel said so!  

For Joseph, this must have just sounded like nonsense. These days we'd say, “What have you been smoking?” What just happened?  

He might have gone home to his home, maybe sat in the house that he'd been building for the two of them to live in. I can picture him slumping against the wall, wondering, “What do I do?” 

Not only had she broken her promise to him, she had broken her promise to God. Joseph—a good, righteous, Jewish, Yahweh God-honouring man—how could he possibly spend the rest of his life with someone who would break their promise to Yahweh God? 

If it was just me, I could forgive. But it's really really not.  

Plus, she was telling him that the baby was going to be the Messiah!  

Joseph’s generation had seen enough of false Messiahs—people who thought they were going to save God's people, and who took up the sword. They blazed for about 5 minutes... and then they died, their names forgotten. Joseph must have been thinking, “If there's something that Israel does not need right now, it's another false Messiah.” 

And did Mary actually believe the story about the angel? Whether she did or she didn't, was that better or worse?  

Joseph had a choice to make. His life had just crashed, and he had a choice to make—one that only he could make. So in that crucial moment, where did Joseph lean?  

First, he leaned on the Law.  

Second, he leaned on the Promise.  

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Joseph was not a fool. Joseph was not weak. But he knew how to lean on things that would give him support, so that people could lean on him.  

In those first terrible days and hours, when he was crushed, when his mind was racing, Joseph, in an act of faith, in an act of wisdom, and an act of courage, leaned on the Law: the Law of Yahweh God.  

Joseph knew where babies came from. Joseph knew that Mary's baby was not his, and he knew what that meant according to God's Law (Deuteronomy 22). He had two choices. He could either: 

• Take Mary to court to be tried, convicted, and punished. Or  
• Quietly surrender her to the mercy of the one whose promise had been broken. 

The Torah laid down unequivocally the importance of keeping covenants, of being faithful to Yahweh God. There was instruction on the books that God had given them for exactly this eventuality, for people in exactly Joseph's situation: This is your choice.  

So Joseph trusted that Law. He trusted his weight to that next stone on the path. He trusted his weight to God's instruction. He trusted his weight to the generations before him, who had preserved and passed on and taught this Law. He trusted his weight to a higher authority, to a deeper truth than his own feelings. His anger was valid. His woundedness was valid. His sense of betrayal was valid. His desire for revenge, possibly, is even understandable. When Joseph didn't know what to do (just as today when we don't know what to do) the best place to start is with the text that God has given to us. Joseph entrusted himself, entrusted his future, entrusted his family to God's Law.  

Then (no doubt, much to Joseph’s amazement and joy) God sent a messenger to fill in the blanks.  

With that word from God, Joseph chose to lean on the Promise.  

The angel came to Joseph saying, “Look, I know. I know what's going on here. I understand. Joseph, you are leaning on the Law and that is the exact right place to start. But Joseph... look deeper. Yes, this child is the Messiah. Yes, this child will save His people. But first... this child needs you. Yes, I know that you have been disappointed so many times by false Messiahs: men who were convinced that they had the sword of God in their hands. Men who had over and over been defeated. Who were now dead and gone. But Joseph, the fact that there were false Messiahs does not diminish the promise that one day there will be a true Messiah. So Joseph... right now... where's your faith? You say that God keeps His promises. You're in this position because you hold true that God keeps His promises. Well, it's time to entrust your next step to His promise. Lean on the promise.”  

Joseph was a carpenter. He had, over his lifetime of his work, learned his materials. He knew the different kinds of wood that he would work with, whether it was palm, or cypress, or olive wood, or from an almond tree. He got to know the characteristics of the wood. Once he knew where that wood came from, he knew what that wood would do. 

As a carpenter, he learned his tools. He understood his saws, and his chisels, and his rasps. He spent time caring for his tools, and getting to know what they would do. Red Green notwithstanding, not any tool is the right tool. A wise man would use his tools for the job they were intended for.  

Joseph was a believer in Yahweh God. He spent time with his God, getting to know his God, who is creator of us all. Judge of us all. The source of truth. The one who disciplines us when we go wrong. The one who sets us free when we are captive. Joseph’s God is often surprising, sometimes incomprehensible, but always, always keeps His promises. 

Joseph picked up his faith like he picked up his staff. He knew what needed to be done, and he knew where to lean: first on the text—what God had said. Then on the promise—the message of hope that comes to us in the world, especially through Jesus.  

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Pope Leo XIII wrote about Joseph that: 

...It was Joseph's responsibility to protect with a mighty love and a daily care; to earn what was necessary; to guard from death the child under threat from a jealous monarch; to find refuge in the miseries of the journey and in the bitternesses of exile; to be the companion, the assistance, and the upholder of his family. 

He could not do that without knowing first where to lean. He could not be their support if he did not know first who was his own support.  

When we look at the body language of Joseph in our manger scene, we see a man who is leaning—leaning towards those who need his support, and also leaning on the support that he needs. Joseph’s staff, his ‘body language of Advent,’ speaks to us centuries later, and at such a great distance. His body language says that this is a man who lived his life leaning towards Mary and her Child, leaning on Yahweh God, and leaning on the promise of peace.  

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