4th Sunday of Advent - Year A

 December 18th, 2022

 

In a video segment we watched for last Thursday’s Advent Lectionary discussions, one of the presenters mentioned that there are two approaches to scripture: the historical critical method and the theological.  He stated that we should look at today’s readings with the theological lens.  However, I feel that we do scripture, and the theological lessons scripture provides when we discard the historical critical input.  I will return to this point at the end of this reflection but for now, let’s look at Matthew’s version of events.

In Matthew’s infancy narrative, Joseph is the primary character. Like his namesake in Genesis chapter 37, he receives messages in dreams and must make decisions based on these messages.  (In Luke, it is Mary who receives a divine message and must choose.)

Joseph, presented by Matthew as “a just man,” will not subject Mary to a public divorce.  Instead, he decides to terminate the marriage quietly.

Joseph’s decision here models the sophisticated observance of the Torah that Matthew desires of all the members of his strongly Jewish church.  They are to observe “the smallest part of a letter” of the Torah (Mt. 5:17-19) as taught but with mercy as the most important principle of applying the law as authoritatively taught by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. 

Now, Joseph knows that he has not slept with Mary.  She must have cheated on him, right?  Custom required Joseph to publicly divorce Mary for cheating, for him to expose her ‘wickedness’ to the community.   For Joseph, to not divorce her was to invite the harshest insults and embarrassment upon himself—and on Mary.  To publicly divorce Mary would have meant Joseph’s reputation could have been almost wiped clean.  He would have even walked away with some money.  Who wouldn’t have stuck to law and order?  Preserve your reputation, financial status, and the status quo.  This is the way of revenge!

But the angel has told Joseph in a dream that the pregnancy is through the agency of the Holy Spirit.  Joseph is instructed to name the child Jesus.  Joseph does as the angel instructed.  Naming the child by Joseph has significance in law.  It makes Joseph the legal father of Jesus.  It affirms that Jesus is a descendant of the house David, which is so important in Matthew’s genealogy.  But more importantly for us, Joseph becomes a role model for an important theme throughout Matthew’s gospel, that is, that following the Law or Torah includes love and mercy.  He echoes Hosea 6.6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings”, twice in his Gospel, first in Matthew 9.13 “Go and learn what this means, ““I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” and again in Matthew 12.7, “But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless.”

Joseph refuses to abandon Mary and Jesus to be torn to pieces by society.  To refuse to abandon Mary is to show mercy.  Through the story of this young, poor family, from an oppressed community, comes the embodiment of mercy.  The affirmation that God will restore us.

Let’s now look at the historical critical look at Matthew as he quotes Isaiah 7:14 to identify the child to be born to a virgin as Emmanuel (“God is with us”).

During the time of Isaiah, Israel and it’s King, Ahaz, are under threat.  An invading army is a threat to a mother to be in the household of Ahaz and Ahaz, an insecure king, is a threat to the life of the infant as he is known to have sacrificed one of his sons previously.  In Matthew, a pregnant Mary is under threat and at the mercy of her honourable but merciful and just betrothed.  The maniacal king, Herod, is a threat to the child Jesus and we know he tries to murder the infant Jesus.  Both Isaiah and Matthew signal that God has put the endangered pregnancy under his personal protection.  Both see the survival of the baby as a sign that God is with his people.

Matthew quotes the Greek Septuagint version of Isaiah 7:14 to identify the child to be born to a virgin as Emmanuel (“God is with us”).  This saying forms a “book-end” with the closing words of Matthew’s Gospel.  The resurrected Jesus says, “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (28:20).  The historical critical lens adds to the theological interpretation in that God was with us then, now, and always.  For Matthew God’s promise to always be with the people of God has achieved its ultimate realization both in the birth of Jesus and in the presence of the resurrected Jesus in the People of God.

 

Please share your thoughts.

 

 

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