Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
And He Gave Him the Name Jesus
“And he gave him the name Jesus.” It may be the least exciting sentence in this whole passage, but it may also be the most significant.
It starts with “he.” That’s Joseph. It’s normal for a father to be the one to name his son. But Joseph was no ordinary father, and the child born to Mary was no ordinary son. For all intents and purposes, Joseph looked like your ordinary carpenter. He wasn’t wealthy. His family didn’t hold any particular sway in his community. But his ancestry was rich and powerful.
We didn’t read it, but the only thing that Matthew writes in his gospel before the birth of Jesus, is the family tree of Joseph. We don’t need Ancestry.com to figure it; Matthew records 52 generations going all the way back to Abraham. And what we find there is amazing.
Like all family trees, the top is narrower than the bottom. That is to say, Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had father Abraham. A lot of people at the time of Joseph could claim to be a descendant of Abraham. But, as we go through this list, we see celebrity after celebrity – names that we recognize, like Isaac and Jacob and Judah. All three of them are discussed at great length in the book of Genesis. All of them received the promise and blessing of God that their children would become a great nation and that all nations on earth would be blessed through them.
Then we see Boaz who took in the widow Ruth and provided for her. And then David and Solomon his grandson and great-grandson who became the two greatest kings Israel ever had. After them, 13 more kings all the way until the Babylonian captivity when any right to rule was taken away from them and never given back.
That’s why we don’t know names like Eliakim or Zadok or Eleazar, because by the time they returned to Israel, being of the line of David didn’t matter too much anymore. Which is also why, even though Joseph was the direct descendant of King David, he didn’t sit on a throne or rule over a kingdom. He could be a no-name carpenter that no one paid attention to.
But God did. He hadn’t forgotten his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to King David and King Solomon. Everyone else may have lost sight of the line of the Savior weaving its way through history, but God hadn’t. Joseph was the man.
You could also say that figuratively about Joseph’s spirituality. He was “the man.” Matthew describes him as being “a righteous man,” and everything we hear about him is positive. He was a faithful believer and conscientious in everything he did. He knew God’s law and wanted to live according to God’s will.
Which is why, when he found out that his fiancée was pregnant – and they hadn’t slept together yet (which is another sign of Joseph’s righteousness) – Joseph was ready to divorce her. The only conclusion he could come to was that she had been unfaithful to him, which is the only proper grounds for divorce.
Joseph was well within his rights, but he wasn’t about to abuse those rights or seek revenge. He was still planning to act in love and compassion. He didn’t want to “expose [Mary] to public disgrace.” It wasn’t about getting even or giving her what she deserved or even giving up on her. Even in divorce, Joseph showed his integrity to protect and honor the woman he promised to love his whole life long – even when it seemed like she had broken that promise to him. Joseph was a standup guy.
Now, at this point in the story, it’s hard to see how we could get from divorcing a seemingly unfaithful fiancée to naming her son Jesus. That’s not usually how it works. Once you split, you split. You don’t start parenting your cheating spouse’s children. Which is another reason why this unexciting sentence (“And he gave him the name Jesus.”) is so significant, because it means that God had to intervene.
While Joseph was still mulling over how to solve a problem like Mary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and explained the most amazing sequence of events to him. Let’s just allow the angel’s message to stand for itself: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.”[1]
Mary hadn’t cheated after all! This was a supernatural pregnancy that only God could bring about! It was a miracle!
So, why didn’t Mary tell Joseph? Matthew says that Mary was “found to be with child,”[2] not that “Mary told Joseph she was pregnant.” Can you imagine how that would have gone over? “Yeah, I bet ‘God made you pregnant’! You expect me to believe that?” But when an angel comes and gives you an explanation that you could never have dreamt up on your own, you listen. God had planned the perfect scenario to keep Mary and Joseph together. Because, like preserving the line of the Savior even after the kingship was taken away from David’s family, keeping Mary safe was priority #1.
Joseph, this righteous man, this conscientious believer, who showed that he sincerely loved Mary, was the perfect one to endure the inevitable questions and speculation. What would it have looked like to the rest of the world as Mary’s belly grew? Joseph wouldn’t seem so righteous. His reputation might be ruined. But better that people think less of Joseph than that he divorce Mary and she becomes an outcast without anyone to protect or provide for her at this pivotal time. Better that Joseph be the subject of slander than the mother of the Savior be made so vulnerable.
It was literally a miracle that allowed Joseph to stay with Mary and to take on the daunting task that God was giving him. It sounds so simple to hear the angel say, “and you are to give him the name Jesus.”[3] But Joseph was going to do more than name Jesus. He was going to raise him. He was going to be responsible for making sure that God’s Son was holy – circumcised on the eighth day, all the appropriate sacrifices offered, all the necessary pilgrimages made – not to mention mentoring our Wonderful Counselor through puberty.
It’s no wonder that the angel would say to him, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.”[4] There was a lot to be afraid of! But Joseph believed the angel and behaved according to his faith in God.
So, he was there to name Jesus. But maybe the most significant part of this significant sentence is the last word – “And he gave him the name Jesus.”
The child growing in Mary’s belly was none other than the long-promised and sought-after Savior of the world. He was the fulfillment of all God’s greatest promises. He was who God meant when he promised Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”[5] He was the one who would sit on the throne of his father David forever.[6] He was the one God was talking about when he promised King Ahaz, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.”[7]
Here he was! The Messiah. The Christ. And Joseph was to name him Jesus because “he will save his people from their sins.”[8] That’s what the name Jesus literally means, i.e. “The LORD saves.” It was a common name. In Hebrew it’s the name Joshua. There were plenty of Joshes running around Judea when Jesus was born, because there were a lot of parents who were looking ahead to God fulfilling that promise.
But Jesus would be a different Josh, because his parents didn’t name him that in the hope that God would save, but knowing that Jesus was their salvation.
He came to “save his people from their sins,”[9] which is significant too, because there were (and are) a lot of misconceptions about what kind of salvation this world needs. In Jesus’ day, a lot of Jews were looking to be saved from the Romans. They wanted a political and national savior. They wanted someone to make Israel great again. But that’s not what Jesus came to do. He came to save his people from their sins.
So, today, even though we often like to think injustice and hatred and intolerance are our greatest enemies, Jesus is still our Savior from sin. That’s our greatest threat – not climate change or terrorism or political polarization. It’s sin. It’s the natural inclination that we all have to disobey God. It’s the thing that makes us so angry and impatient with other people. It’s the source of our bitterness and resentment. It’s the reason people don’t get along and the cause for our depression and anxiety. But more than that, it’s the thing that separates us from our God.
You’ve seen its effects in this world. You know what sin can do to people. It can destroy marriages. It can sour souls. It can take lives. But ultimately, sin damns. It sends sinners to hell. And everyone of us sinful.
Just think what you would have done in Joseph’s shoes if you found out that your fiancée had been unfaithful to you. I couldn’t have been as level-headed and loving as Joseph was, and it’s not like he was perfect. I look at the heroes of faith in Jesus’ ancestry and I can’t even live up to them, let alone to God’s perfect standard. And Abraham doubted God. David was a murderer. Solomon couldn’t keep it in his pants. If I can’t even live up to them, how could God ever love me?
Well, the answer is “Jesus.” The LORD saves. I don’t have to understand why God would love me, I just know that he does. And I know that because of this sentence: “And he gave him the name Jesus.”
God intervened in human history hundreds of times over thousands of years to bring this child into the world for one purpose – to save sinners. No matter what I do, no matter how I fail him – no matter how horrible this world gets – God loved me enough to send his Son to be born of Mary, to be watched over by Joseph, to live and die and rise again to forgive my sins and yours and the sins of the whole world.
Joseph seemed like an ordinary carpenter. Fathers normally named their children. Jesus would have been a common name. But there’s more to this sentence than meets the eye, and these seven words convey your salvation and capture the spirit and purpose of Christmas. God loves you and gave you his Son to be your Savior. Do not be afraid. Believe. Amen.
[1] Matthew 1:20
[2] Matthew 1:18
[3] Matthew 1:21
[4] Matthew 1:20
[5] Genesis 12:3
[6] Luke 1:32,33
[7] Isaiah 7:14
[8] Matthew 1:21
[9] Ibid