Advent 2 – Midweek
Matthew 1:18-25
When you were born, God gave you the ability to understand life’s matters. When you were young, you didn't use this ability well; it needed to be developed. Therefore, God placed adults in your life to help you learn how to think clearly in your daily life.
Reason is the ability or capacity to use logical thinking and draw conclusions from existing information.
In our second reading this evening, Joseph used his reason to conclude that the woman he was betrothed to, Mary, was pregnant through sin and a relationship with another man.
It’s not hard to see how he would arrive at this conclusion if he had not yet slept with Mary.
But here God intercedes for the sake of salvation. He sends His angel to Joseph in a dream, and like when the angel Gabriel visited Mary, the angel says, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear.”
If you think about it, even before the angel appeared, Joseph was probably full of fear. What was his family and friends going to think of him now that Mary was pregnant and not by him? Would he be shunned? Would he be an outcast? Would he be looked down upon?
Could he not lead a household?
But at the core of the angel’s message is the reality that man cannot understand the ways of God apart from Him and His Word.
Now, just as the experience Mary had with the angel is beyond human understanding, God uses His messengers to begin revealing the meaning behind these events that first Advent, as he says, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
The first part of the angel’s greeting connects Joseph, the baby in Mary’s womb, and his lineage with the line of David. This is important because it fulfills the prophecy spoken to David in our first reading this evening, as we heard, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” (2 Samuel 7:12)
This prophecy will take time to be fulfilled, but it begins to find fulfillment in the womb of Mary, where the offspring, Jesus, now resides.
But the second part of the angel’s message conveys the origin of the Christ child, that He has no human father. That through the work of the Holy Spirit, sent by the heavenly Father, the child was conceived.
Again, this was difficult for Joseph to reason and rationalize.
However, the way to understanding the birth of Jesus begins with the source of the child’s conception, the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, you received a new birth from above when the Holy Spirit came upon you in the font of Holy Baptism and ignited faith within your heart. This faith continues to be revealed through God’s Word, and in this Word, human reason is brought into submission because God’s ways are not the ways of man.
As the prophet Isaiah wrote,
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
In a glorious and comforting way, you are not tasked with reasoning or rationalizing the will of God. Instead, you are to be as Joseph and receive the messenger and Word of God as it is spoken to you. Through this word, permit the Holy Spirit to create faith within you and lead you through the trials and unknowns of life, faithfully trusting Jesus, who came in the womb of the Virgin Mary to redeem you upon the cross.
And look, faith can be difficult at different times in life, but as we read in the book of Hebrews, remember, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
But as Martin Luther wrote,
One of the noblest and most precious virtues of faith is to close one’s eyes to this, ingenuously to desist from exploring the why and the wherefore, and cheerfully to leave everything to God. Faith does not insist on knowing the reason for God’s actions, but it still regards God as the greatest goodness and mercy. Faith holds to that against and beyond all reason, sense, and experience, when everything appears to be wrath and injustice (AE 43:52).
What a marvelous gift!
If you are going through a difficult or uncertain time in life, resist the urge to weigh your heart down with trying to reason and rationalize this period. Instead, learn from Joseph to rise and put your faith and trust in God’s words, entrusting Him to care for you today and always.
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
