My Dinner Guest

Joseph: described Matthew "a righteous man".

I’d ask him how he felt when he found out that the girl he was engaged to was pregnant not by him

Humiliated?  Embarrassed?  Angry?

Did he have trouble believing Mary when she said God was the baby's father?

The Bible says he loved both God and Mary, and it seems he really struggled with the decision of what to do.  

he was a "good man" by his decidion to "divorce her quietly" rather than humiliate her publicly.

I admire his faith - come on think about it - to believe the message of a dream... that he should accept the baby in Mary's womb as the Son of God and share with her the humiliation and endure with her the small town gossip…..   take her into his home, protect her, care for her and her baby, and that he should raise "God's Son," as his own child.

Then I’d like to talk to him about the fact that their baby, was born in an animal shelter because "there was no room for them in the inn."

Why did he have to go to an inn in the first place?

After all, Bethlehem was Joseph's home town, why wouldn't he and Mary have been able to stay with family or friends?

What made them so unwelcome in their homes?    

· because the scandal of Mary's pregnancy?          

· because Joseph continued to love and care for her?

It seems Christmas cost Joseph his family and friends.

Then the fact that they had to flee for their lives to Egypt leaving behind their home, business everything they had!  

Think of Joseph having to take his family into a foreign country where they didn't understand the language or the culture.

I really respect Joseph being willing to pay the price of bringing Jesus into his world and for that matter into ours.

Joseph paid a price that actually relates to each of us as fellow believers. He cared for Mary while Christ was being formed in her.   He set aside his ambitions and desires in order to nurture, train, and develop this the child of God. His greatest task and his real success was not in how many tables and chairs he built, but in nurturing and developing Jesus so that He could fulfill His mission.

When I look at Joseph’s life (very few people do) I see that none of us have been chosen to do our own thing.  Rather we are to develop the Jesus-life in others.

Think about it, Joseph accepted the responsibility to care for, protect, and nurture the life of God's Son.

Is that not to be our primary focus - our life the task:

Developing, Disciplining, Influencing, Training, Protecting, Nurturing, Equipping ……. people for the kingdom of God.

Our life task is developing the Jesus-life in those with whose lives and futures we’ve been entrusted.

In closing please consider the Cost of Christmas... 

· What will it cost you to bring Jesus into your world?

· What will it cost you to bring Jesus into your family,  workplace, your circle of friends and acquaintances?

It may not involve public humiliation or relocating to another country, but than again it might!       

                                                                                                                       

It may involve some misunderstanding, some discomfort, some sacrifice, some changes in your life. Certainly it will involve less of you and more of God.

It may involve less of what you can do and achieve and more of what you can develop and nurture in others.

Once again God is looking for Josephs to accept the responsibility for nurturing, disciplining, and developing the life of Jesus in others.

I encourage you to do as Joseph did and give yourself to developing the Jesus life in others.