The Christmas holiday is here. As the old standard conveys, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Around the world, Christmas festivities are bold and bright as people sing and spread good cheer. But this year, in the midst of a global pandemic, Christmas is just not the same as in other years.
Many countries have recently imposed new quarantines and lock-down measures. In the US, the infection rate and death toll has skyrocketed. Beds in intensive care units are essentially full around the country. Many people grieve this Christmas because of the loss of loved ones while others are challenged by the long-term health and financial impact of the COVID-19 disease.
In my home, we’ll be foregoing many things that are traditional for us at Christmas. It will just be the two of us, with no guests. If we cook, it will be a simpler meal. Or perhaps Chinese take-out. Usually, our major vacation for the year is after Christmas. But this year, we’ll be at home. We’ve done no travel since March. Our priority is to do what we can to help to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
While we are used to holly-jolly celebrations of Christmas, perhaps this year it’s important to remember that the first Christmas was surely not a festive event. It was a time of pain and hardship. A young girl was traveling with her husband. Knowing that her delivery was near, she had to be concerned for both her baby and herself. Perhaps 20% of women died in childbirth and many babies didn’t live past infancy. Finding no place to stay on their journey had to be distressing.
The sacred story conveys to us that in the midst of the hardship and stress, one person remained constant and strong: Joseph. We are told that the husband of Mary and father of Jesus was a man named Joseph, a craftsman, a carpenter. We don’t know that this was actually his name, but it is the name given him by the writer of Matthew’s gospel – a document written about 60 years after the death of Jesus. The name Joseph is significant because of the famous Joseph written about in the Hebrew scriptures, the book of Genesis. That Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt, rose to a prominent position and was able to save his family from a severe famine. Joseph, in the book of Genesis, was described as a dreamer who could interpret signs and events in dreams.
Joseph, the husband of Mary, is presented to us as someone who understood events through dreams. It’s clear that the writer of Matthew’s gospel is making that connection. I prefer to think of Joseph not as a dreamer, but as a practical visionary and a wise person. Joseph understood the signs happening around him and made clear decisions to protect his family. He found the best shelter available for his wife as she went into labor. He recognized the political danger facing the family and took them to Egypt as refugees for their safety. As his son grew, Joseph taught him a trade so that he’d have a respectable profession. Each step of the way, Joseph was practical. He read the signs and made wise decisions for the good of his family.
We don’t know anything about his personality or other facts of his life. Some scholars believe he was an older man whose first wife had died so that his interest in Mary was to have a caretaker for his other children. Perhaps that’s true…or perhaps not. Given that Joseph is not mentioned in the gospels when Jesus reached adulthood, it’s been presumed that he died when Jesus was a young man. That’s just a logical conclusion. What we do know is that Joseph made the best decisions he could to care for this family, particularly as they faced difficulties and challenges. Perhaps that’s why early writings in the Christian tradition refer to him as “Noble Joseph.”
This Christmas, I think we need to be more like Joseph: practical and wise. Times are tough. We all need to make decisions for ourselves and our families that will keep everyone safe. Perhaps that means a quieter Christmas this year. And that’s okay. After all, it was in the stillness of the night in a lonely stable surrounded by farm animals that Jesus was born. It was meager and simple, yet it was an event that changed people’s lives. Perhaps this year, a simple Christmas will change – and even save – people’s lives.
May your Christmas be filled with peace and contentment!
Photo by Carlos Daniel on Wunderstock
No one knows what happened to them. Matthew only tells us the wise men brought them. There is not another word in scripture that tells us what happened after that. There are legends, stories. One legend says the thieves crucified with Jesus had stolen the gold given him at birth. Another says that Judas was made custodian of the gifts and he sold them and pocketed the money. There is a story that the myrrh given to Jesus as a child was used in his burial. A more practical story is Joseph used the presents to finance the family’s flight to Egypt. None of these stories are in the Bible.