Shoutout to Joseph

I know. I know. Christmas is over. I just wanted to give a final shoutout to Joseph, Mary’s husband. Allow me to quote my favorite line from the man who raised Jesus as his own:

Oh, wait.

I can’t.

Scripture records exactly zero of his words.

It feels a bit disconcerting not to hear the voice of someone so vitally important to the salvation of the world.

When the great Gospel writer Luke put pen to paper, he allowed both of John the Baptist’s parents to speak. But he only logged the words of Jesus’ mother. In his first chapter, Luke included the entire dialogue she had with the angel Gabriel. Later, he added her great Magnificat—her words so famous, they become the lyrics of songs.

What About Joseph?

Not so for Joseph. The man who acted as an earthly father figure for Jesus remains silent on the page.

We’re left to know him by his actions rather than his words. When an angel encouraged him not to divorce Mary, he took her as his wife (Matthew 1:24). When another angel warned him to take the family to Egypt, he rose up in the night and obeyed (Matthew 2:14). When he was told to return, he followed instructions (Matthew 2:21).

For all his importance, though, the rest of Joseph’s story seems to blend into the background of history. His challenges were surely much the same as Mary’s. The neighbors wouldn’t have missed the fact Mary’s pregnancy months didn’t quite add up. They knew how to count and someone in that family had clearly sinned. Was it Joseph? Too impatient to wait, had he stepped over the line? Or had his vigilance slipped? Did he allow someone to get away with messing with his betrothed? What kind of man was he to tolerate sin in his wife?

The scant record of Joseph’s life belies his importance in history. Had he not taken Mary in, she would have been just another shameless woman raising a bastard child. It was his relentless obedience that made her life livable, that gave him a role in introducing the world to its Savior.

Greater Honor

Scripture doesn’t seem to treat Joseph with the honor that’s due him. But Paul has something to say about those held in low esteem. In the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, he compares believers to individual members of a larger body. Some, he says, are highly honored while others garner less regard. Some hold higher positions in the body while others function in a lower place. These parts even differ in their “presentability,” according to Paul. Yet God gives “greater honor to that part which lacks it” (1 Corinthians 12:24).

Many of us share Joseph’s comparative anonymity. Our words may never be quoted. Our story may be known in only in part or may never be told at all.

But the God who made the heavens and the earth holds each of us in equal esteem. He keeps a full account of our faithful obedience in his book. The words no one else seems to remember he records with great care.

Our lives become the lyrics of a song as beautiful to him as Mary’s Magnificat—a melody he listens to with pleasure again and again.