Isaiah 7:10-14/ Romans 1:1-7/ Matthew 1:18-24
In a couple of days’ time, we will hear that beautiful Christmas carol “What child is this?”
In fact, we are already hearing it at shopping malls and supermarkets, along with the ringing of cash registers.
But just to make sure that we are talking about the same carol, the first few lines goes like this:
“What child is this, who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping? When angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping.”
That’s a beautiful Christmas carol and it captures the essence of the reason of the season – “This, this is Christ the King…”
Yes, everything is made so clearly to us now, so much so that we may take it for granted and may not feel the depth of the mystery of the birth of Christ.
But if Joseph, whom we heard in the gospel, had known about that Christmas carol during his time, he might have changed the title from “What Child is this” to “Whose Child is this”.
Joseph had his dreams and his hopes about his future. Mary was betrothed to him and he would have dreamed of a happy family and children of his own.
And then, this had to happen. He came to know that Mary was pregnant and obviously his first question was “Whose child is this?”
It was certainly not his child; not his, but whose?
To say that Joseph felt disappointment and cheated might be an under-statement.
And to his reaction was an obvious reaction. He decided to call off the marriage.
But being a man of honour, he decided to do it quietly and informally.
He was hurt, but he was man enough to contain it. He didn’t want anybody else to be hurt.
In that sense, he still cared about Mary and he wanted to spare her the publicity, which would be a devastating publicity against the unwed and pregnant Mary.
Yet, that did not answer the question “whose child is this?” Who is the father?
And then as if all the questions in his mind were not enough for him, he gets a dream about an angel telling him what to do next.
Joseph is one of the central characters in the whole Christmas story and yet he is the only one who had nothing recorded of what he said or what he thought.
But it certainly cannot be said that Joseph was a simpleton and simply did what he was told.
Joseph had to lay aside his broken dreams and his disappointments and to make that decision to accept the pregnant Mary and to take her home as his wife.
Therein lies the greatness of Joseph. He took the responsibility to care for Mary and her child.
Even though the angel told him in the dream that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, would that really answer the question “Whose child is this?”
Would he be able to comprehend that truth? Would we be able to comprehend that truth?
Who can believe that virginity and motherhood would go together? Because a virgin mother had no precedent whether in the religious realm, or in the secular realm.
So how to believe? And neither can we expect Joseph to believe so easily.
And if we were in Joseph’s shoes, what would we do?
Are we going to follow dreams and mystery, or do what Joseph originally intended – just spare the publicity and settle it quietly.
There is this story of a wise and holy man who lived at the outskirts of a village.
Everyone revered him for being upright and holy.
Then a beautiful girl in the village got pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was responsible.
At first she was reluctant to reveal, but under pressure, the anxious and embarrassed girl pointed to that wise and holy man.
The parents and the village elders went to confront the holy man and accused him of being a cheater and a fake.
To their accusations, his reply was simply: Is that so?
When the child was born, the parents took the child to that holy man and demanded that he take responsibility for the child, since he was the father.
His reply was: Is that so? But he took the child in, and for many months, he took good care of the child.
But the girl who could no longer take it, finally confessed that the real father was a young man of the village whom she wanted to protect.
The parents and the village elders immediately went to that holy man, they apologized profusely to him and proclaimed his innocence and their respect for him; his only reply was: Is that so?
A reply like “Is that so?” can mean anything from being stoic to enigmatic. Or it may mean we don’t know and we also don’t care.
But for Joseph, he did not know clearly whose child it is that Mary was carrying.
But in the end, he took responsibility for Mary and her child and with that the Christmas Story turned from mystery to reality.
Life had many twists and turns. We may not ask questions like “Whose child is this?”
But our questions would be “Whose job is this?” or “Whose mistake is this?” or “Whose fault is this?”
Joseph also had his questions, but in the end, he took upon himself the responsibility of caring for Mary and Jesus, and Christmas became a reality.
In life, when people don’t do their job, or when a mistake is made and people start blaming each other, it is the poor, the vulnerable and the helpless who will have to suffer the consequences.
But like Joseph, when we take the responsibility upon ourselves, then we can make Christmas a reality.
And we will truly know what Child it is that we are celebrating at Christmas.