The Jesse Tree - December 23

Today's text - Matthew 1:18-25

Mary is pregnant and not married, but she is engaged.

to Joseph.

But the kid is not his child.

Joseph can't be too happy.

He plans a quiet divorce.

While out-of-wedlock pregnancies barely cause a ripple in our culture today - a drastic change from even twenty years ago - to be pregnant and not married in Mary's day, would bring great shame on her and her family.

And ultimately that shame would be placed on the child to be born - a promised life of ostracization by the whole community.

I just discovered this on a Jewish website . . .

Marrying a person born of an adulterous or incestuous union and having sexual intercourse with him or her was a criminal offense punishable by flogging. The offspring of a forbidden sexual relationship is called amamzer, usually translated as bastard. In Jewish law, though, the mere fact that a child is born or conceived out of lawful wedlock does not make him a mamzer and he is not an illegitimate child, i.e., one whose status or rights are impaired. The Bible says that a mamzer shall not "enter into the assembly of God; even unto the tenth generation shall none of his progeny enter into the assembly of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 23:3). "Enter into the assembly" is the biblical idiom for marrying into the Jewish community; the "tenth generation" is a large number indicating an infinite time.

This illegitimate child of Mary - a child without a father - had no right to marry in the Jewish community - the child had no name, no occupation, no inheritance - no identity as a Jew.

Another angel - this time in a dream - shares the truth with Joseph.

Mary's child needs a father - in the line of David.  He is God's own son, but he needs your earthly identity.  Make this child yours.  Give this child a name - Jesus - and an identity.

And Joseph did.

I don't want to take this reflection down the trail of illegitimate, fatherless children in our culture, but it wouldn't be hard to go there.  Children need fathers.

And the story of Joseph is an important reminder of that.

What I do want to do is to have you pray about becoming a father to the fatherless.  Foster care, adoption, mentoring, tutoring. . . .  if you have more testosterone than estrogen, God is calling you to invest - in your own children and more than likely in others.  This is a lifetime call.  Empty nest does not equal paternal missional retirement.

Our community needs you.  Churches need you.  Mothers need you.  And most of all, fatherless children need you.  They need an identity.

Pray and see where God is calling you.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. - Psalm 68:5