As you may know, the Gospels were not written with the intent of teaching history but rather to teach faith lessons using stories. And that's particularly true of this week's Gospel reading from Matthew. Matthew gives us a look at St. Joseph that's a little different from what many have come to think about Joseph.

From the other gospels, we know much more about Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, Peter and many of the apostles. But it's Matthew who gives us insights into the character of the man, Joseph. For many years, it was thought that Matthew's focus on the men in Jesus' life, with very little on the women, reflected the chauvinistic bent of his heritage.

However, recent scholarly work on the community Matthew wrote his gospel for indicates that Matthew's focus on the men, and particularly on Joseph, was for a very practical reason. Most scholars agree that Matthew wrote his gospel to the Jewish Christians in Antioch shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD.¹

Many who fled Jerusalem went to Antioch, which was in modern-day Turkey. Soon after their arrival, the Christians among them were blamed for the destruction of the Temple. And they were expelled from the synagogues and excommunicated from the Jewish community. They were cut off from their traditional roots, from what shaped their lives and customs for generations.

Although much of Jewish life, then, was male-centered, one's membership in Judaism and even one's right to enter the Temple came through one's mother, not one's father. It was the women who kept both faith and proper behavior norms alive. But, for the Christians in Antioch, expulsion from the synagogue and the Jewish community meant that the women's religious and cultural formation role was abruptly ended. All of the female-dependent threads of connection were gone. It appears that Matthew felt that it must be the Christian men who would have to forge the new connections to life-shaping customs; to be examples of proper social behavior and personal responsibility. And Matthew held up Joseph as a prime example of what a man was to be. But he did this in a way that's not obvious to non-Jews.

We might be inclined to think that Joseph was a reserved, retiring, perhaps shy sort; some artists even picture him as being frail and elderly. But Matthew tells us something quite different. In this Gospel passage, we hear that God spoke to Joseph in dreams. And Matthew tells us, elsewhere, of other occasions God spoke to Joseph in dreams. This is an important hint Matthew was giving his listeners.

From knowing their Scriptures, Matthew's Jewish listeners would have understood that there's a common characteristic of those to whom God spoke in dreams. They were all men of strong convictions; men of natural courage, men who preferred action over words 2 Jacob, Samuel, Daniel and Solomon are just a few examples. Scripture records that God spoke to those with a more contemplative personality in visions; but He spoke to men of action in dreams. God spoke to Joseph, who Matthew suggests was a man of action, of natural courage and strong convictions. God spoke to Joseph in dreams; the only time when his sense of self would be fully dormant, when there would be no confronting his instinctive judgments. And as we heard, upon waking Joseph immediately acted on what God called him to do - no further convincing required. Joseph "stood up and was counted;" he didn't ponder the situation at length, he acted - the Christ-child on earth depended on him. That's the Joseph Matthew tells us about.

As we look forward to 2026, we live in a time when we face a situation remarkably similar to that which Matthew's community faced; for very different reasons, of course, but the effects are the same. The larger society in which we live is pushing our core Christian values further and further away. The institutions that, for generations, have helped shape our lives and customs, taught faith, what was proper behavior and fostered personal responsibility are all but gone. We are in need of courageous men, who will keep us connected to all that is right and proper; be examples of what is acceptable conduct; demonstrate personal responsibility in their daily lives; men who will be the real "Josephs" of our times. If Matthew were here today, he'd surely say: "Stand up and be counted, men, the body of Christ on earth depends on you."

Have a happy and healthy New Year.
Dcn Bob Evans

 

.Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, (New York: Doubleday, 1997).
2.Holly L. Rossi, Spiritual Life in Dreams, (New York: Inner Press, 2004).

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