Joseph, Man of Integrity

As Matthew moves from Jesus’ genealogy to his birth, two installments in Jesus’ origin story, he focuses on Joseph’s critical role in legally establishing the link between Mary’s son and the lineage of King David. One question we might ask ourselves is, “Why does it matter?” Isn’t the testimony of Matthew and Luke that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit sufficient to establish his uniqueness and importance for the salvation of God’s people?

As I mentioned last week, while many segments of society today might not value history as much as they should, God certainly does. From the foundation of the world, he had one plan, and the progress of history facilitates the progress of redemption. Thus, the designation of Jesus as “Son of David,” is not a neat yet unnecessary connection to the Old Testament but an integral aspect of the unfolding of salvation history. Charles Quarles explains the theological significance of this title:

The emphasis on Jesus's identity as the “Son of David” and his close association with David shows that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. In 2 Sam 7:12-16, God promised David, through the prophet Nathan, that one of his descendants would reign forever. In the time of Jesus, Nathan's prediction was interpreted in its entirety as a prophecy about the Messiah. A text from the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q174) quotes Nathan's oracle and expounds it thusly: “He is the Branch of David who shall arise with the Interpreter of the Law [to rule] in Zion [at the end] of time. As it is written, ‘I will raise up the tent of David that is fallen’ (Amos 9:11). That is to say, the fallen tent of David is he who shall arise to save Israel.”[1]

So, many of Joseph and Mary’s contemporaries were expecting that a son of David would one day (soon) rise up to save Israel. They expected this because God had seen fit to prepare the way for the savior by means of this title. So, Quarles continues to explain that

when Matthew presents Jesus as the Messiah, the promised “Son of David,” he assumes that his readers are familiar with the numerous messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. He expects them to understand all that these titles imply. Jesus is the king who will reign forever with righteousness and justice over all the peoples of the earth and establish peace over all creation. Jesus is not only endowed with the Spirit; he is also the incarnation of Yahweh. Jesus serves as the eschatological Judge by destroying the wicked by his mere command. He is a king who also serves as the high priest, mediating the new covenant and providing forgiveness of sins through his sacrificial death.[2]

This suggests that if Jesus had not received the designation as Son of David then something would have been missing in his fulfillment of all of God’s promises, which was the point of his genealogy, as I said last week.

All of this underscores for us the critical role that Joseph played in the outworking of God’s plan of redemption. It is not as though Jesus could never have been the Son of David if Joseph had ended up divorcing Mary, but the existential turmoil that Joseph no doubt felt about his situation was real precisely because God had been building up to this point for millennia. By believing and obeying the word of God through the angelic visitor, Joseph closed an important link in the chain of history.

To be sure, the main point of Matt 1:18-25 is the further revelation of Jesus, but Joseph nevertheless provides to us a great example of faithfulness when he adopts Mary’s child. He rises to the occasion, even when the occasion appears to be humanly impossible, and he proves his integrity when he names the child Jesus.

Beyond Joseph’s involvement in naming and protecting his adopted child in his early years, he only figures obliquely in the gospels when Jesus was a tween (Luke 2:41-51). We know very little else about this carpenter, except that he must have taught his son Jesus the family trade (Mark 6:3). And yet, from what we know of him, we have every reason to believe that he played an important role in the early life of Jesus, helping Jesus to increase in wisdom and maturity (cf. Luke 2:52) prior to the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry. To be sure, Joseph’s own model of integrity was a gift from God, but may all the men of God strive to follow Joseph’s model of integrity, to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

[1] Charles L Quarles, Matthew, EBTC (Lexham Academic, 2022), 56.

[2] Quarles, Matthew, 72.