Joseph the Just

Cheddington ~ 18 December 2008

Joseph is described as a just man. The word ‘just’ means a man who obeys the law and applies it fairly to all, regardless of the circumstances. At least, that was the prevailing view. But something has happened to turn Joseph from being a just man towards a man of justice.

The strict application of the law was not in doubt. Deut 22:23 says:   ²³ If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, ²⁴ you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. You must purge the evil from among you. So why did Joseph the Just not publicly and openly apply the law as he should have done? Notice it was not as a result of his dream. He had already decided to divorce Mary quietly before the angel appeared to him in a dream. After the revelation by the angel, Joseph considered and determined to marry Mary. Before the dream, as he considered, he had already decided to protect her and hush up the unplanned pregnancy.

There is a big difference between someone who is stern and just, and someone who is prepared to show justice. Justice, in other words, is more than the equal application of the law. It’s tempered with mercy. It takes into account the circumstances. It accepts explanations honestly given if they mitigate the crime.

The Victorian theologian Kirkegaard wrote a book called Fear and Trembling in 1843. In it he gives examples of those who stand in fear and trembling before God, stripped of everything, and with no rules to stand between them and their maker.

He gives examples. Abraham, who was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, even though he knew child sacrifice was against any law. Mary was obedient to God even though she must have known she risked a horrible death by agreeing. He could have added Joseph, who went beyond the strict application of the law in order to pursue his own form of justice. Was this through love of Mary? Was this because he was not prepared to dismiss her explanation for her pregnancy out of hand? Was it to save his own reputation as well as hers?

Maybe there was a higher motive. The Suffering Servant in Isaiah 42 is a man who is a bruised reed that will not break. A dimly burning wick that cannot be quenched. One who will faithfully bring forth justice. And that justice is not the retribution of the law, but something altogether fairer and kinder. Mary was, to Joseph, that dimly burning wick, and he was not going to be the one to quench it. Mary was the bruised reed, but Joseph would not break it.

Justice in Isaiah shows concern for the downtrodden and outcast. It shows compassion for the weak even at the risk of ignoring the law. This form of justice is rare in the Hebrew scriptures, but is the justice that suffuses the attitude of Jesus towards the poor, the marginalized, the dispossessed, the outcasts of society. And in the end, it was that Christian form of justice that saved the life of a mother and her unborn son.