Every artist has a muse. Whether they appear in photographs, lyrics, poetry or prose, people inspire us to declare our feelings (good or bad) through art as well as the written and spoken word. For C.S. Lewis, the character of Puddleglum in The Silver Chair was inspired by his gardener in Oxford. If Lewis's gardener was half as gloomy as Puddleglum (even his name is a downer), I'm not sure I would have cared to know him. However, there are a few shining moments of truth amidst Puddleglum's constant complaining. At the climax of the story, the main characters are forced to decide whether or not to free a seemingly wretched and insane prince, who is tied to (you guess it) a silver chair. On the one hand, they are ordered to free the prince by the story's Christ figure Aslan, but on the other, untying the prince could be extremely dangerous. Puddleglum's answer to this debacle is beautifully simple. "Aslan never said what would happen if we untied him," he says, "He simply told us to do it. So we will." After they untie the prince, the only victim of his wrath is the chair itself, which gets smashed to pieces. But for us, especially as we look ahead to a new year, Puddleglum's assessment poses an interesting and practical question.
If God told me to do something dangerous without a reason, would I still do it?
I've been mulling over this for a few weeks and decided to wait until after Christmas to post about it because the concept of passing time is one of my key points. During the Christmas season, we often forget that the decisions made by Mary and Joseph are four dimensional; they don't happen as quickly as you read them on the page. When we think about the roller coaster of emotions and planning (or lack thereof, in this case) that come with a full-term pregnancy, all kinds of new questions come up that, if we consider possible answers, can drastically affect how we understand the Christmas story.
I really want to focus on Joseph for now. He is betrothed to Mary when she gets pregnant. But for how long? How did they meet? Were they really in love or was it arranged? One of my biggest frustrations with Luke 2 is that it does not tell us how Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, only that Gabriel told him to marry her anyway.
So, did Mary tell him or did he find out from someone else? Ummm, ouch. Neither one of those seem like good conversations for Joseph. While I personally favor the former, we cannot know for sure how he learned that the woman he loved was pregnant with a child that was not his. What we can probably imagine, though, is his confusion and hurt, perhaps even a touch of jealousy or loneliness.
What happens after Joseph and Mary both know? Well, they can't hide it very long. And pre-marital pregnancy was grounds for dismissal in their community. If Mary's parents kicked her out, where would she live until the baby was born? If Joseph's parents kicked him out, where would he live until the baby was born? And if both were kicked out, how did they support themselves?
We so often forget that by standing with Mary in her pregnancy, Joseph likely suffered extreme social rejection. Even if the child was not his, everyone would assume that he was the father. In a first century Jewish community, his status as a man, carpenter and 'faithful' Jew would all be questioned. He probably lost a lot of friends, not to mention family ties and probably a good portion of his clients. He could have been the best carpenter in the community, but if he takes a pregnant woman as his wife, what good Jew is going to buy from him? Moreover, when Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem, they're in a town full of Joseph's extended family (it is, after all, his family's home turf), but they have to look for room in an inn, which tells me that his normally hospitable family doesn't let him sleep over. Right up to the moment Jesus is born, Mary and Joseph are as 'on their own' as we can imagine. And let's not kid ourselves into thinking that this social instability ends after Jesus is born. Even after Christmas, Joseph is still a father to a child that is not his and everybody knows it.
While Joseph's story has become so much more bleak to me this year, it also rings with a unique sense of hope. First of all, it is a huge testimony to his character and faith that he stayed with Mary. To me, it is simply unbelievable. If I were Mary, I would tell Joseph to divorce me. Now there's a thought; what if the divorce was Mary's idea? What if she loved him enough to tell him to go find someone else? I have no Biblical support for that, but it's an interesting thought. But let me get back to my point.
The key difference between Joseph and Puddleglum is that Aslan demanded complete obedience without knowing the purpose. Yet in Luke 2, Gabriel tells Joseph exactly why he must do this scary, confusing, lonely deed. Mary's baby is going to change the world and while He has a heavenly Father, he needs a Daddy. And Joseph was the man for the job. In probably far-too-simple terms, I like to think that Jesus learned how to be the God of the Universe from, well, God, but he learned how to be a good carpenter and a good man from Joseph. And let's not forget that Jesus spent several more years of his life being a good, kind, single man working as a carpenter than he did being a rabbi to 12 disciples.
If you're considering making any New Year's Resolutions, I hope you'll join me in really thinking and praying about them and putting off actually starting until February 1. After Christmas and New Years, everyone is still so caught up in shopping, food and travel that they make spur-of-the-moment resolutions they are unlikely to keep. This year, one of my main resolutions is to both remember and live out the truth that even if I feel I am in an uncomfortable situation, there is eternal hope in the baby that both Mary and Joseph raised. Indeed, God put them into possibly the most uncomfortable situation imaginable to bring His Son into the world. I guess that means we are in good company. Remember, God is not looking for the most able, He's looking for the most available.
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