Christmas can be a risky Holiday. Sometimes the season is more like a disaster than a celebration. Just ask Kevin McCallister from the movie Home Alone what he thinks of the Holidays. He’s the kid who was supposed to fly to Paris for Christmas with his family. But instead, his family leaves without him and two robbers try and break in. Or if you don’t think Christmas can be risky, you could ask Buddy. In the movie Elf, Buddy is a full-sized man who discovers he’s not an elf. He realizes that none of the real elves like him and he’s not very good at being Santa’s helper. So he journeys to the land of New York City where he finds a father that also doesn’t like him. Or what about A Christmas Story and Ralphie who just wants a Red Ryder BB Gun. But everyone keeps telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” (To watch this sermon, click here.)
Or maybe some of you are familiar with the black and white movie, Christmas in Connecticut. It’s the story of a woman who writes for a cooking magazine but doesn’t know how to cook. One Christmas she hosts her publisher and a war soldier for the Holidays. She has to fabricate a whole life and almost loses her job and the man she loves. I bet many of you are familiar with Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. All the Whos from Who-ville know that Christmas can be tough. One year a green Grinch stole all their presents and tried to ruin their fun.
Now maybe your season doesn’t feel like a grinch has stolen it. But for some, the Holidays can be a really difficult time. They remind us of those we have lost or those we can’t be with. And instead of feeling better, many of us just feel worse. The Holidays are hard. The first Christmas was more like this than a celebration. It wasn’t a picture-perfect snow-white Holiday. A common man named Joseph was headed toward disaster. He discovers his fiancee is pregnant before their marriage. It seems as if she’s had an affair so he prepares to separate from her. But God is about to work a miracle in the midst of heartache. He is about to give a gift to Joseph and us that will change everything. Let’s read about this Christmas gift in Matthew 1:18-25.
Sometimes Christmas isn’t much of a gift. (1:18-20)
The first Christmas was more trouble than joy. (1:18-19) A Jewish carpenter named Joseph is betrothed to a girl named Mary. Mary is only about thirteen years old but they will be married within a year. Joseph is probably a simple but good man who likes to work with his hands. But one day his world turns upside-down when he discovers Mary is pregnant. Being betrothed in that culture is more serious than being engaged in ours. If you’re betrothed, you’re basically married to each other but not living together. Joseph and Mary have not yet moved into the same home or become intimate. But the only way their betrothal can end is through death or divorce. According to the law, Mary’s unwed pregnancy was so serious Joseph could stone her. Or at the very least he could have publicly humiliated her. But instead, he shows mercy to her which is why the text calls him a “just man.” He decides to divorce her quietly without making a spectacle. The first Christmas was supposed to be a wedding celebration. But now it has turned into the heartache of divorce. The first Christmas was more trouble than joy.
So what happens to Joseph that changes everything? Who is able to change the story for the better? God interrupted the first Christmas with good news. (1:20) Verse 20 says, “But as he considered these things…” (ESV). The verb for “consider” is in the past tense. One suggested translation is “when he had made up his mind.” (PNTC) Joseph has already decided he is going to divorce Mary but God has other plans.
God interrupts Joseph and Mary’s tragedy with good news.“Behold!” Matthew says, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…” He says, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Hol
