Uniting the Human and the Divine – Matthew 1:18-25

Greek mythology is rife with tales of the gods having sexual relationships with humans and producing demigods. Some Bible students even believe that Genesis 6 depicts fallen angels having relations with human women and producing mighty offspring. Muhammed misunderstood the virgin birth of Jesus as God having carnal relations with Mary. The human psyche is primed for such a union of the human and the divine. When it really happens, Matthew tells it very unsensationally, but the implications are profound.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

   “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25 ESV)

As can be imagined it would be hard for a Jew to appreciate a Messiah who was born illegitimately, and Matthew could possibly have simply chosen not to mention that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, but he chose instead to make the claim of Jesus’ virgin birth.  As already mentioned, the virgin birth avoided the curse pronounced on Jeconiah that none of his heirs would sit on the throne of his father David.  But it also makes possible what is surely one of the greatest mysteries of all time.  The eternal Son of God, sharing the divine nature with the Father and the Spirit, takes on an additional nature, human nature, and begins to live life as one of us, growing and learning and suffering just like we do.  His divine nature is not accessed (Mark 13:32) so he lives with all our limitations, yet without sin.

The virgin birth also helps us make sense of God’s promise to mankind, when He cursed the serpent, that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). It was not the seed of the man, but of the woman, that would accomplish this.

His adoptive father Joseph is willing to listen to an incredible story, made more credible to be sure when announced by an angel, and takes Mary as he had originally promised.  This fulfills the words spoken by Yahweh to Isaiah about Isaiah’s son in Isaiah 7:14.  The original situation was that Isaiah’s son would become a sign for Ahaz the king of Judah.  But because the Messiah is expected to re-enact the lives of Israel’s greatest prophets, priests and kings, this prophecy must also reach a crescendo with him.  In this case, Isaiah’s wife, the virgin or woman of marriageable age, reaches greater fulfillment in Mary, a woman who has never had a sexual relationship.  And her son becomes “God with us” literally, since Jesus is both God and man residing with us.  Many of the Old Testament prophecies follow this pattern.

Joseph is to be commended and imitated in his obedience to the Lord.  He could not have understood entirely what this meant but that didn’t matter.  When God commands, we obey.