Love and Wisdom / Matthew 1:18–25 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday December 21st 2025/ Season of Advent / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday December 21st 2025: Season of Advent / Matthew 1:18–25 “Love and Wisdom”

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.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends later in the Gospel of Saint Matthew we hear how when Jesus had finished publicly teaching parables like ‘the parable of the sower,’ He finally returned to His hometown of Nazareth to teach them there in their synagogue, and the people of Nazareth were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary?”[1] In today’s Gospel Reading from the Gospel of Saint Matthew we hear how this same carpenter Saint Joseph was caught at a kind of fork in the road. On the one hand he was betrothed to the Virgin Mary and all preparations to be officially married were in motion, so much so that to break it off now would be to publicly divorce her which would bring her great social hardship and because of the appearance of adultery could even potentially cause her death and the death of her unborn child; or on the other hand if Joseph didn’t “divorce her quietly” and went ahead with the marriage he would likely shoulder much of the scorn and confusion of the people of Nazareth who would imagine untrue things about him and Mary and the child to be true. He was left with the question of ‘what would be the best solution to this very public predicament, what would be the loving solution toward Mary and her child?’ This carpenter was confronted with a scenario that required much wisdom. And wisdom is often gained through experiences, the trouble for Joseph was that he had no prior experience with the realities of this specific kind of thing and no one else had either. Where then could he turn for help?   

King Solomon in his wisdom, which is recorded in the Book of Proverbs, teaches how the simple minded man is gullible, while “the prudent gives thought to His steps.”[2] Basically the wise man thinks before he springs into action and doesn’t just believe the first thing that he hears and today we see Saint Joseph thinking about his situation, mulling over what he has been told, taking the time to sleep on it before making any decision. Perhaps asking himself, ‘am I just being gullible,’ and if so ‘why?’ ‘What is the truth?’ ‘Is the truth what seems plausible or is what Mary says about an angel coming to her to announce this pregnancy true?’

Dear ones, when in your life you’ve been presented with a difficult and complex situation that requires you to both make a hard decision about something and then to actually act on it in your life, how did you go about arriving at what you will do? What was your thought process? What kind of method did you use as you deliberate? How did you judge what you see and hear? The truth or falsehood of what you were told by someone? I imagine in the hardest moments of your life when confronted with such difficult and complex situations you would have appreciated having an angle from heaven arrive in a dream to make the difficult and complex situation easies to understand, clearer to comprehend.

You’ll notice that in our Gospel Reading Joseph doesn’t ask for such clarification; he wasn’t saying and praying to God ‘give me a message from heaven delivered by an angle.” No, Joseph was simply using what the Lord had provided him, namely his reason, his mind, his ability to think through complex issues. But Saint Matthew also tells us that Joseph was a just man, unwilling to put the Virgin Mary to shame. The righteousness that Saint Joseph displays in our Gospel Reading is evidence of sanctification in his life, evidence that the Holy Spirit was at work in the development of his character.[3] And as we know from Saint Paul, character is the result of enduring suffering and such character then produces hope. A hope, by the way, that doesn’t put us to shame because as Saint Paul says in his letter to the Christians of Rome such hope is the result of God’s love benign poured into our “hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”[4] So Joseph has been given his reason from God the Father and that reason, his ability to think clearly,[5] had been sanctified, made holy, and enlightened, by the workings of the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps Joseph the Carpenter — as one brought up in the faith and familiar with Scripture — would also know these words from wise King Solomon:

        “Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

               and do not lean on your own understanding.

        In all your ways acknowledge Him,

               and He will make straight your paths.

        Be not wise in your own eyes;

               fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.”[6]

When you are perplexed and filled with anxiety over hard choices what are the temptations? One of the temptations, is first above all else, to trust in ourselves first and what seems plausible. For some the temptation is to be impatient and make quick decisions about the matter at hand, for others it is to procrastinate and put off making a decision for as long as possible. Another temptation is to fix our problems in selfish ways — ways that only appear right to the rest of the community, to the rest of the world. As Christians Saint Paul teaches us to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” [He says] “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”[7] And ultimately this is what you see Joseph doing towards his betrothed the Virgin Mary and the Son that she carried in her virgin womb. Having the revelation from God delivered by an angel certainly would have put his heart at ease, but it would not make it easy to actually live out the decision to keep the Virgin Mary as his bride, and remain chaste together with her until she had given birth to a son. Living this out would be hard. Those months leading up to Jesus’ birth would have been difficult for Joseph and for Mary especially in a small town. His remaining engaged to the Virgin Mary was a very public confession of his faith in the conception of the Christ; a very public confession of faith that this child would truly grow to “save His people from their sins.”[8] By keeping Mary as his wife Joseph was allowing his public reputation and his personal pride to take a hit in the eyes of those who didn’t understand, those who didn’t want to understand or believe, so that Mary would be protected, and not just her, also her Son who was indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit. We see in the Carpenter Joseph a man willing to suffer so that others would be alleviated from possible suffering.

With this in mind: Men, be encouraged by the story of Jesus’ earthly guardian Saint Joseph, it was not by accident that he was provided by the LORD to be the head of the Holy Family. And it is not by accident that you were provided by the LORD to be the head of your household for those of you who have been blessed with a household. The example of Saint Joseph and his love for the Virgin Mary and her Child is an excellent example for the Christian man to embrace. Remembering always that above this love was also Joseph’s faith in God for which he was willing to endure hardships and personal suffering. Do you think everyone in Joseph’s own family would have understood why he was doing what he was doing? We are not told that any of them ever received any supernatural confirmation, any angel’s message from the LORD in a dream.    

Again later in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Son of God, this Jesus the very Son of the Virgin Mary now grown up says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”[9]

Joseph was willing to lose whatever public standing he had as a just man in the eyes of the people of Nazareth in order to follow what the Lord had laid upon him and as a result Joseph as Jesus’ guardian embraced and found his true life, and all of this for Jesus’ sake … which in turn was to my benefit, to your benefit, to the benefit of all people, even those who at first would not understand. 

“Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary?”

Saint Luke tells us that when Jesus had finished His Last Super on the night in which He was betrayed, He and His faithful disciples went over to the Mount of Olives to pray and in the garden of Gethsemane (which means the garden of the olive press). And under great pressure, knowing what was to come by the end of that Friday, Jesus prayed. Praying about the cross that lay ahead of Him, about the hardship of it, the suffering of it, the public scorn and humiliation of it, about the fact that the people would not understand it while it unfolded, and that He would lose His life for the sake of others Jesus prayed saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” And [then Saint Luke tells us] there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.”[10] Joseph in his dream received an angel from heaven strengthening him, Jesus leaning on His heavenly Father had an angel from heaven appear to Him and in both of these circumstances (Joseph imperfectly and Jesus perfectly) these men took up their cross and followed through on what their decision required of them. In both cases a life of service unto death was required so that others would receive the forgiveness of their sins. Joseph’s righteous loyalty to the LORD didn’t forgive sins, Joseph didn’t shed his blood to wash away your sins; Joseph’s sacrifice was one that pointed forward to what the Virgin Mary’s Son, the Son of God, would accomplish. Saint Joseph trusted that this Child truly was Immanuel, which means “God with us.” And Jesus the Son of God, trusted that His heavenly Father would do what was promised in Holy Scripture and raise His Son from the dead so that in the resurrection of His incarnate flesh and blood Jesus would be able to tell of His Father’s name to His brothers; and praise His heavenly Father in the midst of the congregation of the faithful.[11]

Now you might think, ‘well pastor, I’m not faced with anything like what Joseph or Jesus were faced with, the worst of my decisions seem small in comparison, and I don’t have angles coming to me in dreams to confirm what I should or should not do, how does any of this apply to me?’ ‘Apart from knowing it and believing it, is there anything I can apply to my life of faith?’  

It is true that as Christians we aren’t to expect angels appearing before our eyes or even in dreams, but what is an angel? Remember the word “angel” means “a messenger.” Dear ones the Word of God is such a messenger to you and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Super are pillars of strength in the Christian life for making hard choices. The Lord provides: find wisdom in Scripture and strength in the sacraments. Even though Saint Joseph was a just man he nevertheless would not have done all things perfectly in his life of faith, he would not have even done all things perfectly in his life of faith as the guardian of Jesus, and when we are presented with difficult and challenging circumstances or challenges in our life of faith we don’t always use our God given reason in God pleasing ways, we falter and fall into sin, we make unenlightened choices and require forgiveness. The Good News is that this Jesus, who Saint Joseph was tasked to care for as a child, who was born of the Virgin Mary, and who was indeed come to save us and free us from our sins, free from our dumb choices and bad decisions that we’ve made. He is the one to have your faith in. He’s the one to turn to for forgiveness. Ask and you shall receive. For all those time you’d chosen poorly Jesus chose correctly. For all the times we’d made decisions that were not God pleasing Jesus decided well, without fault. In this way the LORD has given you His love made manifest in Christ Jesus His Son, He has given you His Word in Holy Scripture, and His Word made flesh in Christ Jesus. Do not lean on yourself, lean on God’s Word for wisdom, trust in Him and follow through on what is right, even when it is hard. Amen.

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Matthew 13:53–55
[2] Proverbs 14:15
[3] The Creed Third Article, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, page 17
[4] Romans 5:2–5
[5] The Creed First Article, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, page 16
[6] Proverbs 3:5–7
[7] Philippians 2:3–4
[8] The Creed Second Article, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, page 17
[9] Matthew 10:34–39
[10] Luke 22:42–43
[11] Psalm 22:22

Photo Credit: Main Photo of the Annunciation to St. Joseph from Stained glass window from Lille Cathedral flickr.