We all know the story of the birth of Christ. We know that the angel appeared to the virgin, Mary, and she was obedient to God in saying yes to His will. For much of my life I have considered her a role model for me, especially after I became a mother.
Recently, however, I was reading through the book of Matthew in my quiet time, and as I began, I was struck by the obedience of Joseph. We don’t often hear much about him and I think he deserves more of our attention. We know that Joseph was a just man (Matt 1:19) and upon learning of Mary’s condition, he chose not to disgrace or shame her publicly, but intended to privately and quietly break their engagement.
Can you imagine what he must have been feeling? At that time, he had every right under the law to make a public example of her. I am sure that he was heartbroken, and maybe even angry at what had happened to him, but instead he had compassion on her. He was a good man.
It is only AFTER he is faced with this situation and AFTER his compassionate response that an Angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. God allowed Joseph to wrestle in his humanness and respond to the situation before laying out His divine plan.
And Joseph obeyed the Lord in complete submission to His will. I am willing to bet that Joseph’s family and friends thought he was crazy. Can you imagine trying to explain to them that his betrothed had in fact NOT slept with another man, but was carrying a Son, who is the Messiah? They probably thought he was insane, allowing himself and his reputation to be ruined by this girl. They would have seen him as a doormat – being completely walked on.
So that leads me to my thought today… Doormat? Or Radically Submissive?
How often are we submissive part of the way, rather than all the way, for fear of being seen as a doormat? I know I have been guilty of that at times. I worry about how I will be perceived and I am afraid that if I look like a doormat to the world, then the world will treat me as such. This kind of thinking is lacking one thing: Trust in God. If we truly trust our Lord, we should know that He will not allow the world to treat us as doormats when we are radically submissive to Him. He will keep us safe and protected from the world.
John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
I pray that all of us who find our identity in Christ will trust God enough to be more like Joseph. Not just obedient, not just submissive, but Radically Submissive to His will. If we can do that, without fear of what the world will think, we can find ourselves living a life free of judgment and full of the Joy of the Lord. We are not called to live as the world lives, but to live for Christ alone. We live in the world, but are not of the world. I challenge each of you (and myself) to remember the words of Jesus when He said, “Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world…” These words of Truth can make all the difference in our walk with Him.
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