Why did God choose Joseph and Mary?
Many years ago, I ate lunch with a Jewish man who told me that he had an aunt that still hoped that she would be the one to give birth to the Christ child. What? Doesn’t she know that Jesus has already been born? Apparently not. In today’s message, I want to enlighten us all as to why God chose Mary and Joseph.
Our scripture is Luke 1:30-33:
The angel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
In this great story, we see that both Both Mary and Joseph display profound faith, accepting and embracing God’s unexpected plans for their lives. Their trust in God, despite potential repercussions by society, sets the tone for the broader narrative of Jesus’ life and mission.
God called on both of them to do something hard, something inconvenient, something with no models, they just did it. They did it immediately.
Look at the story of Mary. The angel told her she was going to give birth to the Christ. She said, How can I? I’ve never been with a man. Once the angels told her it was God’s will. She just said, “Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord.” This does seem impossible, but Mary just said yes.
Look at Joseph. He was told to ignore the fact that Mary was already pregnant and marry her anyway. It was all a part of God’s doing. He just did it immediately. One night he went to sleep in his normal place. An angel spoke to him in a dream and told him to gather his family and walk miles and miles to Egypt. He woke up and did it immediately.
They did not need to run it by a friend. They did not have to check the weather. They didn’t even have to pray about it. God said it and they just did it.
Now you know why God choose them for this great task. They were a man and a woman of “now” faith. Once they knew what God wanted them to do, They did it now!
Lonnie Davis