There is no greater joy in the mob, than to condemn sin in others, particularly a public sin. The mob is not interested in redemption; nor is it interested in forgiveness. The mob claims interest only in justice. But more often, the mob is only really interested in vengeance and humiliation. If this were an old west movie, and the town’s people were chasing some criminal, it might be more tolerable. But when the mob is a religious one, the first goal is to make everyone aware of the sin of its target. The second goal is to see that the sinner is punished appropriately for what they have done. The mob holds itself guiltless no matter the truth. The mob holds itself as arbiter of the will of God. The mob believes its actions are only just and deserved, and perhaps it even has a point. But this is not the story of our God, or the story of His plan, for His plan redeems that which does not deserve redemption. Our God forgives that which should not be forgiven. Our God transforms the life of the guilty sinner into one of passionate love for others that makes obedience not only possible, but the lowest rung upon which to measure success.
Our modern Christians too often equate with the mob. Our American idealism understands frontier justice, even if we personally do not participate in it. We look on public sinners like Anthony Weiner and decide that his repeated behaviors are proof that he is not really sorry, and will do it again, the minute he has a chance. Getting caught appears to be the only thing he is sorry for, as many a sinner will be in “the day of punishment at the end of all things”. If mob justice were to arise, even our modern Christian churches would somehow sympathize. We do not appreciate those with sexual sins. We appreciate even less the ones who get caught and parade their weaknesses in public. And when the sinner impacts the life of a child, our tolerance completely vanishes, and only our sense of justice emerges. And so even where there is no pitchforks and lanterns on the streets, there is still an equal sentiment in the hearts of those watching the news in their living rooms, who call themselves followers of Jesus.
So what is the just punishment for sexting with anyone, let alone a minor, from a religious perspective? The quick answer is a pending trip to the fires of hell, but that seems rather far off, and not immediate enough to satiate the crowd here. In Biblical times there was no concept of sexting. Photography itself would take many centuries to appear. And electronic transmission of images in an instant across thousands of miles was just conceptually unheard of in the days of Jesus. But exposing oneself to others in person was something they have had since before the flood. And women who did not turn away from such exposure but rather turned towards it with thoughts of their own, is also something that has existed since before the flood. So while the methods may differ, the sexual sins are based largely on the same inner thoughts and outer actions.
For a member of the right religion (the Jewish faith) to find herself pregnant prior to marriage was a pretty terrific and dangerous sin for her. Since the Jewish faith was very much a male dominated society, the penalties for the men seemed to have largely dissipated, but the penalities for the women in such conditions were as sharp as they ever were. The woman would be stoned. Now for your average woman who was not officially known as a prostitute, options were limited. A fiancée such as Mary was, engaged to a good man like Joseph, had few if any. From the mob’s point of view, if Mary was caught cheating on Joseph, stoning would be in her future. If however, Mary and Joseph just jumped the gun a little on the wedding date, and got pregnant a bit earlier than was planned, this could be forgiven as long as neither party was cheating in any of this.
But Matthew had a problem. Matthew was writing his gospel from a very traditional Hebrew perspective. His audience would care very much about the conditions of the birth of Jesus. They may have accepted His ancestry as being from the lineage of David and Abraham. But there were a lot of questions swirling around the birth of Jesus Himself. Was Mary a slut or not? Joseph was obviously a good devout man, but the Pharisees made a ton of innuendo about Mary being a full-on-slut, caught with her pants down so to speak, and Jesus being born a bastard at best. How could a bastard ever be the Messiah? The penalties were clear, and the mob was ready to pounce. This was the mindset of the audience that Matthew was determined to share the Gospel with. Matthew must unite Old and New Testaments. If He could not, the one or the other was a lie. Could God lie?
Matthew lays out the conditions of birth picking up in chapter one and verse 18 saying … “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew dives right in from his audience’s perspective, the problem was clear. Mary was engaged to Joseph. But before the two of them could come together as husband and wife (in effect before Joseph “knew” Mary in ancient terms). Mary was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost. Mary was pregnant. Mary was showing. It’s not like Mary could go around her home town advertising that the Holy Spirit had come to her explaining all this in advance. Who would believe her? Who would believe any girl who claimed to not only have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, but was getting pregnant from the Holy Spirit? That was crazy town talk. So she kept silent. The gospel was shared with Mary, but fear kept it locked up inside, until the evidence of the gospel could not be overlooked.
Matthew continues in verse 19 saying … “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.” The problem continues. While Mary knew the gospel of the Messiah was now developing in her womb, not even her fiancée knew it. Joseph could see the evidence of pregnancy. Joseph could see the evidence of her unfaithfulness. Mary must have cheated on him as that was the only way this condition could have emerged. Some men would have led the mob with pitchforks and stones. Some men would have slinked away and let the mob do its own justice unable to watch the outcome. But Joseph was of a mind to forgive Mary, preserve her life, but put her away, and never trust her again. Joseph would preserve the life of mother and child that was not his, but the life he had planned was over. This was to be private pain for Joseph, private distrust, private betrayal. He must take responsibility for this sin he did not commit with the outside mob, but the life that was destroyed on the inside was his.
Matthew continues in verse 20 stating … “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” The Gospel was now declared by an Angel of God in a dream to Joseph. There was no arguing. There was no doubts. Mary had not deceived or betrayed him, Mary was faithful to Joseph. This baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit. But wait a minute. If no man was the father, that left only one choice for who was the father. It had to be the Father God. If the Father God was the father, then this son would be a Son of His. Joseph would be raising God as his own son. The life Joseph had thought to preserve was now the only life that could preserve his own. The forgiveness Joseph was of a mind to grant Mary and her baby, could only be granted by the baby to Joseph. The responsibility was enormous. He was not equipped to raise God. What do you even call God?
Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” There it is. There is the Gospel in a single sentence. Call Him Jesus. The Mission of this Messiah, of the only and true Messiah, will not be the ascendency of His own power. It will not be a mission of condemnation for those who are plainly guilty. Instead, this Jesus, will save His people from their sins. It remains so today. We are not called only to forgiveness. We are not called only to grace. We are called to be transformed by a love that creates passion in us for others and none for ourselves. We are called to be saved from our sins, freed from them, freed from our slavery to them. We are not saved from the devil. We are saved from ourselves. We are saved from the creatures we have become. Salvation is salvation from us. This is the mission of the Messiah, of our Messiah, and of theirs. There is no mob in this message. There is no justice in it, only mercy, for mercy has outdone justice due to love. And none are immune from it. Even those caught in repeated sin, horrific sin, public sin. All can be saved from who they are. All they need is Jesus.
These were the conditions of birth. This is how Jesus came to be. These are the facts of it. But how does this tie back to what was foretold? Matthew continues in verse 22 saying … “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, [verse 23] Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” These are not just the words of Matthew spoken after they have occurred. The God of our scriptures was the same God from before the arrival of Jesus. Matthew quotes the very prophet Isaiah to his audience. Isaiah was given the foresight to prophecy these words centuries before they would be fulfilled. But they were fulfilled in Jesus. This Gospel of the Hebrews will be a series of prophecies of Old fulfilled in the New, fulfilled in embodiment of Jesus Christ.
The audience of Matthew might be willing to argue with Matthew. They may not like his words, or his former profession. But Isaiah was revered. Isaiah was sacrosanct. No one dare argue with Isaiah, and Isaiah said it would occur just like it has occurred. The Pharisees were wrong. The leaders of the right religion were wrong. Isaiah had said it, and it occurred. Mary was not a slut, she was honored and her virginity intact at conception. God is with us. God, the very God of the entire Old Testament was with us. Here with us. How could it get any better than this? And the religious leaders of the right religion pissed it away. They did not only squander the opportunity. They attempted and succeeded (for a moment) at cutting it short by killing the very author of their own religion. This is what control does to a Jesus who asks us to abandon it to Himself.
But this condition was not just to be documented for conception, Isaiah words were to last for the entire pregnancy and carry even more weight. Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: [verse 25] And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.” Joseph did as the Angel instructed. He not only forgave Mary who needed no forgiveness, he embraced her as his wife as a full partner in the life he had envisioned. But he also preserved her virginity until AFTER the birth of Jesus. Only then did He come to “know” Mary as her husband. Mary was not a slut. Nor was she some sort of aberrant depiction of the goddess Diana, or some moon goddess, or some picture of perpetual virginity. She was his wife. After a virgin birth, she was his partner, and the object of his sexual expression. And they had other children who were siblings of Jesus. They were a family. A human family tasked with raising God among them.
There would be no mob mentality to deal with “sins” that were not even sins. The judgment of humanity is not judgment at all, it is only condemnation of what they cannot understand. The sins we commit are never right, or excused; only forgiven. Our chains to them, our desires to do them, are what Jesus came to save us from. The entire Gospel summed up in one sentence. He came to “save” His people from their sins. Not to excuse them in perpetuity. He came to change the lives of those who are in bondage to sins. He came to make us different. He came to remove from us the things that must be removed if perfection is ever to be our result. Obedience is not a precondition of our salvation. Obedience is a evidentiary result of our salvation. It cannot occur until transformation of who we are occurs. This is what Jesus came to do. No mobs need ever form. Redemption and reclamation is His only goal.
Matthew had made his first foray into tying the Old with the New. But this was far from finished …
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