“When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Think about the last time you got a gift that you didn’t want. While I can’t remember the gifts specifically, I remember a few Christmases when I opened something and had to swallow my disappointment so as not to hurt the feelings of the giver. Sometimes gifts that seem hard in a moment, though, prove later to be among the best we have ever received. This next gift of Advent we are going to talk about this morning doesn’t feel like a gift at all at first. Sometimes it feels more like a curse. Yet if we will receive it, it will prove to be utterly transformative in our lives. Let’s talk today about the gift of obedience.

Put yourself in Joseph’s sandals for just a minute. Dream angel or not, the thing that God asked him to do was impossibly hard. It took a level of faith that most of us will only see in our imagination.

Just in case you’re wondering what all the shock and excitement is about, let’s take a second to review. Joseph (Jesus’ adoptive dad) was engaged to be married to Mary (Jesus’ actual mom). Everything between their two families had been arranged. The dowry for Mary had probably already been paid. The official wedding date was set. They were all ready to go. And then she turned up pregnant with somebody else’s baby.

By law he could have had her put to death by stoning. That’s right: God decided to start His one and only Son’s process of entering this world as a baby in a context in which right off the bat He was going to have to depend on the faith of a jilted husband’s (no, they weren’t technically, legally married, but the nature of betrothal then was equivalent to a non-consummated marriage today such that calling Joseph Mary’s husband wasn’t inaccurate) not exercising his legal right against his obviously unfaithful wife. Talk about swinging for the fences before you’ve even entered the batter’s box.

If this was supposed to be a gift, it was not one Joseph wanted. He was anticipating a wonderful and sweet life with his beautiful new bride, and instead he was having to constantly battle doubts about her fidelity as he took a dream angel’s word that her pregnancy was somehow not the result of an adulterous affair which was the only rational medical explanation for it.

He was invited to walk a path of obedience that made exactly zero sense. I doubt you’ve been invited to a similarly difficult path in your life. Imagine the hurt he felt in his heart every time he looked at Mary for weeks after the dream. Imagine having to explain and re-explain his decision to not go through with his plans to divorce her secretly to his friends and family, especially when some of them may have been goading him to take the more aggressive legal path to which he was rightfully entitled. It would have been so easy in the midst of the arguments they later faced as a married couple to use this mirage of unfaithfulness against her as a weapon to turn the tide of the disagreement in his favor. Even getting excited for the arrival of the child he was told he was to adopt as his own son would have been a challenge on some days. I wonder how strong the temptation to show favoritism to Jesus’ brothers and sisters who were actually Joseph’s children was in his weaker moments.

Yet because Joseph was willing to walk this path of obedience which did not even remotely seem like a gift when he first started down it, we have access to God the Father through Jesus the Son by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Your salvation once hinged on the willingness of a young man to take the word of his obviously unfaithful wife on the word of a dream angel.

And the thing is: Joseph didn’t know any of this when he started down that path. All he knew was that he trusted in God’s word and His character, and that if God said so, then he was going to go.

The gift of obedience isn’t an easy gift to receive. It comes with sacrifice and heartache and more pain than any gift should bring. But if we will indeed receive it, it also comes with life that doesn’t end. It comes with hope that refuses to fade. It comes with peace that defies circumstances. It comes with joy that pervades through any darkness. It comes with love that is absolutely unconditional. My prayer for you today is that you will be willing to receive the gift of obedience and experience all of its sweet fruits as you continue through this Advent season.