By Ken Irungu serving in Kikuyu, Kenya
Read Matthew 1:18-25
One way we get to know someone better is by knowing their name and what work they do. Here in Kenya, it is common to ask two basic questions when meeting someone new: ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What do you do?’ In these few verses, Matthew introduces us to the most important person who ever lived by giving us the answer to these two questions. This person is Jesus and fittingly (Jesus means ‘God saves’), he will save his people from their sins.
But what’s ironic is that the person being introduced to Jesus is Joseph, the person who for all intents and purposes would have appeared to be Jesus’ father as the husband of Mary, Jesus’ mother. But Joseph is not this baby’s father, and this is no ordinary baby but conceived from the Holy Spirit. This Saviour is no less than God himself.
What a privilege Joseph had! God’s people had been waiting for the arrival of this promised Saviour, and he is one of the first to hear. The Son of God in all his power and glory had reduced himself to weak, wailing infant. And this baby, and his mother, needed Joseph’s protection in a society that carried the death penalty for adultery.
What a privilege Joseph had! But also, what a peripheral role. He seems to have disappeared by the time Jesus had grown up and he’s often at the edges of nativity scenes. Yet he faithfully obeyed the angel, stayed with his pregnant wife and raised a son he knew wasn’t his. The angel told Joseph what he needed to hear, in order to obey: that this baby is God with us, God come to save us from our sins.
Jesus is the savior we desperately need: one who will bring us back to God and present us holy and blameless, and without spot or wrinkle before the Father. Pray for many children and young people in Kenya to see Jesus as the Savior we all need and receive him as the best Christmas gift.