Thought for the Week: Father’s Day
In the run up to Father's Day Janet Scott considers the influence of Joseph
Once in a Catholic church in the Netherlands I saw a statue of Joseph the carpenter holding the infant Jesus. It was carved from wood and Joseph’s hands were those of a workman, rough-hewn and large, but cradling the baby with gentleness. There were about three candles in front of it whereas the statue of Mary with Jesus on the other side of the church was surrounded by a large number of lights. It was a vivid illustration of the way in which we neglect Joseph.
The fact that Jesus chose to address God as ‘father’ surely reflects that his experience of a father was so positive that he found in it the qualities he also found in God. What a compliment to Joseph who, whatever the biological facts, was the man who raised and nurtured Jesus and taught him by example what it meant to be faithful to God’s call.
We know very little about Joseph, and most of our information comes from the nativity stories, especially that in Matthew where Joseph is described as a righteous man, one with whom God communicates through dreams. When Joseph is commanded by God he obeys the command and thus protects both Mary and Jesus. He is an essential part of the plan.
We can perhaps imagine him as a pious Jew, a regular attender at the synagogue, and a man of prayer. He was a family man. We know from Mark’s gospel (chapter 6) that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. Since Quakers are not committed to believing in the perpetual virginity of Mary we can interpret this in the obvious way, that these were Jesus’ younger siblings.
We can perhaps see something more of the influence of Joseph if we look at the oldest of Jesus’ brothers, James. He too was described as a righteous man and as a man of prayer. Hegesippus says that his knees were as hard as a camel’s from his much praying! One of the things that intrigues me when I read the letter of James is how much of it is similar to the teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount. Many scholars argue that James is repeating the teaching of Jesus. However, as far as we can tell, James was not a disciple of Jesus during his ministry though afterwards he became the leader of the church in Jerusalem.
I prefer to see these similarities as coming from the same source and that source was Joseph. I like to imagine the carpenter in his workshop teaching his sons not only the work but also the ethics that went with it. ‘Let your yes be yes and your no be no.’ What a motto for a man who is called upon to agree work and to make contracts. What a training in honesty and integrity.
Both James and Jesus teach about not judging others. Perhaps we can imagine Joseph responding to a gossiping neighbour and telling his boys about the need for compassion and for leaving judgement to God. As the day approaches on which people are encouraged to remember their fathers I like to reflect on Joseph and give thanks for the grace of God in his life which through his sons has influenced so many others.
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