A Righteous Man

Matthew 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

It's interesting to me that God made sure Jesus' earthly father was a righteous man. After all, Jesus was God; a bad parent wasn't going to mess Him up. And you could argue that living in a dysfunctional home would make it easier for some to identify with Him.

But God gave Jesus a righteous father, as he did with so many of us. And righteousness produces fruit.

In the context of Matthew 1, the fruit is courtesy, respectfulness. Even though he has reason to think Mary had been a false partner, Joseph wants to treat her well. He doesn't want to harm her; he simply is acknowledging, regretfully, that she will not be a good mate for a righteous man. Remember, even though the word divorce is used, they may not have been wed yet in the sense we think of it.

Jospeh's behavior is striking in contrast with our world. We live in a get-even society. If someone hurts us,  we want to cause a little pain ourselves. I've never observed the break-up of a relationship where that was not true; both parties try to hurt the other. But even in our day to day lives, we so often let someone else's behavior toward us justify things that we know are not Christlike.

Do we really believe that the presence of sin in this world justifies our own sin? Aren't we called to live differently, to be pure even in the face of everything a sinful world throws at us? That would be righteous behavior.