Joseph - Jesus' Earthly Stepfather
Today is Father's Day, when we celebrate our earthly father. Today, instead of focusing on our Dad's or our Heavenly Father or comparing our earthly father to God in heaven, I want to study how Jesus treated His earthly stepfather (Joseph). We will also be looking at what kind of stepfather Joseph was to Jesus.
Joseph
We know how vitally important Joseph's faith and actions were in Jesus' birth.
(click HERE to read: "Joseph's Faithful Actions")
We also have to remember that everyone else around Joseph (his family and friends)(besides Mary of course), believed that Joseph really was Jesus' father.
We see that in the following 3 verses:
"All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.,"
Luke 4:22
"Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
John 1:45
"Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph"
Luke 3:23
Joseph raised Jesus and worried about Him just like any "real" earthly father would. In the passage below, Jesus had somehow stayed behind when the family was on a journey and it wasn't until a day later that Mary and Joseph noticed Jesus was missing. (I know, you're thinking "what kind of parent misplaces their 12 year old child for 24 hours!" - well, they were travelling in a group and thought Jesus was there in that group). When Joseph and Mary realized this they panicked - Mary says to Jesus when they found him preaching in the Temple:
"Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
So you see - Joseph loved Jesus just like any "normal" earthly father would have loved a child.
There isn't much more written about Joseph in the Bible and historians believe that he died young (historically speaking) because Joseph was not in attendance at Jesus' crucifixion.
Jesus
Initially, (my opinion) Jesus was shocked at his earthly parent's ignorance or simplicity. It should have been obvious why Jesus was in the Temple.
Jesus responded to Mary and Joseph's anxiety by saying:
"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"
The passage in Luke 2 states that Mary and Joseph did not understand what Jesus was saying to them. Even though Jesus had not done anything wrong and even though it might have been good for Jesus to continue speaking in the Temple - He left with his parents. See above in the featured Scripture it shows us Jesus' actions:
"Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them."
Even though Jesus technically knew more than his parents - he left with them and obeyed them. Jesus, even at the age of 12 was showing us what kind of a child we should all be by obeying our parents all the time.
Happy Father's Day! & enjoy this beautiful song below about our Heavenly Father:
A special thanks to "christomlinmusic" for sharing this with us!
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Angie,
ReplyDeleteCongrats, you are being featured at Over The Moon Linky Party.
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Hugs,
Bev