Luke 2:4-5 // Summer of Scripture

Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we're releasing a short daily devotional for your marriage. Over these 66 days, we'll be sharing one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to your life and marriage. Listen to all 66 episodes of these and you'll have a better understanding of God's word and his perfect plan for your marriage. Let's dive in to today's scripture.

Welcome to day 42. We're in the Gospel of Luke today. Luke was a physician by trade, a follower of Jesus, and wrote not only this gospel, but the Book of Acts as well, which is the first book right after the Gospels. We're just a couple books away from that really fascinating guy in scripture, and he told a lot of the birth narrative of Jesus. You know, some of the most famous verses about the. The birth of Jesus that we read at Christmas time especially pop up, and I want to share some of that as our scripture for the day. Luke, chapter two, verses four and five. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child. Now, Joseph and Mary were not only the earthly parents of Jesus, but when you look at their story, I believe they're one of the healthiest examples of marriage in the Bible. There's a lot we can learn from their marriage, from the way they interacted with each other.

There is. Because, you know, often in talking with people who have actually read the Bible, they're like, man, there's a lot of messed up marriages.

There's.

There definitely are, definitely. Yeah. And I mean, even by some of the. By some of the spiritual giants like David, you know, we were talking about David, you know, having an affair with Bathsheba in an earlier episode, you know, and he's so highly respected and we hear all these good things about him, but then we're like, but he didn't seem to have great marriages. Cause again, it was, yeah, plural marriage.

And you have a harem. I don't know that it's possible to really have a great marriage, but.

I know, I know, but we see this, like, we see it over and over again. But when you look at Joseph and Mary, there seems to be such a tenderness there. Because, you know, in the story, we know that the Holy Spirit, you know, impregnates Mary because This son is not from Joseph. It's from, you know, it's God's son.

Right.

And we know that Joseph gets this news, and Mary, you know, an angel comes to Mary, lets her know all of this, and she's like, yes, let it be as you have said. And Joseph, you know, it's a little late. The angel comes a little later to Joseph. But it's interesting how this happens, because God. It's almost like God is testing Joseph a little. Don't you think, sweetie?

Yeah. Like, how are you going to respond?

How are you going to respond?

And he responded. So he was pledged to be married to Mary. It was a legally binding engagement in that culture. But you did not consummate the marriage with sex until.

Until marriage.

Until marriage. But they were promised and pledged to one another. So she shows up pregnant. And at that time, for a woman to be pregnant outside of marriage, it was more than just scandalous, it was criminal. I mean, you could be stoned to death for this. It brought great shame on the family. So Mary is courageously accepting this assignment from God, knowing it's going to probably cause her to be alienated from her family. She's going to lose social standing. She's going to go through a lot in ways that we in our modern culture, yeah, it might be difficult to be an unwed teenage mother now, but. But culturally, the complications and dangers of that back then were something we can't even fathom. So Joseph had every right to hold her criminally responsible, to shame her publicly, to lead the stoning of her, and instead he decided to divorce her quietly. He was gonna not make a scandal out of this, even if it meant, like, his own name would be scarred. Like, people would just assume maybe that he was just some deadbeat dad, that you ought to pray they could think what they want. But Joseph said, even though she's broken my trust, I'm not gonna dishonor her.

Out of love and respect for her.

Right.

And I'm sure he had such deep disappointment.

I'm sure. Yeah.

Can you imagine? I mean, me coming to you here, we're engaged, and me being like, well, I have a baby. I'm pregnant. But it wasn't. I didn't get with anybody. You know, like, it's just. It's hard to believe, right? I mean, it would be such a heartbreak and, you know, this, like. But he had such respect and love for her that he was going to divorce her quietly, not make a big thing about it, to keep his name or whatever. So it just shows you the humility that Joseph had. And then we know that an angel comes to him and actually explains like, well, Mary really did. You know, this is really what happened. You can believe her. And this, please raise this child. Please marry Mary and know that this child really is from God. And so, you know, we know this couple carries out this pregnancy as scandalous, ridiculous as it is. Still, people like Joseph, you're an idiot. Why are you with this lady? She's cheated on you.

Yeah. Oh, man. Have you heard about Joseph, man, what a sucker. I mean, yeah, but, you know, Joseph trusts God and the two of them together, they go out on this journey, you know, they have Jesus, the son of God, you know, and no epidural, no hospital bed, no hotel room, an animal stable, surrounded by homeless shepherds. And, you know, we romanticize this a lot with our nativity scenes. It was not, you know, this glamorous situation. It was very, very humble. And yet Mary treasured these moments up in her heart. Mary and Joseph treasured this together. They traveled to Egypt together as refugees fleeing a tyrant king trying to kill them. They raised Jesus in Nazareth. They actually lost Jesus when he was 12 for a little bit. You know, they. So, hey, have you ever lost your kid in Walmart for a few minutes? Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for days.

In the middle of a festival.

Yeah, they don't feel too bad. These are people hand picked. And they still lost the savior of the world for a while. But through all these things, we see they were together. They always did it. Wherever they were, they were doing it together. And you read between the lines. A great tenderness and respect and partnership and a lot that we can learn from them. And then it's not talked about nearly as much. But in addition to after Jesus was born, other children were born who, who several of them went on to become giants of the faith as well. James and Jude, who both wrote books in the Bible that were also raised by Mary and Joseph, by these parents. I mean, imagine growing up in that house.

Well, and not to mention, there was an age gap, as there usually was back then, between Joseph and Mary and he passed away. She was like, without Joseph for a long time because he passed away. And we don't necessarily know what ages the kids were and things, but Mary had to still be the matriarch of the family during that time, that time. And, you know, it's just, it's just really interesting. I think we just, like you said, we tend to look at them like these little statues in a nativity scene, but these are Real people facing real stuff. Like, really hard stuff.

Yeah, very hard stuff.

And. But still doing the best they can to love each other through it and to raise these kids that God has given them and to raise the Savior of the world. I mean, it's a lot of pressure, and yet I feel like they did it with such grace. And not perfect, but such grace. And I love just how Mary, you know, it says several times that she treasured up all these things in her heart and pondered them often. But when those verses are mentioned, we forget that it's not when everything's perfect. There's two times. There's one time where it's after the birth, and the second time is after they lose Jesus and find him. And they see him studying with the scribes and other rabbis, and they're like, oh, my gosh, there's our son at 12, really fulfilling this destiny that God has given them. And I think also relief that, like, oh, gosh, we didn't totally botch this that God gave us, you know, But I just think, how human is that? But it also causes me as a mother, myself, very imperfect mom myself, just to remember to stop, even in the chaotic moments, to be grateful for the task that God has put before me, for the children he's given me, for the amazing husband he's given me, and really to just treasure up. Like, take this scene in and be thankful for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Like, just be thankful and know that God is moving in this.

He always is. So Joseph and Mary aren't just figures in a nativity. They are. They're great examples for us in marriage. And so read their story and the Gospel of Luke and read all the Gospel of Luke and all the Bible for that matter. There's so much richness in it. We're not even able to scratch the surface in these short episodes, but hopefully it'll encourage you to go read on your own and just dive into God's word and meet him there. Well, guys, thanks for tuning in today. Join us tomorrow. Day 43 will be in the Gospel of John. You.