In
the Gospel reading for Holy Communion today, I am struck by two words relating
to Joseph. The first is the description of him as a righteous man. The second is that he resolved to do something.
To
be ‘righteous’ means to seek to live in right relationship with one’s
neighbours. It is about the working-out of what that looks like, from
day-to-day and from context to context. The Law found in the Pentateuch (the
first five books of the Bible) is case law, a record of the working out of
right relationship in different contexts. It exists to be referred back to in working
out what to do in the contexts we might find ourselves in.
The
word ‘resolved’ here carries the weight of strong emotion, of anger at a
violation of righteousness and of a wrestling with how to respond rightly,
having been wronged by another.
Within
the collection of case law, there is recorded the case of a woman, engaged to
be married, who has or who might have been raped (Deuteronomy 22:23-27). In weighing probability, the law states
that if she cries out and is heard, whoever hears her is under obligation to
run to her defence, and the community is under obligation to defend her honour by
putting the rapist to death.
If
this takes place in the countryside, the woman must be given the benefit of the
doubt, that she cried out and there was no-one to hear her. On the word of her
testimony – a woman, without witnesses
– her accused attacker should be put to death.
If
this takes place in the town – and by town, we should understand a smaller but
also far denser population than in our towns, where there is bound to be
someone close by – and she does not call out for help to defend her honour,
then the woman is dishonourable, must be assumed to have consensually
disregarded her family and her husband-to-be. In this circumstance, both the
man and the woman involved must be punished by stoning to death at the gate to
the city, where the elders sat to deliberate cases.
It
is worth reminding ourselves that this collection of case law is concerned with
righteousness, with living in right relationships with our neighbours. This law
exists first-and-foremost to set out a society where it is unacceptable to rape
a woman, and where it is unacceptable to treat people with contempt – to sin
against a woman, and her family (what loving parent or sibling would not be devastated
by such pain?), and the man to whom she is engaged. Understood in this light,
the motivation is not that a daughter
is property to be transacted, at the maximum price.
Within
the collection of case law, there is also recorded the case of a husband who
discovers something ‘objectionable’ about the woman whom he has entered into
marriage with (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). He may write her a certificate of divorce,
releasing her from their contract, so that she is free to marry another man.
Should that subsequent marriage end, whether by divorce or death, her first
husband is disqualified from re-marrying her – though she is not disqualified
from marrying a third husband.
What’s
at stake here? Well, it is a ruling that protects a husband from being bound to
a wife who refuses to take on the particular constraints of being married, and
that gives a woman a get-out clause from a marriage she does not choose.
It
is also a ruling that protects a wife from being divorced lightly – a husband
cannot send his wife away on a pretext in order to marry a younger, prettier
woman, only to claim back his first wife should his selfishness not work out as
well as he had hoped…
Again,
this is case law working-out how to live righteously – and in particular, how
to respond righteously when someone acts unrighteously towards us.
(An
aside: in Jesus’ time, there was considerable debate over what something
objectionable might cover, and how that could be abused to fulfil the letter of
the law while doing the very opposite of the spirit of the law.)
Joseph
hears news that Mary is pregnant. He is devastated. He feels angry, because the
evidence before him points to his having been betrayed by her. Because, as
someone who lived a life characterised by seeking to be in right relationship,
he is deeply saddened when others choose a different way of living. This is
clearly not the result of rape.
Joseph
wrestles. He wrestles with how to respond, rightly – the best possible response
in a far from ideal circumstance. He wrestles with case law. This is no
black-and-white ‘the Bible says x’. The law provides precedents, and drawing on
these a decision must be made in this new case.
Precedent
would allow Joseph – or anyone else, for that matter – to drag Mary before the
elders, submitting her to public disgrace. The ruling might well acquit her –
the law calls for the death of the man, or the man and the woman; but the
circumstance of a woman brought to trial without a corresponding man lies outside
of the precedent. But even acquitted, her reputation would be destroyed, her
life – in this town, at least – over.
But
another precedent would allow Joseph to dismiss Mary quietly, to set her free
to marry her lover, to walk away from any claim to her. This precedent would
also allow Joseph to overrule – or at least to speak against – any other call
for her public trial.
Joseph
the righteous wrestles to reach a righteous resolution to his anger, as opposed
to giving that anger free reign. And when he is resolved, what he resolves is
to choose mercy.
Being
righteous does not mean being resigned. It does not mean that we don’t get
angry at the way in which other people treat us or others or themselves. But it
means wrestling with how to respond rightly, how to channel and express our
anger in a way that is liberating and not destructive. Even if it costs us.
Even if it costs us everything.
Only
once Joseph has reached his righteous resolution does God step in and give him
the fuller picture. Being righteous does not mean being in possession of all
the facts. It does not give us insight into other people’s lives, insight that
they themselves do not possess.
All
the more reason why the righteous are deliberate in seeking resolve.
What,
in the world around you, makes you angry, perhaps rightly angry?
How
will you resolve what to do in response?