Advent 2014 : 13

 

As well as recording the journey of the magi, the biographer Matthew also tells us about Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, and was Jesus’ earthly father. I do not doubt the historicity of Joseph, but Mathew offers such a brief record that he comes to us as a character in a story; and while I do not claim to know what Joseph experienced in his body, I do want to offer a psychoanalytical reading of that story.

As Jospeh sleeps, an angel comes to him in a dream. And this visitation divides his sleep in two, ante and post.

There are more than one kind of sleep. Sleep can be an expression of the sympathetic nervous system, in which case it is a form of flight – of escaping from a situation we do not want to face – or freezing – a keeping very still, in the hope that the threat will pass. Some people whose sympathetic nervous system is stuck on ‘on’ will sleep the day away. But this sleep, though it serves a self-preserving purpose, is not restorative. In contrast, sleep can be an expression of the parasympathetic nervous system: once danger has passed, our bodies relax and, in rest, including sleep, experience a renewing.

Facing a threat situation, Joseph resolves to do what can only be seen as the least-worst possible action. And this is the resolution of internal wrestling, which will have left its imprint on his heart, his brain, his muscles. But rather than act on his resolve, Joseph sleeps on it, perhaps fleeing from the consequences or hoping that, when he gets up again, the situation might somehow have resolved itself. This is, perhaps, the sleep of a condemned man, a man considered righteous who finds himself in an impossible situation. Yet after the angel has visited him in a dream, Jospeh sleeps the restorative sleep of a man who has been delivered from peril, and rises refreshed and able to act confidently, and to create a home for Mary and for Jesus.

I want to suggest that the switch from sympathetic nervous system to parasympathetic system comes through revelation, which ultimately comes from God. The instrument of revelation will often be our own bodies, designed with the gift of a sympathetic nervous system to detect and respond to threat and a parasympathetic nervous system to detect and respond to the passing of danger. But when our bodies become unreliable witnesses, revelation may need to come through some other messenger, whether an angel in a dream, the counsel of wise friends, or the expertise of a psychotherapist.