Joseph the father of Jesus; the Bible tells us some things about him. An angel of the Lord appeared to him before Jesus’ birth. He took his family to Bethlehem for a census. He f led with his family to Egypt. Later, he settled in Nazareth where he practiced his trade of carpentry.
Joseph is last mentioned in the narrative of his family’s visit to Jerusalem, when Jesus, age twelve, was left behind and was found two days later in the Temple. It is assumed Joseph died when Jesus was a youth, but not till the formative years had passed and he had taught Jesus the craft of carpentry.
So much more Joseph must have taught Jesus. There is a touching scene in the film The Karate Kid. A young man, Daniel, is tutored by a karate master, Mr. Miyagi. When Daniel asks him where he learned to fish, Mr. Miyagi responds, “Father teach.” When asked who taught him karate, or how to prune a Banzai tree, the answer is the same, “Father teach.”
No one knew Scripture better than Jesus. Where did he learn it? Father teach. In Nazareth, Jesus had no difficulty finding the Book of Isaiah. He learned Scripture by attending, with Joseph, the weekly lessons in the synagogue.
Luke says, “on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue as was his custom;” and “his parents went to Jerusalem every year at Passover.” By example, Joseph helped Jesus realize the importance of worship. Father teach.
When Jesus went out from Nazareth to preach, he had one great word for God: Father. Every reference he made to fatherhood was as though to something so beautiful that it needed no argument. “Your Father knoweth;” How much more shall your Father give?” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
The graces of Jesus may well have been a mirror-image of his father, Joseph, whose love for Jesus is most clearly comprehended in the fact that Joseph was not Jesus’ natural father. In a sense, Jesus was adopted by Joseph. And herein we recognize the effort of Joseph to make Jesus feel special and accepted. The point is that Joseph became a father to Jesus.
An i l lus i ve ins ight recorded in the New Testament is Mary’s recognition of this “becoming.” When the boy Jesus was found in the Temple at Jerusalem, and well remembering the circumstances of his miraculous birth, Mary nonetheless affirms the place of Joseph in Jesus’ life: “Your father and I have been looking for you.”
This is the gospel message to every adult, young adult, and significant other— at God’s calling and by his grace, we all may become teachers, nurturers, spiritual parents of the little lives that bless our own. We may teach the love and care of God, and also the duties and character of the Godlike life, knowing that our own life and faith may produce a character surpassing our own.
Mary Brent Whiteside writes in her poem, The Song of Joseph: None shall make a yoke or plow Better than mine own, But this child, whose sunlit brow Holds the kiss of angels now—He will build a throne. Mine to teach his little hands; He shall learn the whole Craft the workman understands; But in this and wider lands He will guide the soul. I shall show him tricks of birds, Where the sparrows build their nests, Teach him lore of f leecy herds; But his heart will hold the words Hid in sages’ breasts. Mine to teach the lower ways, Little secrets of the sod; His to guide in later days, Where celestial torches blaze, In the light of God.
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