We last see Joseph when he and Mary go back to the temple to find Jesus who was AWOL on the trip back home from the Passover. Jesus was 12 years old at the time. Joseph must have died sometime after that, but Scripture doesn’t say when, where, or why. Dare I speculate, given that I’m not a Bible scholar or theologian of great note? Oh, why not!
Let’s take a look at Isaiah 53:8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? Jesus came for the express reason of dying on the cross for our sins. When he was arrested and taken to the cross (which is what verse 8 is speaking of), his mother, Mary, did not protest. The apostles didn’t create a ruckus.
If Joseph were there, what would he have done? I think he would have fought for his son like any good father would have. He would have protested, and most likely quite loudly. He would have been a distraction for what had to take place ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. God did not want such a distraction from the culmination of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. He wanted us to see only Christ crucified on the cross and resurrected three days later. There was no room for Joseph to loudly protest and be beaten senseless by the Roman guards. Those are my thoughts on why Joseph had to go. Take it as you will.
There was no profuse sadness on Jesus’ part when he found out from John’s disciples that King Herod had him killed in prison. No rending of His garments, denouncing Herod, or declarations that John had died before his time. You see, John the Baptist had to die. It was his time.
John’s job of announcing the coming of the Messiah was done. He was a light before Jesus, but his light had to be extinguished because there could only be one light – Jesus Christ. There could be no other possible lights. John knew this as well when he said, “He must become greater, I must become less.” There’s no better way to become less than to die.
That John’s disciples had come to inform Jesus of his death highlighted another problem. There couldn’t be any confusion as to whom to follow. There couldn’t be “another choice.” Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” There couldn’t be a competing way, another road to take, another person to follow, another set of disciples.
If John hadn’t died when he did, there would be conspiracy theories today that he was really the Messiah and Jesus was an imposter. God cut off that chance when John had his head cut off.
Next week we’ll find out why Jesus’ stepfather, Joseph, had to die.
I was in Ireland for ten days in May and kept a journal of the trip. This is my entry for May 18th while I was in Tipperary and given a tour by the Reverend Michael O’Meara, a volunteer minister at the Church of St. Mary’s (Church of Ireland, which is what the Anglican churches became called after Ireland gained its independence from England).
We made a brief stop at St. Sedna’s Church in the countryside outside Tipperary. In the graveyard was this Celtic cross, and Michael explained the meaning of it to me. The circle at the top of the cross is evocative of God’s endless love, with no beginning and no end. Within the cross itself are various shapes of a Celtic knot. Like the circle, the Celtic knot has no beginning or end, like God Himself.
Later, at a coffee shop, Michael told me he sees himself as a link in the chain of Christianity, and he doesn’t want to be a missing link. “This church was here before me. I had nothing to do with its construction or maintenance. Yet it is here, and I am a part of it … by the mercy of God and the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ.” Isn’t that the case for all of us? We are links in the chain of Christianity from the time of Christ to the present day. Be part of that tradition. You don’t want to be a missing link.
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. John 6:53-56
Some of Jesus’ disciples walked away when He said they must drink His blood if they want to live and remain in Him. Here’s what I believe Jesus was trying to get them to see. We are born with bad blood, the blood of Adam, the blood of sinfulness and pride. Jesus is telling us that we must replace our bad blood with His perfect blood, shed for us on the cross. Here’s the picture I have in my mind.
If we want to live an intimate life with Christ, we need to get rid of our bad blood and replace it with Jesus’ good blood. Every day we need to do this. I can see in my mind’s eye a pump attached to the main artery in my body – the aorta – pumping in the good blood of Jesus and pushing out the bad blood of my natural self through the bottom of my feet. When the transfusion is complete, I am living in Jesus, and He is living in me (See John 15:4), and I am ready to bear good fruit for that day.
How about you? Do you want to exchange your life for His? Until you do, you are spiritually incomplete.
David Wilkerson, the founder of Adult and Teen Challenge and the author of The Cross and the Switchblade, is one of my favorite writers because he spent so much time in prayer and meditation that his messages are like they came from God Himself. God is Faithful is a compilation of his writings in a daily devotional format. What I have copied below is from today’s devotion.
The Lord is indeed with us in all places: at work, at church, while running errands. He is with us in our cars, on buses, on subways—and all the while, David says, God is preserving us from evil. Time after time, God has proved Himself a preserver to His people—and that includes the reason for His commandments. “The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 6:24). Moses says God gave the people commandments for one reason: to preserve and keep them. Beloved, the Lord has preserved you so He can take you someplace. You see, He wants to accomplish something in your life beyond miracles. The Lord preserved Israel and put a wall around them for a specific purpose: to bring them into a place of usefulness. He was leading them to the Promised Land. He wants the same for His people today!
Wilkerson, David. God Is Faithful (p. 179). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I got back home this past Saturday from the better part of two weeks in Ireland. One of the features of this trip was visiting churches in the cities I stayed at. Before I tell you of this particular highlight of my trip, I must tell you that I am very, very Irish and have been in the church in Dublin where my great-great grandfather was baptized and have touched the baptismal font where his little head would have been sprinkled with water. I even was able to obtain his baptismal certificate dated May 28, 1809.
On Sunday, May 22, I attended the 9:00 mass in the Galway Cathedral that was conducted in Gaeilge – the Celtic of my ancestors from 1,800 years back, called Irish today. The priest gave the liturgy in Irish, read from a Bible written in Irish, and gave his sermon in Irish. I, of course, understood not a word, but the spirit of my ancestors and the thread of the Christian advance in Ireland, which went back to when St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th Century, swept over me as the Holy Spirit stirred my soul.
This was a once in a lifetime moment, for I will not come this way again. Oh, Lord, You have been faithful through the ages and You have been faithful to me. I praise You, I worship You, and I abide in You as the Irish saints through the ages experienced You as branches on the true Vine.
Definition: A Plus One is a person who accompanies someone to a party or other event when the invitation allows the invited guest to bring another person.
My wife and I were at a family wedding near San Francisco this past weekend, and I got to meet and talk to a number of people I hadn’t talked to for years and some I had never met. Kathleen fell into the latter category, the wife of a family member I hadn’t seen or talked to in decades. She is a high-powered executive who is used to being in the driver’s seat in her business. I laughingly said she apparently was the one who ruled the roost in her family. She did not hesitate even for a second in correcting me. “Oh, no,” she said. “Bob is the one who calls all the shots in this family. I’m the Plus One. Without him, I would never have been as successful as I am today.”
That exchange hung in my mind over the weekend, and I meditated on it all day yesterday. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that this is the relationship I’m to have with Jesus. He is the Number One in my life, and I’m the Plus One. He is the one without whom I wouldn’t be where I am today. In the course of events in my life, I wouldn’t be alive today without His saving my life on more than one occasion, both my actual physical life and my state of being – who I married, where I worked, my direction after taking early retirement, my healing from major depression, and more and more and more.
How about you? Are you a Plus One to Jesus, or are you still in the driver’s seat of your life? Do you seek His guidance and direction for your life, or do you make decisions and then ask Him to bless them onto good outcomes? Do you complain about the situations and circumstances and people in your life, or do you see God’s hand at work to support you on the path He wants you to walk. As for me, I want to be a Plus One to Jesus and follow Him wherever He wants to take me.
“You know who Jesus is and that He died on the cross and was resurrected so that you can have eternal life … if you accept His invitation to follow Him. Is that a true statement?’ I said to J. at the Wright County Jail yesterday afternoon.
“Yes, I believe that,” J. replied.
“Then why haven’t you accepted His invitation to be your Savior and Lord?” I asked.
He looked at me and pondered the question several seconds before he answered. “I know I’ll be a new person when I’m saved, and I don’t know that I’m ready for that.”
“Why not?” I prodded.
“Because I know who I am now, but I don’t know who I’d be then. What would my family and friends think about me? What would my wife and kids think about me? I don’t know that I’m ready for that. I guess in the end it’s my pride that’s holding me back. I’m afraid of losing my identity.”
J. is the most reluctant sinner I’ve run up against in the jail when it comes to being saved. He keeps analyzing and analyzing, trying to get everything lined up before he accepts Jesus as his Savior. He’s too smart for his own good. What J. needs is a ton of prayer that the Holy Spirit will break through all his barriers and cut down all his objections. Will you join me in burying J. in prayer so he can die to his old self and become a new person in Christ? I thought I could get through to him by now, but I can’t. He needs all of you to gang up on him through much prayer.
When he was 19 years old, he went to a large party in an affluent neighborhood. Alcohol and drugs abounded. He became high as a kite as did many others there. That night one act on his part changed his life for the next 15 years – prosecution, prison, probation, break probation, back behind bars, released on probation again, break probation again, and back into jail where he’s awaiting a release into treatment or a sentence to go back to prison. I met with him yesterday for the fourth time.
God does act in strange and mysterious ways. He was booked into the jail where I’m a volunteer chaplain in November of 2021. I didn’t meet with him then, but Ricco did. Ricco is an inmate in the jail and my spiritual partner and newfound friend who is like a chaplain himself in his unit and throughout the jail. Last December, this 34-year-old-man accepted Jesus as his Savior and Lord, and 2 Corinthians 5:17 came true in his life. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Finally, he had caught a break. In December of 2021 he accepted Jesus as his Savior and his Lord. The first 34 years of his life were wiped clean in an instant and his new life began. I meet with him now on a weekly basis as a chaplain to disciple him. What a blessing for me to witness what God has done with a sinner lost in addiction and crime and to be part of his entry into the body of Christ.
What does any of this have to do with you, my friends? Seek out those who are living life on their own without Christ, especially those whom no one else wants to have anything to do with. Befriend them. Tell them about Jesus. If they are already saved, stand alongside them and be a beacon of hope for them. You were put on this earth to serve Jesus Christ and be His instrument to bring His love and mercy to the lost. You may not be a chaplain, but the lost and hopeless are all around you. Find just one person you can minister to and be a light into his or her dark life. That is enough.
I hadn’t heard from Shawn yet in 2022. He’s serving a 28-year sentence in Stillwater and usually calls at least once a month. He called last week.
“We’ve been in constant lockdown since January,” he told me. “First there was Covid lockdown for two months. Just as that was lifted, there was a stabbing followed by an assault on a staff member and then on a corrections guard. After that, there was a big fight between rival gang members. During the Covid lockdown, we were in our cells for 23 hours a day. With the violence, it was 24 hours. That’s why I couldn’t call.”
I took a second to catch my breath. “How did you handle that, Shawn?” I asked.
“I was OK because I had Jesus with me,” he answered. “I did a lot of Bible reading and praying. I also spent time practicing on my guitar and doing artwork.”
My next question of Shawn was, “What about the others, the ones who don’t have Jesus to lean on in such times? How did they handle it?”
Shawn didn’t hesitate before answering. “Some of them lost their minds during the 3 1/2 months. I could hear screaming and yelling up and down the cell block.” He paused before finishing his summary. “I’m glad I have Jesus. If I didn’t, I’d be just like them.”
Shawn met Jesus in the Wright County Jail in Buffalo Minnesota, where I am a volunteer chaplain. I will be talking to another man charged with second degree murder this afternoon. He also walks with Jesus and conducts Bible studies in the jail and counsels individual fellow inmates. His name is Ricco. I am so blessed to know these men on a personal basis.
