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Joseph...Being A Just Man

Keraza Magazine issue 31-32 August 7, 2015

The Coptic Church commemorates the departure of St. Joseph the Carpenter on August 2 (Epep 26) of every year. This saint was witnessed to by the Holy Bible as "Just" (Matthew 1:19). Since Joseph kept all the lawful precepts, we can borrow St. Paul's terminology in describing his righteousness as "the righteousness of the law."

We take caution lest we are blamed if we suffice in explaining St. Joseph's righteousness as the righteousness of the law. This man, great in faith, resembles our father Abraham the patriarch, "who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations...therefore 'it was accounted to him for righteousness'" (Romans 4:18,22). Joseph the Carpenter believed what was told him by the angel in a dream, although it was unrealistic, and although he was not a priest like Zechariah the priest to whose righteousness the Holy Bible also witnessed, yet Joseph revealed even greater faith than that of Zechariah who found many rational excuses to object to the angel's message to him. As for Joseph the Just, he immediately awoke and "did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife" (Matthew 1:24). Therefore, this faith was accounted to him for righteousness; he did not become a father to many nations, like Abraham, but rather received what is superior, being called the father of Jesus, the Savior of the world: "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph" (John 6:42).

If we measure the faith of this just man according to the standards of faith mentioned by St. Paul in Hebrews 11, we would rightfully place him among the great symbols of faith.

• By faith Joseph the Just understood that "the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:3), believing that the One conceived of in the Virgin is not of a human seed, but of the Holy Spirit.
  
  
• By faith, on the example of Abraham, "He went out, not knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8), as "He arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt" (Matthew 2:14).
  
  
• By faith, on the example of Moses, he fled to Egypt, leaving Israel, "not fearing the wrath of the king (Herod who was exceedingly angry when he was deceived by the wise men)" (Hebrews 11:27).
  
  
• In faith, Joseph died like his fathers, all who died "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them" (Hebrews 11:13). He died before Christ fulfilled redemption on the cross, yet he saw salvation "afar off," having carried the Child Jesus on his arms, the angel having announced to him that Jesus will save His people from their sins, having wondered over what he heard from the shepherds, Simeon the Elder, and Anna the Prophetess about Jesus. He also saw Jesus sitting in the temple in Jerusalem amid the teachers, listening to them and questioning them.
  
  
• In faith, Joseph the Just received Jesus joyfully when He went down to Hades through the cross.

"Mary is the treasure that Joseph brought (in faith) and he found the jewel that was hidden within." Thus, we laud this great saint in his Doxology, seeking his prayers on our behalf, that we may also attain to the greatness of his faith.

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States