Hello my friends,

Today I want to focus on the mercy at the heart of the "Christmas story" and what it says about the nature of God and the way we are called to live in our world today. All through the lens of Joseph's interior life and the prophecy of Isaiah in Matthew 1:18-25. I hope it is an encouragement to your heart.

Recommended Resources

This season can be complicated for many. Grieving church community we once had. Wondering where Christianity fits in your life and if you are a parent, the lives of your children. Trying to follow Jesus in our complicated world. Below are some resources I've found helpful in navigating these things.

​-When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion By Laura E. Anderson​

​-Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn't Have to Heal From By Meredith Miller​

​-Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself By Kristin Neff​

It Begins With Mercy

Matthew 1:18–25

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Genesis

Matthew opens his Gospel by announcing not simply a story, but a beginning, a genesis. Matthew actually uses the Greek word "genesis" to describe his description of Jesus in the beginning of his gospel (1:1). This word carries a cosmic weight. Matthew wants his readers to know that this is not only the origin of a child, but the beginning of a new creation, a fresh act of God in a world worn thin by violence, domination, and despair. Into that weary world, Matthew dares to proclaim that mercy is being born.

The story unfolds quietly, without spectacle. No choir of angels fills the sky yet. Instead, the drama turns on the interior life of an ordinary man named Joseph whose response to crisis becomes the first human testimony to the character of God revealed in Jesus. It is important to note how Luke focuses on Mary’s interior life, which also reveals profound meaning to God coming into the world. Profound meaning comes when both their interior lives are taken together rather.

Since we are looking at Matthew, we will ponder how Joseph is presented here.

A Righteousness Shaped by Mercy

To understand Joseph, we must first understand Mary. I don’t think we can underestimate how high the stakes were for Mary in this narrative, especially being pregnant out of wedlock with such an unbelievable story of how she came to be pregnant. When Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant, the text tells us he is “dikaios,” which is often translated “righteous” or “just.” In his context, he could have chosen exposure, accusation, or even severe punishment. The law offered him extremely harsh options. Shame could be made public. Power could be exercised.

Yet Joseph refuses.

Before any angel speaks, before divine clarification arrives, Joseph has already chosen mercy. He resolves to release Mary quietly, shielding her from public humiliation and harm. Matthew names this choice righteousness. Not rule-keeping, but compassion. Not punishment, but restraint. Not self-protection, but care for the vulnerable.

In a world where righteousness is often confused with cruelty, Joseph stands as a quiet rebuke. God’s justice, from the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, bends toward mercy.

Deliverance Named and Embodied

It is in this space of mercy that revelation comes. In a dream, so often the realm of divine encounter in Scripture, Joseph is told that Mary’s child is from the Holy Spirit. He is instructed not only to receive her, but to name the child Iēsous: Jesus.

The name Jesus is not ornamental. It is a confession. Jesus is the Greek form of Yeshua, meaning “The Lord saves.” In the world of first-century Judea, this was a name heavy with longing, which is probably why it was a very common name for Hebrew boys of that time. Under Roman occupation, with agency stripped away and hope worn down, parents named their children as prayers for deliverance.

Yet Matthew is careful to specify what kind of deliverance this child brings. God will save the people from their hamartiai, their sins. This is not merely about individual sins as we might think today. In Matthew’s theological imagination, sin is entangled with systems of injustice, cycles of violence, communal unfaithfulness, and the crushing consequences that follow. Salvation, then, is not escape from the world, but healing within it.

In that ancient context, when Joseph names Jesus, he does more than obey a command from God. He adopts the newborn into his family. By giving Jesus his name, he gives him lineage, belonging, and place. The child becomes legally a “son of David," not by blood, but by faithfulness and love.

From the very beginning, Jesus’ story is one of chosen family, radical belonging, and grace that precedes biology. Deliverance enters the world through adoption, trust, and mercy practiced in the ordinary decisions of human life.

God With Us, Not Above Us

Matthew then turns to Isaiah’s ancient promise of Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14). In its original setting, the oracle was spoken into a national crisis, a moment when political fear tempted leaders toward compromise with empire. The promise was not that suffering would vanish, but that God would remain present within it.

Matthew sees in Jesus the fullest expression of that promise. Not God at a distance. Not God as an abstract idea. But God with us, in vulnerability, in flesh, in danger, and in love.

This is what makes the incarnation so unsettling and yet so necessary. God does not save from afar. God enters the story. Our story.

A Word for Our Time

We live in a world aching for mercy. A world where punitive instincts dominate public life, where shame is weaponized, where the vulnerable are exposed rather than protected. Matthew’s opening story confronts us with a different way.

God’s great act of deliverance begins not with force, but with compassion. Not with certainty, but with trust. Not with domination, but with presence.

God’s great act of deliverance ends not with wielding a sword, but with self sacrificial love on a cross. Not with threats of death, but with going to the depths of death itself to bring forth life and resurrection.

God’s great act of deliverance begins and ends with love having the first and last word.

If this is how God comes to us, then this is how God calls us to live.

A Closing Prayer

God of mercy and new beginnings,
you come to us not with accusation,
but with compassion wrapped in flesh.

Teach us the righteousness that protects the vulnerable
and the courage to choose mercy when fear is loud.
Form us into people who embody your deliverance,
who carry your presence into wounded places.

As you entrusted your Son to human care,
entrust your healing work to us.
Make us signs of hope in a world desperate for it,
until all creation knows
that you are truly God with us.

Amen.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Devotional: I recently wrote a daily devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus in our world today. You can read more about it here: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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