HOLY MOMENTS: He Could Have Said “No”

Christo Möller
Transcribed by DaVinci Resolve 18.6

Holy Moments

What is a holy moment? A holy moment, from my perspective, is a moment in your life that is so big that it changes the course of your life. It impacts you in such a way that if you were going in one direction, now suddenly you’re headed in a different direction because of that moment. It absolutely turns your life upside down, or the other way around, right? In reverse.

Some of the holy moments that I’ve had in my life: one was when I got engaged. That was a wonderful moment in my life. It definitely changed my life. Some people say I, you know, how did I marry her? How did I get her to marry me? Yeah. This was another moment in my life that was amazing—that was our wedding day. And actually my sister-in-law caught this. We were walking into the reception area and I was singing to Natasha. There was a song, and we were in the moment. This was a fantastic moment, you know, when you meet your better half, and you can start your life together and become one. And these were some of the moments that changed my life. Another moment that changed my life that’s pretty relevant for this morning is when we found out that we were pregnant with Emma. Aww. No, nothing? Nothing? If you’re a parent, you’ll know this changes your life. You think you had it together? No, you didn’t. This changes everything for the good. This was a good change in our lives. A fantastic holy moment.

I know that there are some kids here this morning, and I wanna ask the kids if you guys maybe had a holy moment in your life. Something that happened that was big, that changed your life, that you think put your life in a different direction. What was something big that impacted your life? Any of the kids.

Greta: Umm, having a new baby?

One had a baby. That mom and dad…?

Faithe: When mom and dad got married.

When your mom and dad got married, that’s cool. When you had a baby brother, right? That’s cool. Any other changes, big holy moments? Yes, Maeylin.

Maeylin: When my siblings were born.

When your siblings were born? Cool, you guys never… siblings don’t fight in your house? No? Yeah, there’s some great holy moments.

Betrothal

When I look at my holy moments, and I think about the scripture that we read this morning—considering, you know, I got engaged, and I got married, and then Emma was on the way—in the Bible, that sequence looked a little bit different. Married life (well married life) but getting married looked a little bit different. There were kind of three steps. First was the commitment that was made by the parents at a young age. That means something like Jordan and I would meet up, and we’d be like, “Hey, cool, you got one, I’ve got one. You know, they’re still little, but I like your family, you like my family, you know where this is headed. Let’s commit to each other to set our kids up to get married one day.” And it was like an arranged marriage, right? But part of that was they weren’t forced into it. There was a commitment between parents, and when they came of age, when they were old enough—which Steven made clear that in this day and age, it’s not old enough, but in those days, when they were old enough, like 12 or 13—then they had an engagement or betrothal ceremony. So they had a kind of a ceremony where then they were old enough to meet each other, and at this meeting, they would have a chance to say, “Okay, yes, thanks Dad and Jordan for setting this up, but I actually, I don’t like him or her.” They weren’t forced into it. They could say, “Okay, we’re gonna do this” or not. And then after that came the marriage and the wedding. So this middle part here, that’s what we find in the scripture with Mary and Joseph. They’re not at step three just yet, but this middle part was super important in those days. It had enough value and weight that after that, they were called husband and wife, although they didn’t go to the wedding yet. Okay, so there’s a big piece in the middle here, and that’s what we find here.

The Bride Price

So at the betrothal ceremony, at the engagement ceremony, some of the stuff that would happen is that there would be a bride price. So the bride price could come in different forms, but what would happen is the groom would pay a price to have the bride. So the groom would pay a price to the father of the bride. So Steven, good for you. You’re gonna get something from the groom one day. And there would be some other gifts too. There would be a price or a gift from the father to the bride and her future family. They could also be a gift from the groom to the bride. That all happened at this engagement ceremony. And within that, there could be different things. And we find that in the Bible where the father would give a servant to his daughter because she’s the bride to be, so she gets a servant or a help to go with her to help her. In some instances, there was property or land given. Other times, especially from the groom to the bride, there would be jewelry given, right? There’s a really cool instance in 1 Samuel, where… is it 1 Samuel? Yeah, in 1 Samuel, where Saul requests a battle as payment for the bride, right? A battle as payment for the bride.

Spreading the Garment

Then besides the bride price, part of the ceremony, there would be sometimes… the groom would take his—they say “skirt,” but let’s just say mantle or garment—and he would put it over/cover the bride as a sign of his protection and provision towards her as a commitment to say, “You are mine, and I will cover you and protect you.” That was part of that ceremony. I think about that because my mom always says her favorite dream was when my dad was Superman, and he put his cloak around her, and they flew away. So I was like, “Yeah, he covers and protects you. That’s really nice.” You know, totally biblical. Superman, totally biblical, right? So that was another thing that happened.

Preparing a Place

Another thing that happened at the ceremony was that after all of these commitments, the groom would go somewhere and prepare a home for them, and the bride would stay at her father’s house, and she would wait for the groom to come fetch her. Now this period was usually around about 10 to 12 months, but the cool thing was that the bride didn’t know when the groom was gonna come fetch her. So she had to be ready. She had her garments ready, she had her bags packed, and… I would say a flashlight, but she had a little lantern or whatever ready for when the groom will come to fetch her. And when he comes, he’ll come with some of his friends. Like it’s gonna be a wedding feast, it’s gonna be a party, so they come. There’s horns blowing, “doo doo doo doo doo doo!” They’re blowing the horns, they’re having fun. They’re on their way to come and fetch the bride. And then comes the next step where they would go to the wedding, have a feast and a party, and everything else that we cannot explain while there are certain ages in the room. That’s basically what happens in this betrothal period, in this engagement period.

The Problem

So when we read the scripture, we see that Joseph and Mary, they were pledged to get married, and this is where they were at in this story. So put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. He’s now away from Mary, he’s not with Mary. They’ve been betrothed and pledged to get married, and he hears the news that his soon-to-be bride is pregnant, and he knows that he was not with her. That is a problem for him. The Bible says that Joseph was a just man, he knew the law, he knew the Bible, and obviously he knew what the Bible said about this kind of situation where his soon-to-be bride is away, and he finds out that she is with child, and it’s not his child. So immediately for Joseph, he starts thinking, what am I gonna do? Do I wanna go into this marriage? Do I just wanna divorce her quietly? Because the weight of the engagement was that you would have to get a divorce, or he would have to write a certificate of divorce and give it to her quietly without a reason so that she would not get stoned. If he would do that in public, then they would check and see if she is with child, and if that was the case and it’s not his, then she would get stoned. That was the situation for Joseph. So taking all of that into consideration, Joseph really—according to the Bible, according to the law of God—could have said no. He would not have been wrong to say, “I don’t wanna continue in this marriage,” because she was with child and the child wasn’t his, and that’s what the law of Moses had said, that he didn’t have to continue in that.

Another Groom

But this whole story kind of reminds me of another bride and groom. There’s something very significant happening here with this bride and groom. There’s another groom who came to pay a price. Not just any price, not just a price in jewels or a price in land or property, but a price in a battle, a big battle, a big battle for every one of us, every one of you. This groom came to pay the ultimate price for you. And then he said that he would cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you would be safe and protected and provided for, with him. And then he said he’ll go away to prepare a specific place for his bride. And while he is away, the bride sometimes messes up. We sometimes make mistakes. We make a lot of mistakes. And you know what the crazy thing is? That according to the law, according to the Bible, he could have said no. Because every one of us are really guilty. If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, Mary would have been guilty. It was because God was in the story, right? It was because of the Holy Spirit. But for us, we are truly guilty. And the day that that groom will come, the Bible says that the trumpet will sound, and there will be celebration, and there will be a feast, because the groom will come to fetch us. And we don’t even deserve it.

May this be a reminder to every one of you that, as we look to the story of the birth of Jesus, and as the Bible says that he comes to save the world, that he could have said no to us. But through his love and his grace for every one of us, he decided to push through and say, “My love is enough, I paid the ultimate price.” The Bible says now when he looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin. Now when he looks at you, he doesn’t see any guilt or any shame. Because when we’re in the blood of Jesus, if we accept the cross, the work of the cross, he says, “Man, that price that was paid? You’ve accepted that price. You didn’t shoo it away. You accepted the price that I paid,” and therefore, not because of our good works, not because we try hard, not because we think it’s okay, because our motive said that our intention was, yeah, to do that thing was okay. No, just because of the blood, just because of the cross. He says, “I paid the price. I’m preparing a place for you. I haven’t forgotten about you. I love you. My commitment is still there, and I’m coming back for you.” He could have said no, but he didn’t. No, in spite of all our sins, mistakes, things that we think is in secret, he didn’t. He said, “I love you. Yes, I’ll come back. I’ll come for you.”