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“Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”Worldly CrisisThe story of the birth of Jesus Christ begins in a rather odd way, at least from a human perspective. We can see this if we put ourselves in the shoes of Joseph, the man who was betrothed to Mary. Who knows what hopes and dreams they shared together? We know of Joseph that he was the descendent of King David and of Abraham. And we are told in the text that he is a “just man”. Mary is a young woman living in a small and obscure agricultural village in lower Galilee called Nazareth. She was a relative, likely a cousin, of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. But really we know very little else. Outside of the New Testament there is little – if any – information about either of them.I think it would be fair to say that both of them were quite ordinary people. They lived in a place that was far from any urban centre. There was no middle class in that time and place, so anyone outside of elite circles was either a peasant or a labourer. We are told that Joseph was a tekton, which probably means he was a carpenter. He was a skilled worker and he worked with his hands.It’s important to take note of this. We are about to see how ordinary people respond to a crisis in faith. This is for all of us, not for a spiritual, economic or aristocratic elite. There is something very simple and everyday at the heart of the Christmas story. Indeed, this is one of the central themes of the Christmas season.And so we are told that before Mary and Joseph came together, Mary was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit (Mt. 1:18). The meaning is clear: Mary and Joseph were not married and had not engaged in marital relations. And yet she became pregnant. Matthew tells us that this was a miracle, an act of God by the Holy Spirit. But, of course, Joseph knew no such thing. Put yourself in his shoes. This would have looked like a straightforward instance of adultery under the terms of Mary and Joseph’s betrothal.The implications would have been bad: although stoning for adultery was rarely if ever carried out during the Roman period, it was nevertheless the legal penalty. And there were social and personal implications, particularly in a small place like Nazareth: Mary would face public shame, disgrace, ostracism and damaged to her reputation. In modern terms, she would be damaged goods and could not expect to be married in the future.It is fair to say that this was a massive crisis for Joseph: a time of great uncertainty, confusion and sadness. We do not know what passed between him and Mary. But we can imagine that there was a period in which Mary was reassuring him of the truth: her virginity, the message from the Angel Gabriel and everything else that she knew. And yet Joseph could not bring himself to believe.And can we blame him? Who could believe such a thing? We are apt to believe that the weary world will just continue in its weary way, with all of its suffering, all of its shattered dreams, all of its disappointments.A Human SolutionAs I mentioned earlier, Mary and Joseph were betrothed to one another. This meant that they were not formally married and would not have had marital relations. But this betrothal was nevertheless a legally binding agreement. If it was true that Mary had committed adultery, as Joseph must have believed it was, then he really had two options. To continue with the marriage was impossible. Option one, therefore, was to expose Mary to public disgrace and to seek the harshest possible penalty. Joseph didn’t go for this. Instead, because he was a just man, he sought to divorce her quietly, to spare his beloved from shame.As I say, this was because he was a just and good man. But, at this point, he was only a just and good man. He had not yet been touched by supernatural grace. He was doing the best he could with the situation as he found it. He wa