I don’t think I have ever quoted rap lyrics before, but the words that I keep thinking of all week come from the Notorious B.I.G: If you don’t know, now you know.
If you don’t know, now you know: that something, maybe something you never wanted to know, something you never even guessed at…something your imagination could not encompass…well, now you know.
Now you know…and the question is, what are you going to do with it?
Like King Ahaz, whom we meet in Isaiah. Ahaz is in a tight spot. Caught between two choices, neither of which feels good to him.
Ahaz thinks he knows what is right. He knows the law, as he should. But he also knows he is afraid, like everyone else around him is.
The Lord comes to Ahaz and asks him: wouldn’t you like to know what I know? But Ahaz doesn’t want to know. The Lord says: Ahaz, ask me for a sign, a really big, obvious sign. But Ahaz declines. No thank you. Thou shalt not put the Lord your God to the test, Ahaz says, that’s the law. I know the law. I know what I need to know.
But does he, really?
Fine, then. The Lord will take things into his own hands. Here’s a BIG sign, Ahaz. Like a billboard: Look and see a young woman, pregnant, who will bear a son who will be called Immanuel – God with us. Before the child even knows right from wrong, these things you are worrying about will be gone.
Because God is with you, this is the message. In 8-foot high, all caps. God is with you.
And if you don’t know, now you know.
God is with you, this is sacred knowing – deep knowing.
Fast forward several hundred years and we find ourselves with Joseph, a man who is engaged to the young girl Mary. Joseph struck a deal with Mary’s parents. That, sometime in the future, Mary would wed this man Joseph, go to live with him, and begin a family with him.
But before that had come to pass, Joseph heard some unsavory news about his bride-to-be. She was with child, as they say, and it was not Joseph’s child. So, Joseph: if you don’t know, now you know.
How did he learn this? Were people talking already? Did he hear it from someone else, or did he hear it from Mary, herself? Maybe Mary told him, about her encounter with the angel, and that she would become pregnant by the work of the Holy Spirit, and the child would be called the Son of God. And maybe, most likely, it all sounded pathetically delusional to Joseph.
And now he knows. He is a man who has been betrayed. And that had to feel pretty sad.
Joseph, also, knows the law. Thou shalt not commit adultery, that’s the law. And it is plain as day that Mary did.
He considered his options. He could betray her, just as she has betrayed him. He could press charges in court and let her punishment be decided by others. The book of Leviticus says adultery is punishable by death. But there were alternative, lesser punishments possible. It seems that Joseph, in weighing his options, decided on the most lenient choice available to him: just break the contract, walk away.
That night he went to bed knowing what he would do. But then, in his sleep, he was visited by an angel – perhaps the very same one who had visited Mary. The angel began, as angels always do, saying, “Joseph, don’t be afraid”
Don’t be afraid to know what you really need to know.
He told Joseph all the things that would happen, he spoke about signs, just as Isaiah had done with King Ahaz: A young woman shall conceive and bear a son and he shall be called Immanuel – God is with us. And this time Joseph is to know that the young woman is Mary.
So, Joseph: If you don’t know, now you know.
This is sacred knowing – deep knowing. God is with us, have trust in this.
And because he does trust, and he does know, Joseph is empowered to do something new and different. He doesn’t say, No thanks, I’m gonna stick with my plan. He doesn’t say, Hey that sounds a bit too risky for my taste. Now that he knows what he knows, Joseph will take Mary and protect her and raise this child as his own. Because now he knows: he is a part of God’s plan too.
Every one of us might be a part of God’s plan, like Mary and Joseph, if you are willing to listen…to go deep…to trust and not be afraid to know what you don’t know.
We are entering the last week before Christmas, and you might be feeling a sense of pressure right now. I do, every year at this time. I have a lot of expectations of myself and people around me at this time of the year. It’s hard –
when we know what we have always known and always done, and we don’t have time to hear anything different.
when we hang on the traditions and the “rules” like a security blanket.
when we’ve already painted the picture in our heads and we don’t want any new intel to ruin it.
Because we don’t know –
that God will come and do a new thing, not just that new thing God did 2,000 years ago, but a new thing every day.
that God truly is with us – Immanuel – and that always gives us the power to do the loving thing, the merciful thing, the right thing.
that the fear that has always been beating right beneath the surface of our lives is no longer needed – if it ever was needed – because God-with-us means love has overcome fear.
The truth is, King Ahaz didn’t give up the fear. Ahaz didn’t want to know what he didn’t know. But Joseph, he was different.
Yes, he was.
My prayer for us this week is that, in the midst of our busy-ness, of our planning and our expectations, we will be like Joseph.
So, if you don’t know, now you know.
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Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash
