A Monologue from Joseph on the Birth of Jesus

Share Joseph’s perspective on the birth of Jesus (from Matthew 1:18-23).

Dress up in a Bible costume and pretend to be Joseph.

Hi. My name is Joseph. You’ve seen me in all the Christmas plays and movies because I am Mary’s husband (Jesus’ mother). But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

I was betrothed to an amazing young lady. Her name was Mary. She was so awesome! I was so excited to get to spend the rest of my life with such a wonderful and kind young woman. Things were going so well. I was preparing the home we were going to live in. Mary was preparing herself for marriage. Everything was going according to plan.

Do you know what “according to plan” means? Well, the plan means that you get betrothed (you all call it getting engaged). Then you get ready for marriage. Then you have a week-long marriage celebration. Then you and your wife become one. You move into the house the man has been preparing. Then, God-willing, children come along. Children, after all, are a sign of God’s favor and blessing on a marriage.

That was the plan: betrothal, preparation, marriage, and children. First one down and Mary and I are working on the second part: preparation.

Then the plan got wrecked. Oh man did it get wrecked. I discovered that Mary was pregnant. That’s not the right order of the plan. Then she told me that the Holy Spirit was responsible for her pregnancy. Yeah right. God miraculously made you have a baby. Yeah, sure. That’s a convenient excuse for being pregnant before marriage…blame it on God.

I was so devastated. And yet, I loved Mary. I didn’t want to break the betrothal publicly, but I had to break it off…it was the right thing to do. So instead of publically break it off with Mary, I had it in mind to do it privately. This is the tension of love and justice. I didn’t want to, but I had to.

Then the most incredible, wild, and strange thing happened: I was visited by an angel of the Lord in a dream. Yeah, if someone were to tell me that, I wouldn’t believe them either (kind of like how I didn’t believe Mary). Here’s what the angel 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 of Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

So Mary was right all along! I felt horrible with the way I had treated her. It took God Himself to tell me what was really going on. Jesus. The Savior of our people. Wow.

So I did the only thing I knew to do. I obeyed. Even though it was very scandalous and lots of people talked, I married Mary and when the baby was born, I named him Jesus. Jesus, that little baby would become the one God would use to save our people, and the world, or our sins. To rescue us. To forgive us. Pretty amazing story, huh? Yep, if I were you, I’d have difficulty believing it, too. It takes great faith to believe something that you can’t see. Trust me, I know!