Joseph was a righteous man
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness I’m getting to the end of my study of Joseph, which I’ve really enjoyed. There are valuable things we can all learn from this man called by God to care for Jesus. Matthew 1.19 describes Joseph as righteous or upright . The basic meaning of this word is ‘obedient to the law’ which perhaps does not sound very exciting! But righteous and righteousness are key words for Matthew – they appear more than twenty times in this gospel, more than in the other three gospels combined. Most of the occurrences are on the lips of Jesus where he challenges received ideas of what it means to be righteous. Sometimes Jesus refers to ‘the righteous’ meaning those who would be perceived, by others or themselves as righteous. In Matthew 9.13 Jesus was confronted by some who did not approve of the company he was keeping. He replied, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners”. Elsewhere, Jesus specifically states that he is not abo