Matthew 1:18–25
Joseph thought he was doing the right thing. Matthew even portrayed his actions favorably, calling Joseph “righteous” (v. 19) and framing his actions as about Mary’s protection. Once he found out that Mary was pregnant, Joseph determined what he believed was the best path to keep him and Mary as safe and secure as possible. That is how Matthew framed it, at least.
Joseph’s plans to “dismiss her quietly” may have avoided a public spectacle or shaming for him, but I have my doubts about what it would have done for Mary. Unless she were to find a way to end the pregnancy, which by all accounts Mary was not interested in doing, everything would inevitably become public. At that point, Mary would have been alone and subject to whatever “public disgrace” Joseph imagined they might be avoiding by their separation.
We approach crime and punishment in the United States much like Joseph. The problem for Joseph was that he did not believe Mary and did not genuinely care for her long-term welfare. Similarly, when we care so much about the amorphous concept of ‘crime,’ we miss the point. At the root of ‘crime’ is an unbearable social condition. Until we address the social conditions which produce breaches in an already broken social contract, we won’t achieve our stated goals of a just society—no matter how “righteous” an outside observer might characterize us as Matthew sees Joseph.
The other way we follow Joseph’s lead is in prisons themselves. Prisons seek to remove those labeled ‘criminals’ from public view. Much like Joseph attempted to remove Mary from public view rather than seek her welfare, we incarcerate those who suffer from our social ills whether they have truly committed injurious actions or not. Think of Ebenezer Scrooge’s solution to poverty and homelessness: “Are there no prisons?” Rather than expose ourselves to the “public disgrace” (that is, our own social sin) that resulted in the phenomenon of ‘crime,’ we hide people away in prisons, subject them to violence and degradation, and exploit their labor. All the while, like Joseph, we think we’re doing the right thing.
All of this is not to say that the people who commit crimes are blameless and purely a result of social sin and structural evils. Some people do bad things, sure. Victims also need restoration and justice, of course. However, when we build our entire idea of justice around dismissal and the avoidance of any sort of reckoning with the social order, we miss the point entirely. We don’t get true justice from prisons. We don’t solve problems with prisons. At best, we avoid them.
To his credit, when confronted by an angel of God, Joseph changes his mind. He’s willing to subject himself to the trials that come with welcoming Jesus into the world. According to Matthew, Joseph doesn’t hesitate. Now, when God confronts us with the evils of incarceration, we can only hope we do the same.
Wesley Spears-Newsome (he/him/his) is a writer and Baptist pastor in North Carolina.