Father’s Day did not become a national holiday until 1972 when President Richard Nixon’s administration declared the third Sunday in June a day to recognize and honor the role of fathers in society. In comparison, Mother’s Day became a national holiday in 1914. Whereas mothers are typically honored with gifts of cards, flowers, chocolates, and jewelry, fathers are most often honored with BBQs, picnics, and outdoor activities with the family. Whereas Mother’s Day is primarily a celebration of motherhood, Father’s Day is more a celebration of the family.
In Christendom, Father’s Day has its roots in the medieval observance of the Feast of St. Joseph which was celebrated on March 19. St. Joseph, being Jesus’ adoptive father, has been given the title Guardian of Jesus. One of my favorite images of St. Joseph depicts all three persons of the Holy Family – Mary gazing downward upon the infant Jesus laying in her lap, and Joseph, betrothed, but not yet married to Mary, and the guardian Father of Jesus, staring piercingly, not at Jesus nor at his mother Mary, but directly at you, the viewer, as if to communicate, “Be warned! I will protect this child and his mother with my very life!”
I believe that it is extremely important to consider that, though Mary was not yet Joseph’s wife, nor was Jesus his biological son, nevertheless, Joseph took up willingly his God-given vocation as husband and father, provider, guardian, defender, and protector of the holy family. Upon learning that his betrothed was suddenly with child, knowing that he was not the father, Joseph was at first of a mind to release Mary from their betrothal in a way that would protect her honor and dignity and, quite likely, preserve her and her child from death by stoning under the suspicion of being an adulteress. But an angel of the Lord visited Joseph in a dream and assured him that the child conceived in Mary’s womb was by the Holy Spirit of God. Joseph believed the word of the Lord and he took Mary to be his wife, and the son she carried he received and cared for as his very own. At the word of the Lord, Joseph took on the guardianship and protection of a family.
Are fathers important? God seems to think so. God called Joseph to be a husband to Mary and a father to Jesus. And Joseph, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David before him, believed the Lord and obeyed his word. “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!” (Psalm 112 ESV).
Joseph’s fatherhood wasn’t about glory, praise, or power, but it was about servanthood, even as was Jesus’ sonship, and Mary’s motherhood. Each of these vocations are unique and distinct and, together, they serve the family, a holy trinity of mutual sacrificial love and service. Thus, in the marriage of a man and a woman, and in the procreation of children, there is a beautiful reflection of our holy Triune God himself as each person performs their unique and necessary role in relation to the others.
To be a father is have a vocation of selfless sacrificial service for your wife and children. Perhaps this truth is reflected in the family traditions of Father’s Day, enjoying a BBQ or a picnic with the family, playing games with your children, and enjoying God’s creation together.
Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood is named, we give You thanks for our earthly fathers. Give them confidence in their station and zeal for their task to care for their families faithfully. Make them examples to their children of godly life and love of Your Word. Bless their work of bringing up children in the fear and instruction of the Lord and give them the comfort of Your absolution over all their shortcomings. Gather us together with all our fathers to Your eternal household; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Rev. Jon M. Ellingworth – Pastor, St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church – Waverly, IA
This article ran in the June 13, 2024 edition of The Waverly Democrat Newspaper
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