Panel 1 in Series on "The Life of Saint Joseph"

Panel 1 in Series on "The Life of Saint Joseph" 

Three times in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, we read words very similar to these: “Behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying…”

The angel then gives instructions to St. Joseph, which he humbly obeys upon arising from his sleep. These dreams are an important part of St. Joseph’s life because they inform key family and travel decisions, which profoundly affect his own life and the life of the Holy Family.  The “Sleeping St. Joseph” devotion arises from these scenes, which only appear in Matthew’s gospel.

Panel Description:
On a dark background, representing the dark of night, we see St. Joseph sleeping by himself on a small bed, wearing his tunic and using his cloak as a blanket.  An angel of light comes from heaven, speaking to him as he points to a series of three clouds, each cloud representing a different dream on three different nights. The scene in each cloud represents the key content of each dream which are descripted below:

First Dream (Matthew 1:20-21)
The First Dream occurs while Joseph is planning to quietly divorce Mary, who is carrying a child who is not his own.  (To divorce her is the only proper religious thing to do under these circumstances, according to the Law of Moses; to do so quietly is to make sure that Mary will suffer no harm.)  The angel tells Joseph: “Do not be afraid to take your wife into your home, for it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child; she will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus.”

In the first dream cloud, we see a nervous young Joseph, dressed up and cautiously embracing Mary, whose eyes are cast down as she holds her lower belly where the baby Jesus is growing.  Mary is bracing herself on Joseph's arm.  The poses and the facial expressions on both show the awkwardness of this wedding, which was so different from what they thought it would be.  Only weeks before, the angelic apparitions that each of them received told them what their vocations would be in this peculiar marriage.  They were to be parents of a son who would be the Messiah and Savior.

Second Dream (Matthew 2:13)
The Second Dream occurs right after the visit of the three Magi to the baby Jesus.  We hear that the Magi are warned in a dream not to return to King Herod (as Herod told them to do), but to go home by another route.  The angel tells Joseph to get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to the land of Egypt because King Herod wants to kill the child.  Joseph obediently does this as soon as he wakes up.  In the next verses of the Gospel, King Herod sends his soldiers to kill all baby boys under two years of age (this is known as The Slaughter of the “Holy Innocents” - commemorated as a feast day on December 28^th).

In this dream cloud, we see Joseph walking and leading a donkey into the famous Giza valley of Egypt where the Great Pyramids are.  Mary is seated upon the donkey and holding the baby Jesus.  It is a bright morning, although there are clouds in the blue sky (the clouds represent the pagan, polytheistic ignorance of the land of Egypt).  While it is doubtful that the Holy Family really traveled as far east as Giza, which would be a 480 mile trip from Bethlehem, artists usually show the Pyramids, because they are instantly recognizable to most people and associated with Egypt. To get to Cairo, which is much closer to the border, it would still be a trip of about 250 miles. Still a far distance to travel on sandals or a donkey!

Third Dream (Matthew 2:19-20)
The Third Dream occurs in Egypt after the death of Herod, with the angel commanding Joseph to take the child and his mother back into the land of Israel, since those who wanted to harm the child are now dead.  Joseph obeys the angel.  In this dream cloud, Mary and Joseph return home on the same road in Giza that goes by the Pyramids.  The child Jesus now sits on the donkey in front of his mother.  It is sunset, and the clouds over Egypt are receiving the golden rays of the setting sun.  The world is beautiful in the colors of a sunset.

This sunset is depicted to show three things: 1) the end of the time of the Holy Family in Egypt, 2) the seductive, worldly glamour of Egypt, a country whose worldly riches and power were often a temptation for the people of Israel in the Old Testament, and 3) a prediction of the end of paganism in Egypt as the sun, which the Egyptians worshiped as the god, Ra, is almost below the horizon.

Was There a Fourth Dream? (Matthew 2:22)
Matthew goes on to report that Joseph was afraid to settle in the southern part of Israel, known as the “Land of Judea.”  He tells us that Joseph, “having been warned in the dream,” went up north into the region of Galilee and settled there in the city of Nazareth.  I did not include this as a fourth dream, since we hear nothing about an angel appearing; we hear only that Joseph was warned.  I considered showing this by putting the Hebrew letters Gimmel (“G”), Waw (“O”) and Beth (“B”) on the blanket thrown over the donkey’s back to stand for “Galilee Or Bust”, but I thought the better of it!