St Joseph of Nazareth and Workers’ Day: A Reflection on the Prophetic Call of Men in Society: Where Religion Meets the Secular World

As the world commemorates “Workers' Day” on this the 1^st of May 2026, an international labour day that is celebrated globally to honor workers' contributions and fight for fair labour practices, in other instances such as in South Africa where the fight was also against oppressive regimes such as apartheid and the fight for racial equality. One could not help but remember that the Church also celebrates this day under the theme of a patron Saint that is often under-played as a key role player in the formulation of the world’s religious construct and belief system, Saint Joseph the worker or the carpenter or Joseph of Nazareth as he would be known in Christianity.

 

In a world that is becoming deeply secularized by day, it is a rare occasion where the religious and secular world would celebrate or commemorate a day in common. The secular world views this day as a revolutionary day that speaks to global, regional or national politics and the fight for human rights, while the religious world’s focus is on the person of Joseph the father of Jesus Christ and his humility in the story of the birth of a miracle child. But the contrasting features of both of these views is barely seen as prophetic and speaking to the sacrificial call of humanity, specifically that of “men and their role in society”. Joseph is affectionately known as “the carpenter or the worker”, a man whose role in the story of his foster-son Jesus the Christ is somewhat down-played both in scripture and theological discourse. Author of the Anglican book of commemorations called Saints and Seasons makes a point that “after fulfilling his role of protecting his wife Mary and the miracle child that is Jesus, Joseph disappears from the pages of the Gospels” (Saints and Seasons 1993:60). Not only does he disappear in the Christian narratives, but also in other important scriptural literature, the Quran being one of them, to this writer Masud Masihiyyen says there are two possibilities concerning Joseph’s absence from the Islamic scripture “either Muhammad’s ignorance of the subject or Muhammad’s deliberate choice of exclusion”. Seemingly ‘Joseph disappears from the minds and lips of the believers’, perhaps as a result of the same possibilities. As a result, Joseph’s role in the life of a contemporary man becomes nothing but a shadow that lingers around and only mentioned in passing on Christmas day when the story of the birth of Jesus Christ is narrated. However, the prophetic nature of the role of his story is and must be seen in the commemoration of the global day for the rights of workers.

 

But in contrast, what is the story of Joseph to the contemporary context, what role can this story play in the life of the contemporary man and society?. We know that Joseph was engaged to be married to the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus who was born without Joseph and Mary engaging in sexual intercourse. Even though Luke seems to suggest that society did not know about this miraculous birth and continued to assume even at Jesus’ age of thirty that “Jesus was the biological Son of Joseph, Son of Heli” (Luke 3:23 NIV), we cannot but imagine through the contemporary context, ‘the societal stigma, disgrace and embarrassment that Joseph endured when the news reached society’, our assumption would be that ‘just as Muhammad ignored Joseph in in Quran, the Gospels equally ignored this reality’, and so without doubt ‘we affirm our assumption that such was the case’, at least for the purpose of our juxtaposition of Joseph’s story to the contemporary. Whether it is in the black, white, coloured or Indian society in South Africa, or anywhere in the world for that matter, a man would be a laughing stock of society should his partner, girlfriend, fiancé or wife ‘conceive outside that relationship’, so we ought to recognize the fact that “Joseph must have went through an extremely difficult period of humiliation and embarrassment as a man, more-over as he lived in a highly misogynistic, patriarchal and sexist Biblical era”. Matthew also tells us that “God informed Joseph that Mary’s pregnancy was from the Holy Spirit and that he should continue to Mary her” (Matthew 1:18-25), which may suggest that ‘Joseph, like any other man was not happy about the pregnancy which he knew as a matter of fact that he played no role in it, as a fiancé’. But, through all of that “Joseph went ahead and took Mary as his wife, and named the child Jesus, as commanded by God” (Matthew 1:24-25), solidifying his commitment to continuing to work hard in an effort to provide for his family, hence “the church celebrates Joseph the worker on this world workers’ day, coincided with the secular commemoration of workers’ globally”.    

 

The Bible tells us that Joseph and Mary went on to have other children, siblings of Jesus Christ who appears in the Gospels of Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55, which tells us that ‘despite the difficulties, the family of Jesus was an ordinary unit in society”, perhaps one that is referred to among theologians and the contemporary as ‘a blended family’, therefore we know for a fact that “Jesus the incarnate Son of God, was brought up under the guidance and love of Joseph the carpenter”, whichever principles that Joseph lived and believed in, as a father he must have instilled them in his children, Jesus (in his human nature) included. If at all Joseph did not recognize his prophetic call to fatherhood, manhood and the principle of familyhood, working hard to provide, to guide and to protect his family, Jesus in his human nature and his siblings ‘may have went astray’. The church prays on this day to ask God “to enable humanity (especially men) in the contemporary to follow the example of Joseph of honour, faithfulness and humility and to endeavor to obey their calling”.

 

The contemporary world has become numb and cold to the prophetic and natural call of men to be providers of their families, to protectors of women and children, to be primary workers of society, be it in the family unit, in the workplace, in the church or in communities, the world lacks the Joseph’s of today. Even though the Bible is silent on the life of Joseph and where or how he ended-up, I am convinced that Mary and Joseph lived up to their matrimonial vows of ‘till death do us apart’. Theologians and scholars alike suggests that Joseph died with Jesus and Mary at his bedside, the Bible tells us that Jesus hung on the cross and entrusted his Mother to his friend John, and that to me is because “in the natural order of God’s plan and mission, children are the responsibility of parents until maturity, which is what Joseph and Marry did with their child Jesus and parents are equally the responsibility of their children till death, which is what Jesus did with his mother and John the beloved”, and so no matter what circumstances surround our lives “we ought to fulfil this order of God, by taking responsibility of children, parents and each other as humanity, no matter our genetic information.

 

On this day of commemoration, we are reminded through Joseph of Nazareth that “Men are called to work, to provide, to protect and to love women and children unconditionally”, and it is such Men that we celebrate as believers and non-believers alike, a demonstration that God’s mission is limitless, the Religious World and the Secular World, live under one creation of God.       

 HAPPY WORKERS DAY!!!

Kgosiemeng Phejane

Writing in his personal capacity as just another human under God's sun....