I
was privileged a few years ago to walk through a room at work where some guys
were having a conversation about the first Christmas. One of them had just
asked something like, "Why was a woman nine months pregnant riding a
donkey so far from home, with no place to stay?"
In
those days the whole world was different. In Rome, Augustus Caesar had the
power to turn the world upside down with a decree. This particular time, he
decided that in order for people to be taxed properly they needed to return to
their ancestral home to sign up for the census. Imagine if you lived in LA but
your family had moved there from Philadelphia, and the President said you had
to go back to Philadelphia this week; or that grandpa, long retired in sunny
Florida, had to return to New York to sign some papers. I bet you can't
remember a time when the President had that kind of authority. Caesar did. He
was in Rome, and these people in the Middle East are flocking to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or wherever they came from. Bethlehem, despite
being called the "city of David," has never been a big city. Its name
means "house of bread," which sounds inauspicious.
David,
the former king of Israel, had his blood flowing through Joseph's veins. When
you read Jesus' genealogy in the book of Matthew, this is the point. This
is how the scepter passes down, from father to son, even if it is not the
"natural" father.
(All the genealogy you're going to get today:
1. Both Mary and Joseph trace their roots to King David, and also
beyond that to Abraham.
2. The Gospel of Luke contains the genealogy of Jesus' mother,
Mary.
3. "Begat" means "became an ancestor of,"
generally the father of, but not necessarily.
By mentioning five women — Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, Bathsheba and Mary — Matthew's genealogy is unusual compared to
those of the time, where women were not generally included at all; for example,
the genealogy of Luke does not mention them. Generations may have been skipped
for the sake of brevity, considering that some of the people involved may have
known some of the principals discussed. With tongue in cheek, I usually say
that Thurston Howell the first begat Thurston Howell the third. Of course, you
already know that Thurston Howell Junior, or the second, would have been the
latter's father, but I didn't need to tell you that.)
Anyway,
as head of household Joseph was the one who had to return to the city of David,
his ancestral home, to sign up to be taxed. His betrothed did not necessarily
have to go with him, so that brings us back to the original question. What was
Mary doing sticking out to there, riding a donkey so far from home with no
place lined up to stay?
(For one thing, she wasn't necessarily riding a donkey. It only
says that she went with Joseph. But the mode of transportation is unimportant.)
One
possibility is that Joseph was simply watching out for Mary. I am a product of
this age, so it hasn't been that long ago, that it was a source of shame to be
an unwed mother. If Joseph left her back home alone in a small town like
Nazareth, she might have had a rough time with relatives, acquaintances and
people she didn't really know but were giving her the evil eye anyway. I would
imagine when she got pregnant out of wedlock, she lost some friends and
sometimes felt quite alone in the world. So Joseph took her with him. If she
delivered the baby while they were traveling, surely they could find a midwife.
If not, the two of them would figure out something. People have been having
babies for years, in less developed countries than this, right?
Well,
there is no record of a midwife, whether they found one or not, so they might
have "figured it out" themselves. But no matter. The narrative
continues to tell us there was no room at the inn. Bethlehem wasn't a tourist
town with hotels on every corner, and even though Joseph's roots were there, he
obviously didn't have family there that he could stay with. (Although there is
some school of thought that they did stay with relatives, but the guest room
was occupied.) So they probably stayed in a small cave where sheep, or maybe
cattle, normally sought shelter from the weather; and when Jesus was born, they
laid him in a feeding trough.
Meanwhile,
there were shepherds out in the field, where they stayed to tend their sheep.
These are some people who would be described as "rough around the
edges." They were social outcasts, and probably didn't bathe as much as
everybody else. But who was the first to get the message that the Messiah was
born?
"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,
keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord
shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all
the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is
Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in
cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the
angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor
rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has
happened, which the Lord has told us about."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who
was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word
concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were
amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these
things and pondered them in her heart.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the
things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."
That's
right, these filthy, common people got the message before everybody else. They
saw Jesus wrapped in swaddling
cloths, which is a Jewish
tradition. You take the baby's limbs and wrap them real tight, so it
straightens them out. It is done as a sign that you want your child to grow
upright, morally and spiritually; it's also supposed to be good for their
posture. And despite what you see in so many nativity sets, they might have
been the only witnesses. There was no Santa, no reindeer, no snowman. The wise
men probably came weeks or months later. There were probably more than three,
traveling by caravan, but brought three gifts that were recorded: Gold, because
they recognized him as the true King of Israel; frankincense, a sweet-smelling
incense . . . maybe because they had read Isaiah's prophecy that "nations
will come to your light, and kings to your rising . . . They will bring gold
and frankincense, and will bear good news. . . " (Isa. 60:3, 6); and
myrrh, which was a perfume used in embalming. Yes, the Magi had read the
scriptures, and knew what was in store for the King (see Daniel 9:24-27).
According to John 19:39 he would be embalmed with this very perfume.
The
Magi did supply one other thing that was crucial. On the way, they had stopped
off at King Herod's. Herod was, to be charitable, not all in there. To be less
charitable, he was insane. But they didn't know this, or maybe didn't care.
They just figured that he was the most important guy in the region, so he
should know: "Where is the TRUE King of Israel?" Herod was more than
a little insulted ("alarmed," the Bible says), but remained cordial
with the visiting dignitaries. He asked his advisors including a group of
Jewish scribes, and they, having read the scriptures, knew he would be born in
Bethlehem. So he pointed them on their way, and said "when you find him,
let me know where he is so that I may go and worship him as well."
Worshipping
another king was the LAST thing Herod wanted to do. And after the wise men had
visited with the family, they were told in a dream to take another way home and
not see Herod. (I imagine the guy creeped them out anyway, and they were glad
for this direction.) When it took longer than Herod expected to hear from the
magi, he got a group of cold-blooded killers together and sent them to
Bethlehem and all surrounding areas to kill any infant aged two and under.
Meanwhile
the angel of the Lord had appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
"Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and
stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to look for the child to kill
him." Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and
went to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by
the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: "I called my Son out of
Egypt."
Fleeing
to Egypt only made sense. There was a road headed south to get there, and
heading north would have meant a trip through Jerusalem, where Herod and all of
his minions were. So, as you can see, Jesus started his life on the run. Joseph
spent a great deal of time protecting him by running from place to place, even
having to wait out the death of a local ruler.
Article from Bible.org on the birth of Christ (some of it may sound
familiar)
Beautiful post! And the Reason for the Season!!
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