And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem…to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:4-7
Stark Reality vs. Pretty Picture
A calm and serene Joseph and Mary gazing upon the hushed little Lord Jesus, is the sentimental picture of the holy family often depicted on many Christmas cards and painted in our imagination when we think upon that night that changed the course of history.
However, as we take a closer look at the gospel accounts of the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus, it is apparent that the situation was far from pretty and cushy. From seemingly every angle, it appeared to be disruption at work.
Just nine months ago, Joseph and Mary were preparing for what was perhaps to be one of the biggest moments of their lives. It would not be surprising that there was anxiety and uncertainty for the both of them leading up to the time when they had to leave the comfort zone of their own families and home to begin a new life with someone that they were betrothed to, but not necessarily familiar with in that time and culture when parents chose their children’s marriage partners, and intimacy between members of the opposite sex before marriage was considered taboo. So when a supernatural being made his appearance to Mary to explain to her what was to come, it was clear that would be an even bigger disruption in addition to the major changes that were already going to take place in her life. What if no one believed her unlikely story that she was pregnant by divine means? Not that anyone would have asked for an explanation in the disdainful whispers that would have travelled fast and far in a tight community. The shame of carrying a baby out of wedlock is painfully obvious and impossible to hide. But these frightening rumours would be the least of worries if Joseph were to call off the engagement and in retaliation to having been made a cuckold, drag her to court to demand her rightful death by stoning. And even if Joseph was gracious enough not to do so, what would her future lie as a single mother in a conservative Jewish community? To feel troubled and fearful is an understatement. Yet young Mary was the first person to accept Jesus on His own terms, regardless of the personal cost.
When Jesus was eventually born against these odds, the world He entered was one of strife and terror under the oppressive Roman government headed locally by a tyrannical Herod well-known for his massacre of the innocents. It was in submission to the heavy tax demands of this regime that Joseph and heavily pregnant Mary made their long journey of about 113 kilometres (or an exhausting ten days on donkey-back) from Nazareth to Bethlehem, only to be rejected at an inn and have Mary deliver the child almost single-handedly in a dank and foul-smelling animal shelter and lay Him in a feed trough. If the divine Christ hungered and thirsted in His humanity as an adult, there is no reason why the baby Jesus did not enter into the world crying to clear His lungs and to ask to be fed as opposed to the famous carol which depicts the little Lord Jesus, "no crying He makes".
A Humble God
If Jesus came to reveal God to us, that first Christmas demonstrated the incomprehensible humility of God that allowed Him to enter the world within the limits of time and space, and in the confines of not just human flesh, but shockingly the flesh of a helpless, dependant child to be brought up and provided for by the very sinful humans that He came to save. Many, if not all, religions depict their gods as awesome, powerful and supreme. The very idea of a humble God is an oxymoron in itself. An obtrusive truth that sets Jesus apart from other gods.
Jesus’ first night as a human child in those stark conditions was the first step of many to come, to demonstrate the extent of His meekness – a meekness and humility consistent with a God who would go on from there to associate with the poor and the powerless, to don on the garb of a servant to wash the feet of His disciples, and eventually to be tortured and humiliated before taking that dreadful cup of death on a criminal’s cross. All this, so that the way humans approach deity would be forever changed from primarily fear to that of a relational love. An unfathomable plan no human mind could ever conjure up, set in motion that first Christmas when God delivered His message of Jesus; when the Word was made flesh.
