Anticipating this year’s Christmas, I have been thinking about that earth-moving event of over 2000 years ago – the coming of Christ into the world as a helpless baby. Most people are familiar with His miracles – like turning water into wine, walking on the water, calming a stormy lake, raising Lazarus from the dead, or even His own resurrection. But there is even another side to the miracles associated with Him.
The stories associated with Christmas are very much in the air. I find myself wondering about some of them, like the journey Joseph and Mary made for their son to be born in Bethlehem. If your mind then takes various detours like mine, you could ask yourself ‘What reasonable man in his right senses would take his nearly full-term pregnant wife on an arduous trek over about 100 miles?’
I had a conversation about this with a female colleague in the office some time ago.
“One of the miracles around Jesus Christ is the story of his birth.”
“You mean about his mother being a virgin?” “No,” I said, “although that was a miracle in its own right”. She turned her swivel chair around. “What do you mean?” Her face screamed curiosity. “I mean the place of his birth.” “Explain.” “How many men do you think would take their pregnant wives on a 100-mile trek through hill country in the last weeks of pregnancy?” “I guess none; no man in his right mind would do that. Unless they’re plainly evil or were being downright sadistic or mischievous.” “That’s what Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus Christ did. He took his wife Mary probably walking or riding on a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, just before Jesus was born.” “Why did he do that? I never heard of that story.” “Well, many people who know the story don’t give it much thought. The distance is roughly 70 miles as the crow flies, but they would not have taken the direct route.” “Why not?” “They would have avoided Samaritan territory which was in between. Jews did not associate with Samaritans and even avoided having to pass through their territory. And Joseph was a devout Jew from what we read of him”. “Why did he do it; I mean why the arduous journey in late pregnancy in the first place?”
“Well, he was being a good citizen, obeying the law. At that time, Palestine was a Roman colony, and the Emperor Augustus had just passed a decree for a population census for taxation purposes. This required everyone to return to his native city to be counted. That was why Joseph made that journey. He did not just decide to do it by himself; he was compelled.” “Human rights were obviously not a big issue for the Romans!” “One may say that; after all they had their slaves, and the populace was divided between the plebeians, and the patricians or aristocrats.” “Interesting!” “But that is not really the miracle. The miracle was that that birth was prophesied to take place in Bethlehem more than 500 years before it took place. It required a decree of the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar to make a prophecy made over 500 years before to come true. And it did under the most unusual of circumstances. That is the miracle. God knows the future and can foretell it accurately.”
There were other predictions or prophecies that were also fulfilled at His birth. The fact of His mother being a virgin – or unmarried woman was prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah even before the prophecy of the place of birth. And there was that other prophecy of what King Herod – a Roman appointed king – would do, again hundreds of years before the actual event. As was the case with many prophecies, this one was cryptic and made no sense to the people who heard it, until it was fulfilled. Rachel, the favourite wife of Jacob, was described as weeping in Ramah (a town in Israel) for her children and being inconsolable because “they were no more”.
King Herod (the Great) felt his position threatened when the Magi – ‘wise men from the east’ came to pay homage to the newborn Christ whose star they said they had seen in the sky. Their description of Him as ‘King of the Jews’ made him very uncomfortable. And when they did not return to tell him the exact location of the new King’s birth as he had requested, he ordered all the male children under the age of two in the vicinity killed in an effort to get rid of his perceived new-born rival. It is thought that he chose two years because he calculated that this was the time it would have taken the Magi after sighting the star at their home in ‘the east’, (whose exact location is unknown), to arrive Jerusalem and go back again. This incident is what is today remembered in the church as the Massacre of the Innocents, on Innocent Day (December 28).
Statisticians compute that the possibility of these three prophecies (among others) separated in time and place, all coming to fulfilment at the same time and place by chance as being very, very, rare indeed (less than one in a million).
My colleague was deep in thought at the end of our little chat.
May others like her who have not given the most significant event in human history much thought ponder and take some time to investigate this aspect of HUMAN history.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
