This is a tale of three cities separated by great distances of time and space. From each city streamed an event, like tributaries destined to join a great river; the story of the first Christmas.
The narrative begins at the beginning of human history six thousand years ago somewhere in what is today southern Iraq, in a garden in the land of Eden. Our parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed their Creator. As punishment, they were cast out of the garden into the land of sorrows, in which we all dwell.
But their expulsion was tempered by a foregleam of forgiveness in the most enigmatic prophecy. God addresses and curses the Serpent: “And I will put enmity between you [the Serpent] and the woman, and between your seed [the Serpent] and her seed [the Christ]; He shall crush your head; and you shall bruise His heel,” Gen. 3:15.
Seed is only from men; women have no impregnating seed. “[H]er seed” is a foreshadow of the one who is not born of man's seed who will crush underfoot the Serpent's head with such lethal force as to bruise his heel. It is the promise of a redeemer, a future savior fulfilled 4,000 years later.
Nazareth. The time is 4 B.C. The place, Nazareth, a small Jewish village of about 500. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” John 1:46. Yes, indeed, much good.
A young Jewish maiden, perhaps in her early teens, resides there. She is not distinguishable from other girls her age. All that is to change. The virgin's name is Mary.
“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” It was the archangel, Gabriel. The girl is petrified. “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him, Jesus.” Jesus means Savior.
“How will this be,” asked Mary, “since I know not a man?” “The Holy Spirit will overshadow you,” replied the messenger. Mary knows the shame and humiliation that awaits her as an unmarried woman with child. Her reply is the most sublime in Scripture: “I am the Lord's slave. May your word to me be fulfilled.” She presents herself as a slave of God and brushes aside the dreadful consequences of illegitimacy as not being worthy of consideration.
When Mary's espoused, Joseph, discovers her condition he is mortified. He finds her explanation preposterous. But Gabriel visits him in a vision: “Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Hold Spirit.”
Rome. “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And all went to be registered every one to his own city.” So Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem because that was his ancestral home.
Augustus' decree issued in 4 B.C. made possible the fulfillment of a prophecy made in 700 B.C.
Bethlehem. It was in Bethlehem that the prophet Micah foretold that the Messiah would be born: “And thou Bethlehem art a little one among the thousands of Judea; but out of thee shall come forth a ruler in Israel; and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.”
When they arrived in Bethlehem her time had come. But there was no lodging to be found for them. Neither did any of Joseph's relatives offer help to the forlorn couple though both were of Davidic lineage. The stigma of Mary's condition hung heavily over the couple.
The only place that Joseph could find for the birth was a stable. Somewhere in dark recesses of this shelter, protected from the chill of a fall night, Mary reclined on a bed of hay and gave birth. His birth coincided with the beginning of the God ordained Feast of Tabernacles, an October festival.
A tabernacle is a temporary dwelling place. The book of John records, “and the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us.”
The child was wrapped in rags. His bed was a feed trough. There were none to witness his arrival, no trumpets were sounded, no cheers were heard. His stepfather and mother were outcasts, the child reviled and shunned.
Isaiah foresees Him as “despised and rejected.” John writes, “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.” Nevertheless, angels proclaimed His Advent but only to the lowest of the low, the shepherds in nearby fields. These the angels direct to the stable.
The sun is rising. It is the dawn of a new day. The shepherds have found their way to the birthplace. They are on their knees in silent adoration before the Christ child. He is cradled in the arms of Mary. Joseph, kneeling attentively by her side, completes the nativity scene.
It is the first Christmas.
Sincerely,
Bob Scroggins
New Milford, PA