Just a few thoughts on Christmas Eve.
The birth of the Savior was forecast many generations before
it happened. Scripture scholars of the
time recognized the signs and expected Jesus’ birth. We know that is true because of the arrival
of the “Wise” men. We are not told who
they were, but we were told they searched the skies anxiously seeking the sign
of the “new” star. They came from the
east. We are not told where in the east
they began their search. It could have
been today’s Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, or perhaps even Iran. We know that it took many months for them to
arrive to the “house where the young lad was.”
They didn’t see Jesus in the grotto where he was born.
Because of the nature of prophecies concerning the coming of
the Savior, whose mother would be named Mary, most families in the Tribe of
Judah named their first born daughter “Mary” hoping their daughter would be the
one to give birth to the Savior. We know
little of the chosen Mary’s family. We
suppose that they taught their children out of the scriptures. They likely were pretty firm in their
understanding of those scriptures. They
had to be so in order to raise a daughter worthy of receiving, and giving birth
to, the Son of the Living God. Mary was
willing to endure the endless criticisms of the neighbors who had to have
noticed that she was pregnant but still unwed.
Some scholars have expressed their opinion that Mary may have been as
young as 14 years old. However, the
scriptures do not give us her age. Those
same scholars opine that Joseph was a man of about 40 years old when he married
Mary. There is no scriptural reference
to his age.
Joseph, also, must have been devout in his worship of God. He also was firm in his understanding of
scripture. His was an awesome
responsibility to receive Mary as his wife, shielding her from the nasty rumors
and chatter of the neighbors, raising Jesus as his own, and helping to prepare Jesus
to be who he would become to be. We know
little of Joseph, but we know he received revelation from God on at least two
occasions. We know, therefore, that he
was a righteous man. There is mention of
Joseph during Jesus’ ministry, “Is he not the son of Joseph, the carpenter”. But, there is no information as to what
happened to him. He would have been
about 50 years old when Jesus began his ministry.
As for the shepherds:
These shepherds were caring for temple sheep. They are assumed to be Levites, but younger
in age, still learning how to become priests serving in the temple. The angels
appeared to them to announce the birth of the Savior and they were instructed
to go and see and then spread the news of Jesus’ birth to all they knew. They would have told the High Priest in the
temple and the members of the Sanhedrin, though most of them would have disregarded
the news because what would these young inexperienced scoundrels know of
spiritual events?
Much as the peoples of the American Continent, these
experiences and prophecies were little regarded for most folks. Judea was expecting a military savior who
would help them throw off the yoke of Roman occupiers. So the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, the
Father and Mary a mere mortal was ludicrous to the people. Little did they know what that obscure birth
would mean to the world.
Many would say that Joseph and Mary were poor, but we have no
indication of that. We know that Joseph
was prepared to stay in an inn. We know
that he was a carpenter. We don’t know
the social status of carpenters of that era.
We know that Joseph had the means to move the family to Egypt and then
back to Nazareth later. He wanted to
return to Jerusalem but was afraid of notoriety when he learned that Herod’s
son inherited the throne, so he diverted to Nazareth and fulfilled the prophecy
that indicated that Jesus would be from Nazareth.
