A few years ago, I had the great joy and privilege of being asked to lead a Christmas Eve service. Yet, when the time came to begin planning, I didn’t know what I should talk about. I shared my dilemma with my mother, and her words to me were: ‘Well, Mary and Joseph did a lot of travelling on the day Jesus was born, didn’t they?’ And suddenly, the Holy Spirit seemed to turn a light on in my mind.
We know there are a lot of arguments about when Jesus was actually born, and it’s very unlikely it was on 25 December, but despite what we don’t know, there is a lot the Bible tells us which we can be certain of. One thing we know is that because of the census being taken by Caesar Augustus, a lot of people were on the road moving about, because they all had to return to the place where they were born. For Joseph and a heavily-pregnant Mary, that meant a roughly 70 mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
These days, a 70 mile trip isn’t much of a problem. Car travel is relatively comfortable, and it would only take at worst a couple of hours. Or there’s the train or bus. Still pretty comfortable. But Mary wouldn’t have had any of these luxuries. We often hear about the little donkey at Christmas time, but the Bible doesn’t tell us whether they had a donkey. Even if they had, it would still have been a rough and bumpy ride. They didn’t have today’s smooth roads. Mary would have been jolted and bounced up and down. And if there hadn’t been a donkey, she might well have had to walk, which would have been even more exhausting toward the end of a pregnancy.
When they got to Bethlehem, there was no clean and warm hospital with midwives to deliver her baby. It’s generally believed the place where Mary and Joseph found shelter was a sort of cave where animals were kept. I suppose the animals gave a bit of warmth, but there would have been other problems. Imagine the smell!
Mary and Joseph didn’t have it easy, and in pondering that, I thought about our own journeys through our Christian lives. Mary and Joseph’s journey started at Nazareth, which was their home town. It was where they were comfortable and secure, probably surrounded by their families and friends. For us, the journey begins when we come to realise that the birth of Jesus isn’t just a lovely story to tell at Christmas time. It’s not a myth or a legend like the stories of king Arther and his knights of the round table. These things really did happen. Mary did really give birth to a baby boy named Jesus, who was God in human form. God really was Immanuel. He’d come down here to be with us, to live a human life, and then, most importantly, to die on the cross for our sins. The whole point of the cradle was the cross. He came for a purpose, not just to give us lovely Christmas stories to tell and nativity plays to act out. And it’s when we accept the gift of salvation he died to give us that our journey of faith begins.
Sometimes, like Mary and Joseph, people are called away from the familiar when they become Christians. Some are called into missionary service in all sorts of far-flung places, but for many of us, we’re just called to live out our faith here – amongst the familiar, and to show our families and friends by the way we live that Jesus is real, and that knowing him has made an incredible difference in our lives.
Yet for many, that’s easier said than done, because the journey of faith isn’t always a flower-strewn pathway. Like Mary’s journey to Bethlehem, it can sometimes be a bumpy ride. One of the biggest miss-conceptions for people when they first become Christians is that now, all their problems will be over. Life is going to be all warm and fuzzy! Sadly, we know that’s not true. Christians have problems, just like everyone else. And we also have an enemy – Satan, who’s out to shipwreck our faith and make us in-effective in our witness to others. The Bible tells us that when we come to know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we are setting out on a narrow path, not a nice wide smooth road. On narrow paths, you have to be very careful. Sometimes, you have to squeeze your way through because of overhanging leaves and twigs that want to snag you, or things that try and jut out and poke you in the eye! You have to be alert, and Christians also have to be alert. The Bible says our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he can devour. And he tries to devour us with doubts, fears, and problems. And when the problems in our lives come, that snarling voice will often ask: ‘Are you sure God is really there? Are you sure he’s real, and not just a myth? Are you sure it’s not just all fairy stories we tell children about a baby in a manger, shepherds and wise men bringing him gifts, and angels announcing his birth?’ And that’s when we have to be strong in our faith, and resist these doubts and fears. We have to remind ourselves of all the times God has come through for us in the past, and has shown himself to be real.
Yes, it’s often a rough journey through life, but if we’ve accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and saviour, we have a wonderful travelling companion, and when things get really tough, he doesn’t just walk along-side us – he carries us. Remember the lovely footprints poem? And ultimately, he’s prepared a perfect destination which we’ll reach at our journey’s end – more wonderful than we could ever imagine, or than our human mind can understand. Whatever we have to go through in this life will pale in the light of eternity – being able to spend forever with the person who loves us most in a place he’s especially prepared for us.
When Mary held baby Jesus in her arms, I imagine she forgot all about the uncomfortable journey to Bethlehem, and even the smelly dirty place she was in. All she felt was love for that precious baby, and one day, if we’ve accepted him as our personal Saviour, we’re going to look into his eyes, and we’re going to be overwhelmed by how much he loves us. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life’.