We should have supposed that when the time came for the entrance
of the great Hero upon the stage of this world, magnificent
preparations would be made to receive him. A nation had been called
and separated from all tribes of earth that he might be born of
them, and it had been their one special mission to prepare for the
coming of this One, their Head and King, in whom the whole of their
organization--laws, teachings, and prophecies--was to be fulfilled.
Christ was the end for which the tabernacle was erected and the
temple built, for whom were the Holy of Holies, the altars, and the
sacrifices. He was the Coming One for whom priests and prophets had
been for hundreds of years looking.
What should we have expected of divine wisdom when the glorious hour
approached? We should have thought that the news would be sent to
the leaders of the great national council of the Sanhedrim, to the
High Priest and elders, that their Prince was at hand. Doubtless we
should suppose that the nation, apprised of his coming, would have
made ready his palace and have been watching at its door to do honor
to their newborn King.
Far otherwise is the story as we have it.
In the poorest, most sordid, most despised village of Judæa dwelt,
unknown and neglected, two members of the decayed and dethroned
royal family of Judæa,--Joseph the carpenter and Mary his betrothed.
Though every circumstance of the story shows the poverty of these
individuals, yet they were not peasants. They were of royal lineage,
reduced to the poverty and the simple life of the peasants. The
Jews, intensely national, cherished the tradition of David their
warrior and poet prince; they sang his Psalms, they dwelt on his
memory, and those persons, however poor and obscure, who knew that
they had his blood in their veins were not likely to forget it.
There have been times in the history of Europe when royal princes,
the heirs of thrones, have sojourned in poverty and obscurity,
earning their bread by the labor of their hands. But the
consciousness of royal blood and noble birth gave to them a secret
largeness of view and nobility of feeling which distinguished them
from common citizens.
The Song of Mary given in St. Luke shows the tone of her mind; shows
her a woman steeped in the prophetic spirit and traditions, in the
Psalms of her great ancestor, and herself possessing a lofty poetic
nature.
We have the story of the birth of Christ in only two of the
Evangelists. In Matthew we have all the facts and incidents such as
must have been derived from Joseph, and in Luke we have those which
could only have been told by Mary. She it is who must have related
to St. Luke the visit of the angel and his salutation to her. She it
is who tells of the state of her mind when those solemn mysterious
words first fell upon her ear:--
"Hail thou, highly favored! The Lord is with thee: Blessed art
thou among women!"