FOR A FEW months after their marriage, Joseph and Mary lived in their
little house at Nazareth. Joseph worked at his trade as a carpenter,
while Mary cared for the home and carried the water for the needs of the
house from the well in the middle of the village, walking with her jar
full of water on her head.
One day Joseph came home and told his wife that he had been called to go
on a journey to Bethlehem, which was the town from which their family
had come. Both Joseph and Mary, as we have seen, had sprung from the
line of the great King David, who had been born in Bethlehem more than a
thousand years before. Every one who belonged to the line of David,
wherever he might be living, looked upon Bethlehem as the home-town of
his family.
The Emperor Augustus at Rome, who ruled over all the lands and was above
Herod, the king of Judea, had given orders that a list should be made of
all the families in his wide empire. He wished to lay a tax upon every
family; that is, to call upon every family to pay money for the support
of his officers, his army, his court; and in order to fix this tax, he
must have written down the names of all the people.
In our land such a list is made every ten years, and is called a census.
With us, men are chosen in every city and town to go to the people where
they live and make the list of their names. From all the states
throughout the land, these lists are sent to one office, and there the
names are arranged in order.
[Illustration: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, said to enclose the
birthplace of the Saviour]
[Illustration: The shepherds came to the stable, opened the door and
found just what the angel said they would see, a tiny babe lying in the
manger.]
But the Romans who were ruling the world at that time chose a plan for
making this great list which would give themselves the least trouble,
even though it gave to the people under them much more trouble, and
compelled them to make long journeys. Instead of appointing in each
place an officer to take the names of the people at the places where
they were living, they made a law that every family must go to the city
or town from which they or their fathers had come, and there give their
names to the officers who were making the roll of the people. Those who
were living in Jerusalem, and had come from Shechem or Joppa or Cæsarea,
must journey to one of these places and there make their report; those
who were living in Nazareth and had come, or their parents before them
had come, from any other place, must go to their home-town, however
far it might be, and in that place be enrolled or written upon the list
of names.
There is no reason to suppose that Mary, although herself sprung from
the family of David, was compelled to make this journey to Bethlehem
with her husband. The Roman laws took very little notice of women,
unless they were rich women who could be taxed. Joseph could go alone to
Bethlehem, and there have both their names written upon the list. But at
once a thought came to Mary, and she said to her husband:
"You shall not make the journey to Bethlehem alone. I will go with you."
We are not told why the young wife was resolved to go with her husband
on the long journey, but the reason may have been this: Mary knew that
she was to have a son, and the time for his coming was now near at hand.
She knew, too, that her child should be the Son of David and the King of
Israel, that he was to sit on David's throne. She wished him to be born,
not in the village of Nazareth in Galilee, but in David's own town of
Bethlehem. He was to spring from the royal line, and she was willing to
endure a hard, trying journey, and even to suffer, that her son might
come from the royal city where David lived. Mary had read the books of
the Old Testament, and she knew that in those books it had been written
by the prophets, to whom God had spoken, that this king, whom they
called Messiah and Christ, should be born in Bethlehem. These were the
reasons that made Mary decide so quickly to go with her husband on his
journey to Bethlehem, the city of their fathers.
So Joseph locked up his carpenter's shop and set his wife upon an ass,
and with a staff walked beside her, over the mountain and down the
valley to the river Jordan, and thence following the river, over the
Roman road, the same long road that Mary had taken in the caravan or
company of pilgrims some months before. Joseph had been over that road
many times, going up every year to the feasts at Jerusalem, so that he
knew all the places which they passed, and could tell Mary stories of
their people and the great events which had taken place on the mountains
or in the cities as they came into view in their journey.
They stopped at Jericho, near the head of the Dead Sea, and there turned
westward, climbing the mountains over the robber-haunted road, and
reaching Jerusalem. Perhaps they rested a day or two in this city and
then went over to the mount of Olives, past the village of Bethany; and
six miles south of Jerusalem they entered the gate of Bethlehem.
They had no friends with whom they could stay in Bethlehem, and so they
sought out the inn, or the khan, as it was called. This was a large
building with rooms around an open court. In this court the animals and
the baggage were placed, and the guests of the inn were in the rooms
around it. But Joseph and Mary were not the only people who had come to
Bethlehem to have their names enrolled or written upon the lists for the
taxing. Others had reached the inn or khan before them. When they came
the courtyard was filled with asses and camels and chariots and baggage,
and all the rooms around the court were crowded with visitors. Joseph
found within the walls of the khan no place where his wife could rest
after her long and wearisome ride.
But at last Joseph learned of a place where they might stay through the
night and for a few days. It was only a cave, hollowed out in the
hillside, used as a stable for cattle; but miserable as it was, Mary
was glad to lie down upon the straw and rest. And in that cave-stable
Mary's child was born. She wrapped her little baby in such clothes as
she could find at hand, and laid him for his first sleep in the manger
where the oxen had fed. This was the lowly cradle of the Son of David,
the King who was to rule over all the earth! King Herod in his palace
did not know, and the Emperor Augustus at Rome did not dream, that in
the humble stable at Bethlehem was lying a Prince who should reign over
a realm vastly greater than Judea or the Roman Empire; that all the
world should date their years from the year when that baby was born; and
that his name would be praised long after their names had been
forgotten.
[Illustration: Main street in Bethlehem]
But although neither King Herod, nor the Emperor Augustus, nor the
high-priest and rulers in Jerusalem were there to welcome their new-born
King, there were some visitors at his manger-cradle. In the open fields
around Bethlehem were shepherds, watching at night over their flocks of
sheep, just as, a thousand years before in the same fields, the young
shepherd David had cared for his sheep, guarding them from wild beasts
of the wilderness and from robbers.
Suddenly a great, dazzling light flashed upon these shepherds, and they
saw, as Zacharias had seen by the altar, and as Mary had seen in
Nazareth, a glorious angel standing before them. The shepherds were
filled with fear and fell upon their faces on the ground, not daring to
look up at the shining form. But the angel spoke to them kindly and
graciously, saying:
"Do not be afraid, for I come with good news, which will make you glad;
news for all God's people. On this very night is born in yonder city of
David, one who shall be the Saviour, even Christ your Lord and King.
Would you wish to go and see this child? I will tell you how you can
find him. Look for a newly-born baby wrapped in such clothes as babies
wear, and lying, not in a cradle in a house, but in the manger of a
stable, where the oxen and the asses are kept. There you will find the
child who is to be the King of all the earth!"
While shepherds were listening to the words of this angel, they saw that
the entire midnight sky over them was filled with a multitude of
heavenly beings. The shepherds heard them sing:
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men in whom God is well pleased."
Then the vision faded away, the angelic host passed out of sight, and in
the dark sky only the stars were shining above them. Then the shepherds
said to each other:
"Let us leave our sheep here for a little while, and go to the village
and see this wonderful thing that has come to pass. How good it is that
the Lord has given this word to us, that we may be the first to look
upon our King!"
It did not take the shepherds a long time to find the right stable and
the manger, for Bethlehem was then only a small village. They came,
opened the door, and found just what the angel had said they would see,
a tiny baby lying in the manger, his mother hovering near, and Joseph
watching over them both in tenderness.
They saw the royal little one, and bowed low around his manger cradle,
then went again to their flocks in the field, praising God for his
goodness in sending the long-promised King. The people to whom the
shepherds told this story, wondered at it, hardly knowing whether to
believe it or not; for this was not the way in which they looked for the
King of Israel to come. They were expecting a prince to be born in a
palace, not a working-woman's child in a dark cave where cattle were
kept.
But Mary, happy with her little one, clasped him to her heart and said
nothing to anyone of the angel that had come to her in Nazareth, and of
the promises given her about this child. When the day came to name the
child, she simply said, "His name shall be Jesus," but she told no one
why the name was given. It was a common name among the Jews, so no one
was surprised at the name. But no word could tell better than his name
"Jesus" what this child should become, for the word Jesus means
"Saviour."
[Illustration: Simeon came forward and took the infant Jesus into his
arms, and lifting up his eyes to heaven gave thanks that he had seen the
Saviour.]
The Baby Brought to the Temple