The Nativity: A Virtual Tour

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We want to do something a little different tonight. I want to take you on a little virtual tour of the nativity. As we contemplate the birth of Christ, I thought it would be good for us to sort of retrace the steps of Mary and Joseph, as they headed down to Bethlehem. We're going to begin at Nazareth, where both Mary and Joseph lived, and show you their journey as they continue on to Bethlehem.

Now, let me say at the outset that I am deeply indebted to Todd Bolen of bibleplaces.com, who has been here to our church and taught a class on some of these issues and has some great photographs. There are a few of mine interjected but, for the most part, they are his as well as some of the information that I'll be sharing.

Let me begin by orienting you as to where Mary and Joseph were from, and where eventually they would return with Jesus, and where He would spend His earthly life. It is on the north side of the Jezreel Valley. That little valley green part, there, is all flat. It's the Jezreel Valley. It's also known, by the way, as the place where Armageddon will be fought. It's a huge valley, about 25 miles on each side, that is fertile and it has been, throughout Israel's history, a staging point for battles. As you can see on the north side of that, is the town of Nazareth.

Now, here's a photograph looking north. We're standing on the south end of the Jezreel Valley, that little arrow-shaped valley, looking north across the valley, and Nazareth is up, as you can see, in the hills at the distance. You can see, here, we're looking from the north back toward the Jezreel Valley, the flat area in the distance, is the Jezreel Valley. And in the foreground, is the town of Nazareth. It's kind of inside a bowl shape in the hills, looking out over the Jezreel Valley. It was a relatively isolated village in Jesus' time. The population would probably have been less than 200. It's isolated but, at the same time, available because it wasn't that far from the International Highway and the capital of Galilee. And it has become, over time, a more populated city. In fact, today, in Nazareth there are some 60,000 Israeli Arabs and in upper Nazareth, as it's called, there are thousands of Jewish inhabitants. So, it's become, as you can see from these photographs, much more populated but in Jesus' day, it would have been a small village in this side, this bowl-shaped little valley, on the edge of the Jezreel Valley. It's so small that it's not mentioned in the Old Testament. Josephus, the historian, mentions 45 towns in Galilee by name, but he doesn't mention Nazareth. The Jewish Talmud mentioned 63 towns in Galilee by name, but Nazareth is again not mentioned. It was a backwater town, off of the beaten path. There are no literary sources outside the New Testament until the 4th century that mention this little town. But archaeological excavations have confirmed that the city was a small, agricultural village during the Greek and Roman periods. It was the home of Mary and Joseph.

Now, in a town the size of 200, that's fewer people that are here tonight probably. You would have known everyone in town. It's likely that they both grew up there, as was would have been typical in that time period. And they knew, if not each other well, they at least knew each other's families. This is where the journey begins.

Now, just to give you a couple of more photographs, this is another picture of downtown Nazareth. Here are some sheep grazing near Nazareth - gives you a little more of that rural setting, as it would have been in Jesus' time. Nazareth looking from the south, couple of other shots here, just to give you a little feel for it.

Now, where the red arrow is pointing, this is downtown Nazareth. You see that building right in the center, where the arrow is pointing - that is the Church of the Annunciation. Let me give you a closer view of it. There it is, a little closer. The Church of the Annunciation is a Catholic Church that was built in the 1960s, but it was built over the older remains of churches that date back to 356 AD. A Byzantine church was built there, supposedly on the site of Mary's house, where Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus. We can't be sure of that, but it is interesting that if the archaeological studies are right, the report suggests that even under the Byzantine church ruins, there are other religious structures. One of them may well have been, based on its style and structure, a third century Jewish Christian synagogue. It is possible, we don't know this for sure, but it is possible that this location is actually the spot where the original synagogue in Nazareth stood, where Jesus Himself, you remember, taught and where He was ultimately rejected by the people of His own town.

This is where the journey of Mary and Joseph begin. This is an interior, by the way, of that church. This, as I said, is likely the spot where the synagogue stood - or I shouldn't say likely - possibly, place where the synagogue stood. Now, if we're going to trace through their story and the journey, let me give you a sort of order of events. This is pieced together from Matthew 1, and Luke 1, and the first few verses of Luke 2.

Understand that Mary and Joseph were betrothed. In Jewish weddings, of the time, there were two parts of the wedding. There was the betrothal period, during which you were committed to each other - similar to our engagement, but it was much more serious. If you wanted out during the betrothal period, you had to be divorced. You had to actually seek a divorce. But you were not living in the same house; you were not involved physically. You were betrothed. You were committed to be married.

What were their ages at the time? Well, we can't be absolutely certain but, in that first century world, most Jewish girls would have been committed to be married sometime shortly after puberty. And so, Mary was perhaps as young as 13 or into her late teens when all of these events transpired. She almost certainly would not have been older than a teenager. Joseph, as he pursues marriage here - most Jewish men, of the time, were married by the age of 20. You have to remember their lifespans were much shorter and so all of the events that now we have 80 years, in God's providence to spend, they had maybe 40-45 years. Joseph dies early. We know that because he's mentioned when Jesus is 12, but by the time Jesus begins His ministry, there's no mention again of Joseph. So, Joseph was probably in his late teen years.

They were betrothed. The betrothal period lasted usually around 12 months - no more than 12 months. It was during that 12-month period, that all of these events transpired. First, Gabriel, the angel Gabriel, appears and an angel, by the way, hadn't appeared for some 700 years. And, on the scene, comes Gabriel. He appears to Zacharias, a priest, who in God's providence happened to be - probably the one time in his whole priestly life when he got to actually go into the temple. He was selected by lot, to go into the temple, to burn the incense.

Now, understand, there were 24 orders of priests and they rotated through; they didn't all serve at the temple all of the time. And so, he got a couple of weeks a year. And it... There would have been a lot of priests on duty, and it would have been very unusual for him to have been selected by lot to go into the Holy Place to burn the incense. But in God's providence, he did. And while he was there, inside that area, the angel Gabriel appears to him and tells him that he will, with Elizabeth, bear a son whose name will be John, and he will be the forerunner of the Messiah.

That's followed in Luke's account, six months later, six months after that event, Elizabeth is now - or at least six months later, I should say, because Elizabeth is now six months pregnant. And Gabriel then appears to Mary in her home, not in Jerusalem where he had appeared to Zacharias, but to her home in Nazareth. And there he announces that Christ would be born. Mary immediately leaves and goes to the hill country, in the middle part of Israel, where she, for three months, visits with Elizabeth, apparently staying until John the Baptist is born. Elizabeth was in her sixth month. She stays for three months. The assumption is she stayed until the child was born. And then, after that, Luke 1:56 says she returns home to Nazareth. We don't know where in this time period, in the providence of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, she became pregnant, but it's possible that she returns home after those three months, pregnant, to Nazareth. I have some theories as to why that might be possible, but I can't prove them to you. We just don't know.

Joseph, then, learns from Mary of her pregnancy, once she returns to Nazareth and decides to divorce her, according to Matthew 1:18-19. Again, in that betrothal period, that was the only way out. And not wanting to make a public show of her, he decides to divorce her privately and get out of this commitment that he's made - assuming, of course, that she has been unfaithful to him, perhaps while she was away visiting family in the hill country. But an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, according to Matthew 1:20-23, and tells him to take Mary to be his wife, that it's the work of the Spirit that she has conceived. And so, the end of Matthew 1, Joseph takes Mary as his wife and Matthew makes a big point of saying he kept her a virgin until she bore her son. Now, Luke 2 finishes that off because, after he takes her as his wife, they travel then to Bethlehem for the census in her ninth month of pregnancy.

One more thing I want to show you in Nazareth. There is a Greek Orthodox Church that is built here. And the church isn't the point. But this church was built over the town's original water source, its original well. It's called Mary's Well because certainly, in a small village of 200, there would have only been one primary water source. This church was built over it. And so, this would have been the place where Jesus (and there's the well itself), where Jesus probably, as a young man, would have come and drawn water or certainly Mary would have, as was the custom of the culture in the time. So, this is where Mary and Joseph lived. This is where they began. So, here in Nazareth, is where the journey begins.

Bethlehem, down here as you can see, just six miles south of Jerusalem, is where the journey ends. The most likely route that they take is through the Jordan Rift Valley. The Jordan River runs there, between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, and it was the route most frequently taken. There was a ridge route that ran almost directly between the two arrows there, but it was not as popular among the Jewish pilgrim travelers. The Jordan was much more common. And so, that's the route they almost certainly decide to take.

This is what the road system in Jesus' time looked like in Israel. You see the Sea of Galilee up toward the top, and that red star up near it, is Nazareth I've marked. And then you see, down near the Dead Sea over to the left side, another star shaped differently. That's Bethlehem. So, that's where they need to go. And they would likely have taken the road to which that arrow points, that road that runs down the west side of the Jordan River. That way they wouldn't have had to cross the Jordan River, and yet they avoided much of the country of the Samaritans and the hill country. And they would have taken that road all the way down to Jericho, when they would have turned inland to Jerusalem. You see the road there from Jericho to Jerusalem.

So, this red line I've just drawn marks the route they would have gone down from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It would have been a journey of about 60 miles. In the first century, that was at least three days. And if you've ever traveled with a woman who's nine-months pregnant, my guess is it was a little longer than the typical three days. But it was at least three days and could not have been any shorter. So, that's the journey they set out on.

Here's what it would have looked like. At the top of the Jordan Valley, when they began their journey down that Jordan road, moving down through a heavily forested area, right next to the water, and then an area that wasn't as forested, where the road ran. It was largely unpopulated, but this is the path they would have taken. Here are a couple of other pictures of what that route would have looked like, as they worked their way down the Jordan River, toward their ultimate destination.

This is likely Mary's means of transportation. This picture is from our trip to Israel in July. Some people still get around this way, or at least, do it for the tourists - one way or the other. But remember now, she's nine-months pregnant. She has 60 miles to go in God's providence. And she's got to do this for three days, at least.

I was struck as I read that and was reminded of that again, that God has nowhere promised easy lives for us. Even for the woman He chose to bear His Son, it wasn't an easy thing. In His providence, He needed them in Bethlehem. To get them there, and the process to get them there, was a very difficult, challenging thing.

There's another point I want to make about this donkey picture. That is an actual photograph of the Judean wilderness. That's what it would have looked like once they turned west, away from the Jordan River, heading up to Jerusalem. That's exactly the terrain they would have had to traverse - that last leg from Jericho up to Jerusalem. It was a brutal journey and is a brutal journey every time of the year. And this would have been the wintertime. It would have been barren and cold.

And they would have ultimately come to Bethlehem. They would cut over from Jericho to Jerusalem, and then down from Jerusalem, six miles south to Bethlehem. Here's Bethlehem. This is what Bethlehem looks like. This is a - sort of a larger overview looking from Jerusalem, south to Bethlehem. Here's another picture. There's the Church of the Nativity, there in the distance that arrow points to. You can see it's hilly. You'll see that more as we get a little closer.

This was a historic town really for only one reason, and that is, it was the place of the biblical stories and where David was ultimately born. Remember this place? Bethlehem is where Ruth harvested in the fields of Boaz. Three generations after Ruth, David was born in Bethlehem. You see Ruth was David's great-grandmother. It was here in Bethlehem that David was anointed as king. Bethlehem, as we saw this morning, was named as the place, according to the prophecy of Micah, where the Messiah would be born. So, Bethlehem really was famous for only one reason. It was the birthplace of two kings: David and Jesus. It's interesting. Todd Bolen points out that Jesus and David were both born in Bethlehem, and both died in Jerusalem.

There's the Church of the Nativity. Here is the shepherds' fields. Shepherds typically would take their flocks to the east side of Bethlehem, between the town and the Judean wilderness. This is their traditional site and excavations here have brought to light a small shepherd settlement that dates to the first century according to Reisner, one of the experts in the area. This is the church of - or rather this is a shepherd with his flock, just to give you a little feel even for that - how that might have looked in the time period. Here is one of the city streets in Bethlehem, just to give you an idea of what it's like today. It is a very hilly city. And up the hill, if you walk up the hill, you come to the Church of the Nativity. This is one of three churches that were built by Constantine's mother, Helena. She dedicated this particular church on May 31st, 339 AD. It is one of those sites that I've told you about before that is almost certainly the original and true site. Unfortunately, it has been covered with stuff that you can't really appreciate it. This is the inside of the Church of the Nativity.

The church was built over natural caves in that hilly ground that you saw. And it was in those caves that history tells us and almost certainly is true, is where Jesus was born. From the ground level of the church, you have to go down, as we're doing here in this picture. You have to go down into the caves, beneath the church. And when you get down inside the cave, one of those caves has been completely covered with marble and you can't really appreciate what it was like, but it's the place where the birth of Christ is commemorated. There's a silver star, as you can see there, on a marble floor. And it's inscribed with the words, "Here the Virgin Mary" ... "Here of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ was born." There's the star a little closer up. As you can see, it's become a sacrilege really.

The text of Luke does not say, nor does it directly imply that Mary went into labor as soon as they arrived. We don't know how long they were in Bethlehem before she delivered. But we do know this. According to the very earliest sources, Jesus was born in a cave that was used to house animals. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with the Jew, Trypho, in the second century said that Jesus was born in a cave. The protoevangelium of James, in the second century, also refers to the cave which was the place of Jesus' birth. Origen speaks of the cave "that is pointed out where Jesus is born". So, even in his time, there was already very strong tradition.

The traditional cave of Jesus' birth measures 39 feet long by 10 feet wide. It's very difficult to get a picture that captures it. I haven't. On the other side of this room there's this supposed manger. Again, it has been completely eclipsed by all of the trappings. But the adjacent cave gives you a better feel for what that cave might have been like. If you take out the column and you sort of can picture what a long, narrow cave (a natural cave) hollowed out in the ground would have been like, that's the kind of place in which Jesus was delivered.

This, by the way, was the cave of Jerome. Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate, spent 35 years living in this cave, the one adjacent to where Jesus was born. It's where he translated the Vulgate, by the way, and he ended up being - he and his wife both being buried there. But that gives you a little feel for what the cave itself would have been like - naturally hewn, rock cave. And it was probably a stone manger in which Jesus was laid, because wood was not as common as stone in that culture, as you saw from some of the pictures I've already shown you. And so, here is a manger, a feed trough, of animals from another site in Israel - found elsewhere. And here's a little bit of - give you a size of perspective there - what that would have been like. So, that's the journey down to Bethlehem and that's all that was involved.

I want to take you to the next passage in Luke, the one I didn't mention. I brought you right up to the actual report of Jesus' birth. But there are only two verses in the Bible that describe the actual birth of Jesus and here they are: Luke 2:6-7. It says, "While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." This doesn't tell us how long they've been there but at some point, after their arrival, she went into labor and gave birth.

Now, understand, that Jesus' conception was miraculous, not His birth. His birth was an ordinary birth. Mary went through, in birthing Him, what many women in this room have gone through. There is no basis for these sorts of apocryphal legends that she experienced no pain. And, by the way, it's okay to sing Away in the Manger, but realize that that line that says, "And little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes" - we don't know that's true. Certainly, any crying children make that is sinful, He didn't make. But there's a lot of crying that isn't inherently sinful and likely He would have cried to whatever degree that was true. Jesus was born just like we were born.

Notice that Luke says here, "her firstborn son". The clear implication is that Mary had other children after this. There is no basis in the Scripture for the perpetual virginity of Mary. In fact, Matthew says this: "[Joseph] kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son [until the child was born]". And in Mark 6:3 we discover that, after Christ, Mary and Joseph had at least six other children. Four brothers are named - James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. And at least two sisters because the plural "sisters" is used. So, Jesus grew up a family of at least seven kids.

It says she took Him and "wrapped Him in cloths". Now, this was a common practice. That's not surprising. But what was uncommon was for Mary to do this herself, without the help of a midwife. That's our first clue that something is unusual in what's going on here.

But the end of verse 7 is especially intriguing. Notice it says, she "laid Him in a manger". As I've already shown you, a manger was simply a stone feed trough for animals. This was an unusual setting for people to stay, much less for a pregnant woman to give birth to a child. It's in a place where animals were kept and, in this case, a small, natural cave.

Luke ends with what I think is the most intriguing line of all. Notice what he says at the end of verse 7: "[she] laid Him in a manger [they were staying in a place where animals were kept], because there was no room for them in the inn." You've heard that all of your life and I've played in plays as a kid, and you probably have or seen them as well, where that nasty, repugnant innkeeper turns Jesus and Mary away. Well, you probably know this, but there is no innkeeper mentioned in the Bible. And, in fact, we're not absolutely sure that it was an inn. The Greek word translated "inn" is the word katalyma. It's used by Luke one other time and that's in Luke 22:11. There, it's translated "guest chamber" or, as some translations put it, "the upper room". Luke does have a word for an inn, a place where you pay a fee to stay, and he uses that word in the story of the Good Samaritan in chapter 10:34. It's an entirely different word.

So, Mary delivered in a cave where animals were normally kept. Why? Because there was no room for them either in a public inn (that is possible) or a family's guesthouse, possibly even that of relatives. Why? The question is why was there no room for a pregnant woman? What are the answers that are usually given? Usually there are two basic answers. One is, well, they arrived late and everyone else was already settled in for the night, so they had to settle for the stable. The other one is that all the places were already committed to other guests, and so, they had to stay in a stable. Those are the most common answers that are offered, and they are both possible. We just don't know.

But I have a nagging problem with both of those solutions, and you probably do as well. Do you know a single wife or mother or woman who would allow another woman in labor to deliver in a stable, alone with her husband, to be forced to lay her child in a feed trough while you sleep in a comfortable room, a few feet away. I don't know any women like that. So, while those are possible and we have to allow for that, there's another possibility that's very interesting.

It's possible, and some commentators take this view, that it wasn't a public inn at all; it was a guesthouse, probably a relative's guesthouse. Clearly, Mary and Joseph had relatives in Bethlehem. It's where their families were from. So, then the question is: if it was a guest house - and its conjecture. We can't be sure. The word isn't clear enough to tell us for sure, but it is the way, the only other verse where Luke uses it. That's how he uses it. What would have caused a first century, Jewish family to suddenly have no room for their pregnant relative whose about to deliver. There's only one reason that I can think of and only one that I'm sure you can think of. And that is: the family rejected this young couple when they discovered that their baby had been conceived before they were married. There was no room in their guest chamber for a sinful woman and her illegitimate baby. That's a possibility. That's a third possibility. And if this was the case, then it was the ultimate in shame and rejection.

All three of them, though, really are the ultimate in condescension for the Son of God, aren't they? If in fact they arrived late and no one cared or bothered to notice, the innkeeper, if there was such a man, turned them away because the rooms were all sold, and he didn't care for this woman but left them alone - left Joseph and Mary alone to deal with this delivery. Or, if all the rooms were already committed and they did the same thing, or if it was a guesthouse of a relative who turned them away because of the shame of their supposed illegitimate birth.

Regardless, 2 Corinthians a comes to mind. I want you to turn there as we close our time together tonight. 2 Corinthians 8. I love this passage. And as you celebrate Christmas, I want your mind to come here because regardless of which of those explanations is true and we really can't be sure, this verse applies. 2 Corinthians 8:9. Paul says, as he urges generosity in giving to others and their needs, isn't that interesting? He says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ..." How did our Master, our Kurios, the Messiah named Jesus (meaning "Jehovah saves"), how did He show us grace? Listen to what Paul says: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich..." That's, of course, a description of the glory of heaven that He enjoyed with His Father. Imagine the incredible beauty of that place. Imagine all that He enjoyed - of the worship of the angels, every angel bending his ear to hear what it is that the second person of the Trinity wants, and ready to do it in a moment's notice. God, eternal God, becoming man. "...He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor..." That's not talking about what He owned, although that was true as well. It's talking about the step down, the huge step down, the condescension of Christ to say, "I am willing, Father, to become one of them. I am willing, as the Creator, as we sang tonight, the One whose hands fashioned the world and everything in it, I am willing to become of the created. I am willing to come down so far as to be a baby, growing for nine months in the womb of a virgin, a young teenage girl, in a poor little village in Palenstine." "...though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor..." And what poverty it was. Reduced - the King of kings reduced to a stable - an animal feed trough.

You know, we have our little, neat creches and nativity sets, and everything looks nice and it's warm and cozy and comfortable. Get that out of your mind. That isn't the picture at all. It was a cold cave, with a stone feed trough. Alone. And there He was. "...He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, [in order that] so that [here's the reason] you through His poverty [that is, through His incredible condescension, through all that He accomplished in His earthly life - that you through His poverty] might become rich." Not rich in stuff, but rich in spiritual blessings

As you celebrate Christmas and as you give gifts to each other, remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though He was rich, yet for your sake became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich. That's the story of Christmas.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we thank You for this brief study tonight. We thank You for the reminders from Your Word of what You have done for us. Father, help us to be overwhelmed in this season with the grace that our Lord Jesus Christ has shown us - such incredible condescension, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, reduced to a feed trough in a stable, the object of shame and scorn. Lord, we thank You that His poverty, extended through His life because He grew up hated for His righteousness, He grew up serving and ministering for three years, in a tiny little land at the center of the earth, the middle of the great continents, and ended up offering Himself for us. Father, we thank You that, through His poverty, through his self-enforced poverty, we are made spiritually rich. Lord, may we find great joy in that. May we give You praise and thanks. May our hearts resound with true adoration in this Christmas season. Father, help us to truly adore Him for His grace toward us. We pray in Jesus' name and for His sake, Amen!