The Journey to Bethlehem - Luke 2:1-7

I have often remarked that I am in the season of my life that is brimming with babies and weddings. To put a figure behind that - I currently have seven friends that are pregnant and three have delivered in the past six months. One of my friends is finishing up her last year at seminary and was planning to go before the Board of Ordained Ministry later this year to pursue her dream of ordination. However, the date of the BOOM interviews was within a month of her due date - too close for the doctors comfort or hers, so she will put her dream on hold for one year so she does not have to risk traveling such a great distance from her doctors and those who will care for her, when her baby boy’s birth is imminent.

Through my friends’ pregnancies, I have learned many things. I have learned what happens each trimester and the risks that can accompany them. I learned how a community reacts and surrounds you with love when your baby is born pre-maturely. And that you are not supposed to travel more then two and a half hours away from your doctor during the last trimester of the pregnancy. And I still have so much that I am learning.

Mary did a lot of traveling during her pregnancy with the Christ-child. Each step on the journey being as unexpected and unpredictable as the last. The first trimester was filled with fears and companionship as she spent three months with her cousin Elizabeth, her mentor and possibly the only other person who could understand what she was feeling and going through at the time. During this time she also told Joseph, faced his rejection and anger, and then was embraced by his acceptance following a dream where the Lord told him that he should take her as his wife.

The second-trimester was filled with hurried preparations. Joseph’s room for his family with Mary, which was to be built on to his family’s home, was left unfinished as he accompanied Mary back to Nazareth for wedding preparations. Having the wedding where the bride had grown up was not unusual, but staying with her family after the wedding instead of moving into the room the husband had constructed during the engagement on his family’s home, certainly was. But Joseph and Mary stayed with her family, probably so she could have the support of her mother during the pregnancy and have the aid of a midwife she knew when it came to deliver.

Traditionally during the year long engagement, wedding preparations would be made, but during Mary’s second trimester the preparations for the wedding were rushed, and it was probably a quiet affair, in order to minimize she shame. By this point had she told her family that she was pregnant with God’s child? If so, did they believe her, or did they assume, that she and Joseph had gotten pregnant during the engagement period, like so many other young couples during the time. What did the neighbors say? Did they expect the wedding was rushed because Mary was pregnant? Was she starting to show? And what did Mary think about the unexpected pace of the wedding preparations and how did she feel about being pregnant on her wedding day?

During the third trimester, Joseph settled into life in Nazareth with his bride and the child growing inside of her. However, during the ninth month of Mary’s pregnancy, their lives were disturbed by the unexpected again. Roman soldiers entered into Nazareth and announced the emperor’s decree that every Jewish family must return to the husband’s hometown to be counted. More then likely this meant that every family must return to where the husband held property or would hold his family property one day for tax purposes. As the family was required to travel with the father or husband, Mary had to travel with Joseph to Bethlehem, it was required by law. Suddenly, all that they had worked to avoid - the strenuous travel for Mary back to Bethlehem, being away from her mother and being away from the midwives she knew, growing up in Nazareth - was pushed aside as they prepared for the ten day trip back to Bethlehem. For they had to do what the Romans told them to do, as people in an occupied country, even though Mary and Joseph were not Roman citizens themselves.

Imagine that you are Mary - nine month pregnant and very uncomfortable, facing a new fear, that she would be away from her family when she delivered. Since it was a ten day journey one-way, she had no idea who would be with her to help her deliver this baby, as women often aided women and men did not help with such matters, as it would make them ritualistically unclean. Would you still be declaring the prophetic words in the Magnificent? Or would you be crying out to God, trying to figure out why this was happening to you?

When was the last time that you were so angry with God that all you could do was weep? When was the last time your life’s journey did not go the way you planned, leaving you deeply uncomfortable and frustrated? When was the last time your journey was beyond your control?

The path that Mary and Joseph would have taken from Nazareth to Bethlehem was long and was marked by much Biblical history that they would have known. The well of Jacob where he wrestled with the angel. Where God appeared to Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. Passing by the area where Joseph, the son or Jacob, was buried. Where Joshua set up the ark of the covenant. They walked where the prophets walked. And took the same steps as the Babylon army that took the people of Jerusalem and Judea into captivity as they destroyed the temple. The same path that the freed people returned to as they rebuilt the temple, years later. Was any of this on Mary and Joseph’s mind during their journey?

After a few days, the path Mary and Joseph followed would have become very taxing, as it curved back and forth, up and down. By day seven the journey would be the hardest and Mary had to be wondering how much longer she could go. Perhaps her soul cried out with that of the Psalmist, “O how long O Lord”

When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem she went into labor at some point - it may have been right upon their arrival. It may have been several hours or days later. Tradition typically says that Mary and Joseph sought out room in an inn, which they were unable to find due to the amount of people in Bethlehem. This is very plausible. But remember that this was Joseph’s home town - the place where his family lived. Did his family not have room for them either? The Greek work the Gospel of Luke uses to describe the inn was kataluma, which also means guest room. Typically each home had a guest room that could accommodate six to eight adults, but during this time it would have been crowded. Beneath the typical home was a stable for the animals. Perhaps Joseph’s family offered them the stable for privacy that they would not have been able to have in the guest room, and to keep everyone else from becoming ritualistically unclean during the birth.

Friends, this was not the journey Mary would have chosen to take for her life. Impregnated by God. Facing shame and gossip. A rushed marriage after an engagement that almost fell apart until God intervened. And traveling when her due date was almost upon her ten days away from everything that she knew and loved, because the government demanded it of her. Mary’s journey was hard.

We like Mary face times in our lives where nothing goes like we planned and when life is hard. When life is nothing close to how we imagined it to be. From this point on, Mary’s life probably won’t be as she imagined it either - running from King Herod who wishes to kill her child, to watching her son do amazing things in his time of ministry, while also being ridiculed, to finally, standing inches away from her son as he died on the cross for a crime that he did not commit. Life is over-flowing, at times, with the unexpected and unwanted. During those times of intense disappointment and confusion, it is hard to remember that God is with us. God not only goes through these difficult times with us, but redeems the moments for the glory of the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes our sight becomes so focused or blocked that we cannot see the bigger picture. As Mary sat on the birthing stool and the contractions became closer and more intense, she did not see the star above the barn, hear the voices of the angels singing, or hear the foot steps of the Shepherd’s running to see the Messiah. She could not know that men from far off lands were traveling for years to simply see her child. She just knew that it was hard and God was with her.

During those time along our journeys where everything seems to be going wrong, we need to trust in God even more. During those times when we cannot perceive what each step of the journey will look like or what is waiting for us at the end of the path, we must venture on with courage and hope. Trusting, in the words of a popular praise and worship song, “that though this sorrow may last through the night, the joy comes with the morning.” For our difficult journeys, will never be the totality of our journey, or the end of our story, for God can redeem anything for the glory of the Kingdom of God. Amen.