The Christmas story as Joseph may have told it
My name is Joseph, and I have an amazing story to tell you that just might change your life forever. It certainly changed mine!
I had been waiting a long time to find someone with whom I could share my life, and had finally met a lovely girl called Mary. Even though she was much younger than I, I knew she was the one I had been waiting for all these years, so we got engaged.
My happiness suddenly turned sour when she returned from a 3 month visit to elderly relatives. She announced that she was expecting a baby. My whole world suddenly caved in. Had she forsaken me for another man because I couldn't have been the father of what was forming inside her? I had been impressed by her devotion to God, however when this thing happened, she seemed to become even more religious. She told me that before she went to her relative Elisabeth's, she had seen an angel, who had said that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit, whatever that meant. Furthermore, Mary told me that an angel had told Elisabeth's husband that Elisabeth would have a baby in her old age. They were to name this baby John and that he would become someone great. That baby had just been born.
I was amazed at the lengths Mary went to avoid coming to terms with what she had done. It happens occasionally that older women give birth, but virgins? I wasn't going to believe that nonsense and I'm sure no-one else was. What were people going to say? How could I explain what had happened to friends and family? I could have sued her for unfaithfulness. That would have cleared my name, but it would have been the ruination of her. From that time on most would have looked on her with scorn. Even though I was devastated by what she had done, I still loved her, and felt I couldn't expose her to public disgrace. I decided that I would end our relationship quietly.
The night after I had made that decision, a very strange thing happened to me. I had a dream in which an angel told me, that what was inside of Mary was indeed of the Holy Spirit, and that I should not to be afraid to marry her. I was relieved that an angel had visited me because I needed a revelation like that to convince me that Mary was telling the truth. We were reconciled immediately and got married very shortly afterwards. However, we had no union until well after the child was born. My plan was to take Mary away before the child was born so that if we ever returned home we could ward off suspicions that the child was conceived out of wedlock.
Our plans seemed to get divine blessing. We received news that there would be a census over the entire Roman world. Everyone would have to go to their home town to register. My family had originally come from Bethlehem a few generations previous, so to Bethlehem we had to go. I packed up everything and took Mary with me.
The census had caused the whole country to be on the move, as people were travelling to their home towns to register. When we arrived at Bethlehem, Mary went into labour. I desperately tried to find a place to stay but there were no vacancies at the village inn or at any private home. I explained our predicament to the inn keeper, who kindly allowed us the use of one of his stables for Mary to give birth. A stable is far from an ideal place for a woman to give birth, but at least we got a warm place, clean water and some cloth to wrap the baby up in. When the baby was born, we named him Jesus in accordance to what the angel had instructed Mary when he told her she would become pregnant. We laid Jesus in one of the animal feeding troughs, and then tried to get some rest. However, that was not to be.
There was a knock on the stable door. The inn keeper's wife entered and said that we had got visitors. Thinking that no one we knew would know where we were staying, we were puzzled. I went outside to meet our guests. A number of shepherds were standing outside. One of them asked me if there was a new born baby lying in an animal feeding trough. Immediately defensive, I replied, "Yes, but where else could we have put the baby, given that we had nowhere else to stay?" As soon as I said yes, the shepherds became very excited and said they had found the One about whom the angels had told them. Under normal circumstances, I would have asked them to come back another time, but it seemed that God had something to do with their coming, so we invited them in to see the baby.
The shepherds then told us their story.
"We were out in the fields that night keeping watch over our sheep when we saw this man appear out of nowhere right in front of us. He was dressed in white and had a face that shone like the sun. We guessed he was an angel, but we were terrified, as we had never seen anything like it. He told us to calm down and not be afraid, as he had wonderful news to tell us. He said that a Saviour had been born in Bethlehem, the promised Messiah. The angel said that we would know who the baby was, as he would be wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in an animal feeding trough. When the angel had finished speaking, the whole sky lit up and many angels appeared singing praises to God. After the angels went, we felt compelled to go and investigate. We asked at the inn if any of their guests had just given birth, and that is how we came to be here."
After the shepherds went on their way, we got quite a few more visitors because the shepherds told lots of people about what had happened. Everyone who heard the shepherds' story was amazed.
A week later we went to the temple in Jerusalem to have the boy circumcised and dedicated to God, as he was our first born. In the temple two extraordinary things happened to us. An old man called Simeon approached us and took the baby in his arms and thanked God that he had now seen the Messiah. Then an old lady called Anna predicted to us that this child would be the One who would save Jerusalem. We couldn't help but think that this child was destined to do something great. Later that day we returned to Bethlehem. We needed to register with the Roman authorities, and I needed to find work and somewhere for us to live.
Some time later a whole entourage of wealthy people from a distant country arrived in Bethlehem looking for us. These "Magi" as they called themselves had been following a comet which they believed would lead them to us. Sure enough, when they arrived there was indeed a comet which was clearly visible in the sky directly above our house. It felt strange having these wealthy visitors come all this way to visit us in our humble surroundings. Nevertheless, the Magi were thrilled to see Jesus, and presented to him gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. They bowed down and worshipped him believing that our son was indeed someone very special.
The following day, the Magi came to us rather upset by something they had done shortly before they had arrived. En route to Bethlehem, they had stopped off in Jerusalem to ask for directions. They caused quite a stir when they asked where was the one who had been born king of the Jews. King Herod got to hear of this and was most concerned. He called a meeting of all the chief priests and theological scholars and asked where the Messiah was to be born. Bethlehem was answer he received, so he asked the Magi to go there and find the child and then report back to him, so that he too could go and pay his respects. The Magi had thought nothing of his request until that night, when each of them dreamt that they should not go back to Herod, but to return to their country by another route. The Magi were most concerned that they had put the child's life in danger. We said our goodbyes to the Magi and they went on their way.
We heeded the men's warning and wondered what we should do. That night an angel appeared to me in a dream. He told me to get up and escape to Egypt as Herod was going to search for the child in order to kill him. Immediately, I woke Mary up and told her what had happened. We quickly put our belongings together and journeyed off towards Egypt.
Our time in Egypt was mercifully uneventful. Not long afterwards, King Herod died. I dreamt that the angel who had appeared to me before returned to tell me that it was safe for us to return to Israel, as those seeking to kill the child were now dead. We travelled back to Israel, intending to go back to Bethlehem, but were deeply shocked and saddened when we learnt that Herod had killed all the boys under the age of two who lived in the vicinity of Bethlehem. It made us feel very uneasy realising that Jesus was his intended victim. When we discovered that Archelaus was now on the throne in place of his father Herod, we shuddered to think what he might do. Again, the answer came in the form of yet another dream, where we were told not to settle in Bethlehem, but to return to Galilee which was outside of Archelaus's jurisdiction.
So, we returned to our home in Nazareth. Our families and friends were pleased to see us, and our fears of being rejected by our community were unfounded. No one suspected anything, as we had been away so long. It was easy to settle back in Nazareth. We found a place to live and I continued my work as a carpenter. In the course of time we had other children, but the stories surrounding their births were much less eventful.
Copyright CALITE June 2002