The Book Report episode 37 part 1: The Day Christ was Born by Jim Bishop

A young girl was getting ready to marry the man that she loved. Joseph did the noble thing, asked Marys’ parents for her hand in marriage and Mary and Josephs parents agreed on the marriage negotiations. At this time, before the marriage took place, the young couple still lived separately. Imagine the joy and excitement they both had, thinking about the weeding day, and planning for the future in their heads.

            One day, when Mary was alone at her house, an angel appeared in front of her, she was startled but not as frightened as you might imagine, she grew up hearing about angels appearing to people. The angel Gabriel said to her “Rejoice, child of grace, the Lord is your helper. You are blessed beyond women.” If she wasn’t scared before, she was now. When Gabriel said that she was blessed beyond women, Mary asked herself why? “Was she being taken, perhaps to a far-off place, never to see her mother and father and – and – Joseph?” Gabriel said to her not to worry and that she was going to conceive a son named Jesus. Mary was confused because she was a virgin, how was she going to be able to conceive a child? Gabriel explained “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For this reason the child to be born will be acclaimed ‘Holy’ and ‘Son of God’”

            Gabriel also told her that her old cousin Elizabeth, who was called ‘the barren’ was six months pregnant. Gabriel said that nothing was impossible with God. Mary understood that this was an extreme honor, the Jews have been waiting for this for hundreds of years, she was scared but she accepted her role that God had set for her.

            Mary asked to see her cousin Elizabeth and went on the journey to go visit her. When Mary arrived at her cousins’ house, Elizabeth answered the door, burst into tears, and said to Mary “Blessed you are beyond all women. And blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Mary couldn’t believe it; Elizabeth knew!

            “A wave of exultation filled the heart of Mary. The young girl no longer wondered and worried about her part in God’s will. She became lyrical and she stood before her cousin, arms outstretched, eyes dimmed and half-closed with tears of joy, and she uttered words which remained engraved on the heart of Elizabeth for all days: ‘My soul extols the Lord; and my spirit leaps for joy in God my savior. How graciously He looked upon this lowly maid! Oh, behold, from this hour onward age after age will call me blessed! How sublime is what He has done for me- the Mighty One, whose name is Holy From age to age He visits those who worship Him in reverence. His arm achieves the mastery: He routes the haughty and proud of heart; He puts down prices from their thrones, and exalts the lowly; He fills the hungry with blessings, and sends away the rich with empty hands. He has taken by the hand His servant Israel, and mercifully kept his faith – as He had promised our fathers- with Abraham and his posterity forever and evermore.”

            How wonderful! What a great blessing. Mary must have felt so blessed with Elizabeth. But she still had to tell Joseph. In her mind, she assumed the angel appeared to him and he knew already. When she went back to her home and visited Joseph, he acted normal, and she understood that he did not know about the miracle that Mary was blessed with. Why didn’t the angel come to Joseph, why was he left in the dark? She was afraid of telling him, but when they were alone, she said, with so much joy, that she was expecting a baby. Joseph, who loved her very much, looked at her with sad eyes, he told Mary he needed to think and left to his home.

            The way Joseph looked at it, he had three options, the first one was to divorce her privately and send her away to give birth, the second option was to divorce her publicly, in that case Joseph would have to tell the elders why and they would condemn her of being an adulteress, “There was only one penalty for this crime: stoning. The guilty person is led by townsmen to a high cliff and ordered to jump. If the adulteress refuses, she is pushed. As she lies at the bottom of the cliff, the people arm themselves with stones, and watch. If she moves, they throw stones. If she doesn’t, they go home. The body is left where it is for the birds and the animals.” The third option was to marry her and pretend the baby was his. Joseph was a good man who loved Mary, he wasn’t going to condemn her to death, but he still had his pride, so as he lay in his bed debating what to do, Joseph decided to send her away privately where she would be safe.

            As Joseph slept, he was visited by an angel in a dream, the angel told him that the child Mary was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he should marry her. “He longed to hurry to Mary’s house yelling ‘I know! I know!’ His patience manifested itself, and he waited until the proper time, after supper, and when she saw his first glance, Mary knew that he knew before he took her for an evening walk to explain. God had tried both of these young people, and they had not failed him.” The next week they married.

            They were in Nazareth and had no intention of traveling even though the prophecy said that the King of Kings was to be born in Bethlehem, 90 miles away. At the same time as all of this was happening Caesar learned that many Romans were not paying their fair share of taxes, so his advisors told him that they could not get an accurate idea of the population until they did a census. So, “Caesar issued an imperial rescript ordering all subjects, in the winter solstice, to return to the cities of their fathers and to be counted.” Mary was one of those subjects, so the child would be born in Bethlehem. The journey was difficult, but they managed. When they got to Bethlehem, they found an inn, but there were no rooms available. Joseph told the inn owner that his wife was pregnant and to please check again. The wife of the owner overheard Joseph and told Joseph that there were some stables, if they wouldn’t mind sharing the space with the animals that they could stay there. Joseph agreed and he took Mary down to the stables to settle in. Joseph said that he had failed her because he couldn’t even get a room or a midwife to help. “For a moment, Mary studied her husband. She brought a tender smile to her face. She told her husband that he had not failed her; he had been good and tender and lawful. He hung his head and listened. Mary looked around at the halted cattle, the few lambs, some asses and a camel. If it was the will of God, she said, that His son should be born in a place like this, she would not question the wisdom of it.” It amazes me how much faith Mary and Joseph had, I wish I would have half of the patience and faith that they both had. Mary told Joseph to wait outside and that she would call him if needed, “Joseph paced up and down, not realizing that men had done this thing for centuries before he was born, and would continue it for many centuries after he had gone.” Mary called for Joseph, and he rushed in to meet her. “Mary smiled at her husband as he bent far over to look. There, among the cloths, he saw a tiny red face of an infant. This, said Joseph to himself, is the one of whom the angel spoke. He dropped to his knees besides the manger. This was the Messiah.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!