Scripture for reflection: Luke 2:1-20
Do your plans for the Christmas holidays include a road trip? Maybe one
you were not expecting to take? Joseph and Mary could sympathize with
you if it does. Let’s slip our Jesus sandals on and go back in time, over two
thousand years ago.
The story of an innkeeper, a stable, and the birth of the savior of the world
is known to millions of people. You don’t have to be a Christian to know the
story. But being a Christian, the story is heard from the heart and not the
head.
Joseph had his visit from the Angel, and he took Mary as his wife. They
have become the main source of gossip throughout the small town. Most
of the town believes the two of them have broken more Jewish laws than
you and I could count. Shunned by almost everyone. No more laughter or
smiles, just looks and words of judgment.
One of the things that has not changed much in our world from theirs is the
judgment people pass on others when they only know a little of the truth.
As a pastor for over 20 years, I can assure you gossip, and judgmental
people are two things that cripple a church faster than a lack of money.
God can deal very easily with the lack of money. Judgmental people who
feel the need to be in charge push God out.
God decides the time is right for them to leave those people behind and
take a road trip. Joseph must travel to Bethlehem, the town of his
descendants, to sign up for the consensus. Is this a plan God is using to
make sure his son is born in Bethlehem? Probably, but it is an extra
blessing for Joseph and Mary to have a legitimate reason for leaving the
judgmental people behind.
Truthfully, I think God uses every situation, good or bad, to bring blessings
into it. Can you imagine Joseph’s Mental battle?
“Do I take Mary with me? She is nine months pregnant. It is at least an
eighty-mile journey over very difficult roads. With the best of conditions, it
would take at least 6 or 7 days to complete the journey.”
He knew too that she would not be safe from the townspeople if he left her
behind. My favorite scenario? Mary standing up to Joseph and saying,
“You are my husband, where you go, I will go.” I don’t think someone who
stood before an angel of God, went toe-to-toe with him, and bowed to God’s
will, would not say anything less.
The Journey begins.
Imagine 6 or 7 nights of sharing a loaf of bread together by the campfire
and the conversations Mary and Joseph had?
“What if I am not good enough?”
“What do you teach the child that belongs to the God of the universe?”
Are you struggling on your own journey God has called you to be on? I know
there are times you feel inadequate for the ministry God has called you to
do, but think for a moment how Joseph felt when the night became quiet
and the thoughts in his head began to haunt him. Did the stars in the sky
bring him peace? I believe Joseph sighed a breath of relief the moment
they stepped into Bethlehem.
At least until he heard Mary’s first cry of pain.
No room
No room
No room.
“I have a stable.”
The baby was close to being delivered so Joseph and Mary took what was
offered and made a place for Mary to deliver God’s son. God and Joseph
shared that first moment of life for Jesus. God breathed the breath of life
into his son’s lungs, just as he did thousands of years before when Adam
took his first breath. Joseph shared in the moment by being the hands that
helped Jesus come into this world. The first hands that held Jesus
belonged to the man God picked out to be the earthly father of his eternal
son. If it ended there you could write it off as a good story.
We all know it did not end there, it began there.
We are all on the same journey together in this life. A journey that will one
day bring us the same thing Joseph’s journey brought him. Looking into the
eyes of Jesus. My prayer for you, my friends, is that in the middle of all your
journeys this Christmas, you will take a few moments to go outside and
look up at the stars.
These are the exact same stars Joseph looked up at.
The exact same stars that led the wise men to Jesus.
The same stars the lowly shepherds watched every night.
For in those stars, you too can find the face of God.