Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus’ Journeys

Jesus’ Birth Announced

     The angel Gabriel appears to Mary at Nazareth in c.6BC.

Mary is engaged to Joseph, but not married yet.

The angel announces she will become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and will give birth to a son to be called ‘Yeshua’ (‘Jesus’ in Greek) or ‘Joshua’ meaning ‘God saves’).

Matthew explains, “you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” ().

The angel reveals that Yeshua will become a king like his ancestor King David, and will rule forever (see , ).

Nazareth, where Mary lived, was a small Galilean village 4 miles south of the city Sepphoris.

It was a hilltop settlement looking south across the Plain of Jezreel (Plain of Esdraelon).

It was close to the Jezreel Valley trade routes through the hills to the Sea of Galilee.

Its name means a ‘watch-tower’ in Aramaic – a good description of its location.

Nazareth, where Mary lived, was a small village in the hills of Galilee just 4 miles / 6 km south of the city of Sepphoris (see Map 4).

It was a hilltop settlement looking south across the Plain of Jezreel (also called the Plain of Esdraelon).

It was close to the trade routes along the Jezreel Valleyand up through the hills to the Sea of Galilee.

Its name means a ‘watch-tower’ in Aramaic – a good description of its location.

Today, Nazereth visitors can enter the Basilica of the Annunciation, built in 1966 over the remains of earlier Byzantine/Crusader churches, and above a cave believed to have formed part of Mary’s home.

Behind the church, other caves dating from the time of Jesus were adapted to form houses. Above the church entrance is inscribed, ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (see ).

The courtyard porticoes surrounding the church contain striking images of the Virgin Mary from many different countries around the world.

The nearby Church of St Gabriel contains an ancient well where some believe the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, while further up the hill, the Church of St Joseph, built in 1914, is believed to house the excavated remains of Joseph’s workshop.

About 500 yards to the south west of the centre of Nazareth, on a sunny south-facing hillside, is Nazareth Historical Village.

This modern reconstruction of a village from Jesus’s day is built around the archaeological excavations of a 1st century vineyard, including vine terraces, three watchtowers, a winepress and an irrigation system.

Visitors are given a guided tour of the working farm and the reconstructed village and synagogue.

More energetic individuals can walk the ‘Jesus Trail’ linking Nazareth with Sepphoris, and on to Capernaum.

Mary & Joseph go to Bethlehem

 Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem in Judea, where Joseph’s family live (see 1 on Map 4).

The journey takes four or five days as Nazareth is 65 miles north of Jerusalem, while Bethlehem is a hilltop town situated on a ridge near the edge of the Judean desert, 5 miles / 8km south of Jerusalem.

The Roman Census - Luke, writing his gospel in 60-62AD for a Roman audience (see ), gives the census ordered by Augustus Caesar (emperor 27BC - 14AD) as the reason why Mary and Joseph travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus ().

He explains that, as men had to register at their home town (so they could be taxed by the Romans), Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem because Joseph was a descendent of King David and Joseph’s family came from Bethlehem (see & &13).

Luke states that the census took place when Quirinius was the Roman governor of Syria.

Luke, writing his gospel in 60-62AD for a Roman audience (see ), gives the census ordered by Augustus Caesar (who was emperor from 27BC to 14AD) as the reason why Mary and Joseph travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus (see and 1 on Map 4).

He explains that, as men had to register at their home town (so they could be taxed by the Romans), Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem because Joseph was a descendent of King David and Joseph’s family came from Bethlehem (see & &13).

Luke states that the census took place when Quirinius was the Roman governor of Syria.

The Jewish historian Josephus confirms that a general taxation was indeed overseen by Cyrenius (Quirinius).

Cyrenius was appointed as Governor of the province of Syria when the Romans deposed Archelaus (Herod the Great’s son) as ruler of Judea in 6AD.

Judea was then taken under direct Roman rule and incorporated into the Roman province of Syria.

This resulted in a revolt led by Judas of Gamala (‘Judas the Galilean’), a Jewish zealot (see ).

As Jesus was born in 6 or 5BC, this Roman census occurred eleven or twelve years after his birth.

As Jesus was born while Herod the Great was King of Judaea, no Roman governor of Syria would have had the jurisdiction to organise a census and general taxation in Judaea at the time of Jesus’s birth.

It appears, therefore, that Luke was mistaken when giving this Roman census as the cause of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.

Whatever the reason, Joseph made the decision to return to his family home in Bethlehem in time for his newly betrothed wife to give birth amongst his close relatives.

The birth of Jesus

 Jesus is born in Bethlehem in 6 or 5BC.

He was laid in a manger – an animal’s feeding trough – as there is no room for Mary and Joseph in the accommodation available.

Bethlehem - There is no mention of an inn in Luke’s account of Jesus’s birth.

It was actually no place for them in the guest-room.

().

This word is also used to describe the upper room or guest-room where Jesus and his disciples shared the Last Supper in Jerusalem on the night before Jesus was crucified (see ).

Traditional nativity stories usually feature an innkeeper turning Mary and Joseph away with the words, ‘No room in the inn’.

Yet there is no mention of an inn in Luke’s account of Jesus’s birth.

Luke actually tells us there was no place for them in the guest-room.

The Greek word usually translated inn is ‘kataluma’, but it actually means a guest-room (see ).

It is precisely the same word that is used to describe the upper room or guest-room where Jesus and his disciples shared the Last Supper in Jerusalem on the night before Jesus was crucified (see ).

Many larger family houses in Jesus’s day had family quarters on the ground floor and a guest-room (often added later) on the upper storey or roof.

The family’s livestock would also be housed on the ground floor, or sometimes in an adjacent cave or underground cellar.

Luke records that Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem because Joseph’s family came from Bethlehem so It is likely that Mary and Joseph went to stay with relatives in Bethlehem.

While Romans and other foreign travellers often stayed in roadside hostelries or ‘inns’ (), Jews never stayed in 'inns'.

Food wasn’t kosher in inns (), and Jews were forbidden to eat with Gentiles (non-Jews) ().

Instead, Jews always stayed in relatives homes or homes of other Jews when travelling ( & 10:7).

Finding that there was no place for them in their family’s guest-room – maybe because Joseph’s elder brother and his wife were already there – they were probably asked to share the lower room where animals were normally kept.

As a result, the newborn baby Jesus’s makeshift crib was a manger – the feeding trough for the animals.

No one can be sure exactly where Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Hebrew, ‘Beit Lekhem’, meaning ‘house of bread’), but the Church of the Nativity marks the traditional site.

The church was erected by Helena, the Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother, at the spot where Christians in the 4th century AD believed that Jesus was born.

They told the Empress that, after Hadrian had expelled the Jews from Bethlehem in 135AD, he had planted a grove of trees sacred to the Roman god Thammuz (Adonis) here in order to destroy the site that was venerated by Jewish Christians in the first century AD.

The church – started in 326AD and dedicated in 339AD – is the world’s oldest church that is still in regular use today, though the present church was extended and modified in 529AD by the Emperor Justinian.

Ancient mosaics dating from Byzantine times (from the Eastern Roman Empire during the 5th or 6th century AD) can still be seen beneath the present floor level.

The main altar is built above a series of caves, one of which may have served as a stable at the time when Jesus was born.

Descending the steep steps behind the altar, visitors are greeted by the site of the manger, and by a silver star nearby bearing the Latin inscription, ‘Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est’ (‘Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary’).

To the south east of the church, visitors can enter the ‘Milk Grotto’, a cave hewn out of white rock where it is believed by some that Mary nursed the infant Jesus before the family escaped to Egypt to flee King Herod’s wrath.

The gospel of Matthew, quoting the prophet Isaiah (), says "All this happened to bring about what the LORD had said through the prophet: 'The young woman will be pregnant.

She will have a son, and they will name him Immanuel,' which means 'God is with us'." ()

The meaning of the birth of Jesus at Christmas time is explained beautifully in this short video called 'Loved this Christmas'

Shepherds visit the infant

   Angels appear to the shepherds in the fields near to Bethlehem, and they go to see the baby Jesus.

Afterwards, they praise God and everyone they meet is amazed by what they have been told about the child.

Beit Sahur - Luke tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem, and “The glory of the Lord was shining around them” ().

In the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord (‘kabod’ in the Hebrew scriptures, ‘doxa’ in the ‘Septuagint’ – the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) signified the radiant, shining presence of God himself (also called the ‘Shekinah’).

Luke tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem, and “The glory of the Lord was shining around them” ().

In the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord (‘kabod’ in the Hebrew scriptures, ‘doxa’ in the ‘Septuagint’ – the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) signified the radiant, shining presence of God himself (also called the ‘Shekinah’).

The glory of the Lord appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai (see ), and filled the tabernacle – the tent where the Ark of the Covenant was kept (see ). God’s glory filled the Temple in Jerusalem when the Ark of the Covenant was moved there (see ).

But in Ezekiel’s prophetic vision, the glory and dazzling radiance of God’s holy presence (the ‘Shekinah’) left the Temple just before its destruction by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC (see ).

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the radiant, shining presence of God re-appeared on earth again.

God’s personal presence was shown by the glory of the Lord (Greek, ‘doxa’) appearing to the shepherds in the fields on the hillside outside Bethlehem.

Today, sheep are still reared on the steep hillsides known as the Shepherds’ Fields outside the village of Beit Sahur near Bethlehem.

Ever since emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire in 380AD, Jesus’s birthday has been celebrated in late December (or early in January in the eastern Orthodox churches), but no-one knows precisely when he was actually born.

Before Christmas Day replaced the Roman mid-winter festival of the ‘Unconquered Sun’ on 25th December, the 3rd century Christian historian, Sextus Julius Africanus, who devised one of the first Biblical chronologies, believed that Jesus was born on 25th March.

Traditionally in Palestine, sheep were only kept out of doors overnight during the warmer months from March or April to November.

The local sheep were not hardy enough to be left outside during the cold winter nights of December.

So it’s more likely that Jesus was born between March and November.

If the shepherds to whom the angels appeared were on their way to Jerusalem with sacrificial lambs for the Passover festival, then it’s quite possible that Jesus was actually born in March or April, just before the Jewish Passover festival.

Visitors to the Shepherds’ Fields at Beit Sahur are welcomed at two churches, both claiming to be the site of the angelic visitation.

The modern Greek Orthodox church at Kenisat er-Ruwat was erected on the site of a 5th century church, rebuilt in the 7th century, and again in the 14th century.

An early mosaic floor shows that the cave underlying this church was revered as the resting-place of the shepherds as early as the 4th century AD.

The Franciscan church built at Khirbet Siyr el-Ghanem in 1954 is on the site of a 4th century monastery.

Jewish religious rituals

 When Jesus is eight days old, he is circumcised (by cutting off the foreskin of the penis) following the Jewish tradition, as a sign of God’s covenant agreement with the Jews (see ).

 Thirty-three days later (once Mary is considered to be ‘purified’ or ‘ritually clean’ after giving birth), Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem, just 5 miles / 8 km from Bethlehem.

Here they consecrate their first-born son to God in accordance with the Jewish custom (see & ).

As they are not a wealthy family, they offer the purification sacrifice of two doves or two young pigeons in place of a lamb (see ).

In the Temple courts, Mary and Joseph meet Simeon – a devout Jew who has been given the special gift by the Holy Spirit of recognising the promised Messiah or Christ before he dies.

When Simeon takes Jesus in his arms he immediately knows that he is holding the Messiah who will save the Jewish people from their sinful ways and bring them back to God.

He praises God, saying “Now, Lord, you can let me, your servant, die in peace as you said” ().