To help get in the Christmas mood, and because I taught this lesson on Sunday in my High Priests class, I thought it would be nice to write my thoughts on the Nativity.
In
Luke 2:26-35, the angel Gabriel visits the virgin Mary to announce she would be the Mother of the Son of God. Sometime in July 1839, Joseph Smith received a revelation on the priesthood and revealed that Gabriel is actually the prophet Noah. (History of the Church, 3:386). There is beautiful symbolism in Noah, who was the prophet when the world was destroyed (except for 8 people), being the one who would announce to the world the means by which they would be saved.
We know that Mary was "chosen" or foreordained to give birth to the Savior. (
Alma 7:10 and Luke 1:28 -
Inspired Version). We also know that she was "most beautiful and fair above all other virgins" (
1 Nephi 11:15).
Joseph is perhaps the most famous foster father of all time. There is very little we know about Joseph from canonized scripture. However, there is an apocryphal record called "
The History of Joseph the Carpenter", which reveals that Joseph was a widower with children from his previous marriage, that he died at the age of 111, and married Mary when she was about 14 years old. This may seem odd when considered in our societal norms, but apparently was not out of the ordinary during that time. We also learn that Mary remained a virgin all her days. We also can assume that he died sometime during Jesus' ministry because according to
John 19:26-27, Jesus commends Mary to John's care. Both Mary & Joseph are direct descendants of King David, and according to James E. Talmage "
At the time of the Savior's birth, Israel was ruled by alien monarchs. The rights of the royal Davidic family were unrecognized; and the ruler of the Jews was an appointee of Rome. Had Judah been a free and independent nation, ruled by her rightful sovereign, Joseph the carpenter would have been her crowned king; and his lawful successor to the throne would have been Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." (Jesus the Christ, p. 82).
Lastly we know that Joseph was a just man. Mary & Joseph were espoused, which was a contractual agreement to marry. It wasn't just a simple engagement like we refer to it today; one needed to go through a sort of divorce to terminate the espousal. When Joseph found out that Mary was expecting, and that he wasn't the father, he had two options; a public trial, which would most likely end with the death of the one who committed adultery (see
Deuteronomy 22:22-24); or Joseph could end the espousal privately by signing an agreement in front of witnesses. Before Joseph found out the true nature of Mary's pregnancy, he "minded to put her away privily". (
Matthew 1:19). After this "trial of his faith", an angel (perhaps Gabriel again) appeared to him and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as a wife, because "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost".
Joseph & Mary, probably 8-9 months pregnant, had to travel between 60-80 miles from the town of Nazareth to Bethlehem. One might wonder why someone so late in the stages of pregnancy, would travel this rough terrain instead of just staying at home. There are a few reasons why Mary accompanied Joseph to Bethlehem; first, it was prophesied that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem (
Micah 5:2), and also because I think personally Mary wanted to be near her husband.
There were two ways to get from Nazareth to Bethlehem. One way was to travel through Samaria, which we learn through the Savior's later teachings that Jews avoided. The other way was to cross the mountains, and travel along the Jordan River valley, and then back up through the mountains into Judea. However, this path is known as "Red Path" or the "Bloody Way", and is the same path that the traveler took in the parable of the Good Samaritan, wherein he was nearly beaten to death. This would not be an easy trip.
It's pretty well known that the conditions in which the Savior was born were extremely humble. Most scholars believe that he was born in one of the limestone caves in the area. He was laid in a manger, which is a food trough, and probably he was cushioned with the same food that fills the trough - hay or straw.
After the Savior is born, we read in
Luke 2:8-14"8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
Elder James E. Talmage summarizes this occurrence with these words: "
Tidings of such import had never before been delivered by angel or received by man—good tidings of great joy, given to but few and those among the humblest of earth, but destined to spread to all people. There is sublime grandeur in the scene, as there is divine authorship in the message, and the climax is such as the mind of man could never have conceived—the sudden appearance of a multitude of the heavenly host, singing audibly to human ears the briefest, most consistent and most truly complete of all the songs of peace ever attuned by mortal or spirit choir. What a consummation to be wished—Peace on earth! But how can such come except through the maintenance of good will toward men? And through what means could glory to God in the highest be more effectively rendered?" (Talmage, Jesus The Christ, p.88)
We can all learn a lesson from the shepherds who said "
Let us now go" and "
they came with haste" to see the Savior of the world.
One last tidbit I want to write is the stark contrast between the life of the Savior, who was technically the rightful king of Judea, and the man who was king when Christ was born - Herod. Even though many scholars are quick to dismiss the "massacre of the innocents", the episode of infanticide as described in
Matthew 2:16, Herod's life was full of murder, even among his own wife and children, so it's not beyond his personality to order all infants to be murdered.
Frederic Farrar, author of
The Life of Christ, writes this of Herod:
"
It must have been very shortly after the murder of the innocents that Herod died. Only five days before his death he had made a frantic attempt at suicide, and had ordered the execution of his eldest son Antipater. His death-bed, which once more reminds us of Henry VIII, was accompanied by circumstances of peculiar horror; and it has been asserted that he died of a loathsome disease, which is hardly mentioned in history, except in the case of men who have been rendered infamous by an atrocity of persecuting zeal. On his bed of intolerable anguish, in that splendid and luxurious palace which he had built for himself, under the palms of Jericho, swollen with disease and scorched by thirst, ulcerated externally and glowing inwardly with a, 'soft slow fire,' surrounded by plotting sons and plundering slaves, detesting all and detested by all, longing for death as a release from his tortures yet dreading it as the beginning of worse terrors, stung by remorse yet still unslaked with murder, a horror to all around him yet in his guilty conscience a worse terror to himself, devoured by the premature corruption of an anticipated grave, eaten of worms as though visibly smitten by the finger of God's wrath after seventy years of successful villainy, the wretched old man, whom men had called the Great, lay in savage frenzy awaiting his last hour. As he knew that none would shed one tear for him, he determined that they should shed many for themselves, and issued an order that, under pain of death, the principal families of the kingdom and the chiefs of the tribes should come to Jericho. They came, and then, shutting them in the hippodrome, he secretly commanded his sister Salome that at the moment of his death they should all be massacred. And so, choking as it were with blood, devising massacres in its very delirium, the soul of Herod passed forth into the night."
Such were the circumstances and state of the world into which the Savior was born. It was by all accounts a miraculous birth; born of a virgin, in the most humble of circumstances, a birth announced by angels and the heavenly hosts. As difficult as it is to believe logically, the story of the Nativity is true. With additional scripture to confirm what is written in the Bible, added revelation to shed additional light on the story, and the spirit that is felt while reading and pondering, it becomes that much easier to believe, regardless of how illogical it might seem.
