A Tailorbird is one bird, who is on the move with ultrashort period of stay in any one place, except when it is immersed in bird its calls.
I have got used to this pattern that, many photographs of a tailor bird can be out of focus, as it is faster to move before I can press the shutter button on time.
Their instinct is movement.
For a new born baby, resting beside the mother in the warmth and comfort of her proximity is the norm.
It was this which was disturbed when baby Jesus had to be carried in the night, when Joseph and Mary had to 'flee' for fear of being found and destroyed by Herod (Matt 2:13).
Later when Herod was ono more, Joseph was guided to move back to Bethlehem, but because of his discernment, about the harm that Archelaus can do to the child, if they were to come to Judea, the family journeyed towards the Galilean region with is family and settled in Nazareth (Matt 2:22-23).
There are some legends surrounding the flight of Joseph and family to Egypt. A legend is a combination of facts and fiction. I quote the three legends below from the first volume of the Bible commentary on Matthew's Gospel by Willian Barclay.
One legend was that Bethlehem being a small place, there might have been only about 20-30 or children of two years or below. If so it was easier for King Herod to find Jesus rather than kill so many children in all of Judea. The legend suggests that 'Herod was a past master in the art of assassination'. He eliminated the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Jews and slaughtered three hundred law officers of the land. Later he murdered his wife Marianne, her brother Alexandra, his eldest son Antipater, two other sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. At the time of his death, he had arranged for the murder of noble men of Jerusalem so that people would mourn for them in which he too would be remembered. But that did not happen. With such a type of psychopathic behaviour, it was but natural that Herod chose to kill children and rather than look for Jesus alone to harm Him.
Another legend was about the penitent thief, Dismas, hanging on the cross along with Jesus at Golgotha, and seeking forgiveness and blessing from Jesus. Dismas was in the group of robbers who waylaid Joseph and Mary while they were on the journey to Egypt. When the robbers thought of murdering the family, it was Dismas who helped the family to escape, although their belongings were taken away. He looked at baby Jesus and said, 'O most blessed of children, if ever there come a time for having mercy on me, then remember me, and forget not this hour'. It was the same thief Dismas who met Jesus while hanging beside Him on the cross and sought pardon. It is indeed a legend that tells a story of a thief who lived unrepentant through life but used a last opportunity during his dying moments to seek pardon. He received pardon and promise of being in the paradise with Jesus.
The third legend is like a story that we would like to tell a child. When Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus were on tier way to Egypt, they sought refuge in a cave in the evening. It was cold and the sound was white hoar frost. A spider saw baby Jesus and wanted to protect the baby from the cold night. The spider weaved its web across the mouth of the cave, to make a curtain of protection. Along the path came detachment of Herod's soldiers, seeking for children to kill according to Herod's decree. Seeing the mouth of the cave covered in a web with white hoar frost, the captain of the soldiers assumed that no one would have entered the cave as the web was unbroken and passed by. It is this legend that is still remembered when tinsel is put on a Christmas tree to recall the white frost on the mouth of the cave, that saved Joseph and family from being found by Herod' soldiers.
William Barclay is a historian and a Bible commentator, who through the above three legends unfold the story of the risky journey that Joseph, Mary and Jesus undertook on their flight to Egypt. The fact Jesus had to spend the early years of his childhood, far away from the familiar environment of his parents, remind us of the limitations and deprivations that Jesus suffered from.
In the book, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eye-cultural studies in the Gospels, by Kenneth E. Bailey, he described, Herod, 'Being radically Arab, religiously Jewish, culturally Greek and politically Roman, Herod was a complex man'. He was noble to begin with, 'But with years Herod gradually disintegrated. In all, he married ten women. Sons for him were often seen as potential political rivals...Herod was brilliant and brutal. Towards the end of his life Herod grew seriously ill with number of painful diseases. In his very last days he arrested the crown prince and imprisoned him in the dungeon of his palace. Herod tried to take his own life when he was old' (p 56, 57).
Jesus of Nazareth escaped the plot of such a complex King, Herod. It was Joseph, who discerned his dreams and took the lead to flee to Egypt.
I began with the natural instinct of Tailorbirds to be moving between places.
What a new born baby needed was a stable and comfortable environment. Jesus was denied that, but was exposed to all the unusual experiences of stress and strain from early childhood.
Is it not therefore a big tribute to the healthy parenting support of Joseph and Mary that they could have their son schooled in the Scripture by 12 years (Luke2:42) that he could be 'sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions' in the temple at Jerusalem (v47). He was so absorbed in this that when his parents came to look for him after not finding Him in the caravan after three days, His response to them was, 'Why is that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house' (Luke 2:41-52). I feel moved and amazed as I discover the sense of calling, Jesus already discovered before his teen age years, because He was nurtured in his home for His personal formation. That made Him to keep 'increasing in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men'.
Jesus of Nazareth is a 'legendary' story for many in modern times, and want to acknowledge Him as the 'guru' of the Christians. A political party, is now reaching out to the Christian community in India to get their favour with the national elections only four months away. The gestures of visiting the leaders of the Christian community and offering them hospitality is now in the news. When the ethnic conflict in Manipur has caused devastation and displacement to hundreds of families, the political leadership of the same party has been silent for nine months.
So the Christ of the Christmas can be used to seek favour or Christ of Bethlehem can become a personal experience of faith, love and peace!
In either case we live in a complex time. The Gaza invasion and thousands displaced and killed take place in the land where Jesus was born, lived, served, was crucified and rose again on the third day. I wonder whether the followers of Jesus, even during the time of remembering His birth, actively campaigned enough for cease-fire in Gaza!
Jesus of Nazareth, the person and message beckon me to ponder on these matters!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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