The Three Movements associated with the birth of Jesus, the Christ of Christmas and His early childhood were more than just geographical or normal relocations. They too were prophetically foretold in the Scripture.
1. Movement from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7)
2. Movement from Bethlehem to Egypt (Matt 2:13-15)
3. Movement from Egypt to Nazareth (Matt 2:19-23)
Let me explore how these movements associated with the Christmas events, bring an awareness of the situation in which Jesus was born and lived during his early childhood.
1. Movement from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7)
The passage in Luke introduces us to the context of this travel of Joseph and Mary to register themselves at the time of the census, where Joseph was required to be in Bethlehem because 'he was of the house and family of David' (v 4). This requirement for everyone to go to his own city to register seems to have taken weeks of travel.
This movement was during the time when Mary was advanced in her pregnancy. We encourage women in advanced pregnancy to stay closer to a safe place where they can be taken care during the time of the child birth. In this case, Mary's journey, stay and waiting for the registration happened in an inhospitable way, unlike what we would be desirable for a pregnant woman.
Mary already had some strange experiences in her life until then. She had a visitation from God, about conceiving a child even before she was married. She was only betrothed to Joseph. What was spoken to her about her conception was: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the Holy offspring will be called the son of God' (Luke 1:31). Mary 'was greatly troubled at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation it might be' (v29). Mary's response was: 'How can be this, since I was a virgin?'. Amidst the state of turbulence in her life, the consolation was what the angel of the Lord told her: 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God' (v30).
Mary began her pregnancy with such an unexpected turn that she needed comfort and spent three months with her relative, Elizabeth who was going to have a son in her advanced age, about which Zacharias', her husband received a message from the angel of the Lord (Luke 1:8-23).
It was after this season of preparation and tarrying in the company of Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary set out to Bethlehem for registering for the census. For Mary this movement was important as she was accompanying Joseph to return to his house and family of David, because the promise that was spoken to her when the angel visited her, was, '..you will conceive in your womb a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the son of the Most Highl and the Lord will give Him the throne of His father David'(v 31.32).
This journey was therefore not just for the census alone; but towards the actualisation of the experience for Mary to feel the belonging to the lineage of David, by going to the house and family of David at Bethlehem. The timing of this journey to Bethlehem was significant coinciding with the birth of Jesus in the city of David.
This is synchronisation, which is one way, God causes circumstances to come together to bring coherence to a truth that needs authentication.
I remember hearing from late Dr Sheela Gupta, how she felt disturbed by coming across pregnant women coming for child birth before formally married, while she was specialising in Obstetrics at CMC Vellore. It was that concern which was aroused in her that led her to spend her life time of service, at the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission, Kedgaon, Pune, where girls and women estranged or sent away from their homes were taken care of. She enabled many women to feel restored from their traumatic experiences and prepared them for married life. Talking about her experience she mentioned how keen she was to spend her lifetime at CMC Vellore, as it was there, while being in contact with Dr Ida Scudder she was drawn by the love of Jesus. But going to the Mukti Mission was providential, which was what she felt while being there.
Some disturbing experiences are necessary to bring us to a vocation or location that we are meant to be in!
2. Movement from Bethlehem to Egypt (Matt 2:13-15)
In my Bible the title to the text on this movement to Egypt is titled: flight to Egypt.
It was after the visit of Magi to greet infant Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and spoke: 'Arise, take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt, ... for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy Him' (v 13).
The urgency and the impending danger was explicit in the announcement of the angel to Joseph.
For a mother, in her postpartum period, such a travel in haste and fear of a danger to her son, was not an ideal experience. To discover that this experience was a fulfilment of a prophecy in Hosea 11:1, '..And out of Egypt I called my son' is another authentication of the eternal plan at display associated with the childhood of Jesus.
The time of childhood of Jesus in Egypt was without any immediate association with the families of Joseph or Mary. It was a time spent in transition. Often times of transition associated with an adverse circumstance in early childhood can affect the attachment process of a child, his emotional formation for normal social relationships and sense of wellness needed in early childhood.
Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived as migrants in Egypt. The historical memory of a Jew, Moses killing an Egyptian when he was fighting with an Hebrew (Exodus 2: 11-14) would have been a story lingering in the air. Herod looking out for Jesus might have been an international news. I therefore feel inclined to think that Jesus in his early childhood lived protected and guarded because of which His childhood was different from being the usual.
Joseph and Mary too would have had their strain and stress to adapt. Joseph being a carpenter would have had to find a job to support the family in a foreign land. With no detail of the daily rhythm of the family, one is left with a feeling of deprivation the family passed through during this enforced stay in Egypt.
The news of Herod killing children below two years of age, (Matt 2:16-16) in retaliation for not having found Jesus and the magi not returning to inform Herod about where Jesus was born, was a big news of despair and grief for parents of Jesus. That too was a fulfilment of a prophecy (Jer 31:15), of 'weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children..'! Jesus grew up in a foreign land when children of his age from His own land were no more. That would have made the childhood of Jesus deprived of peers to grow up with when the family returned to Nazareth.
Two colleagues who worked with us at ASIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai in 1983 were of Sri Lankan origin. They were in their mid twenties, who had to discontinue their studies. The local population had intense resistance towards people of Tamil origin at that time. They left their homes along with their parents and came to live in Chennai. That is how two ladies came to be associated with us. They left us after about three years when the situation in SriLanka improved. They could resume their studies and move on to reasonably well placed positions in life. I recall how both of them needed gentle accompaniment to overcome hidden fear and sense of alienation although three generations of their families lived in Sri Lanka.
We live at a time when such displacements of people in different parts, Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Babgladesh, etc happen due to war, ethnic conflict or civil war. To think of the trauma children suffer while they grow up in stressful situations, is too distressing to say the least!
A world of injustice prevailed at the time of Jesus two thousand years ago and it is the same now, in spite of the advanced civilisation that we part of.
It is a paradox that Jesus who was born to bring peace faced threat of violence to himself and many children perished due to the cruelty of Herod, who could not reconcile with the birth of the prince of peace. Herod's was a mistaken fear that Jesus could become a civil ruler. I wish Herod had known from the prophecies that Jesus came to 'shepherd people of Israel' and rule over them (Matt 2:6).
3. Movement from Egypt to Nazareth (Matt 2:19-23)
Following the death of Herod, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream, and Jospeh set out to go to Israel. But knowing that Archelaus the son of Herod was reigning in Israel, Joseph was guided through another dream to go to the regions of Galilee. That is how Joseph, Mary and Jesus came to reside in Nazareth, because of which Jesus was also referred to as the Nazarene.
Ordinarily it would been a time of rehabilitation for the family, having been in a migratory journey starting from the registration for census. This third location might have been during the mid or late childhood of Jesus. It would normally be a season a child would come to think, understand, feel and discern.
According to Lawrence Kohlberg, the three levels of moral formation in children are: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional.
The pre-conventional level is characterised by the child's impulse to avoid punishment and develop a sense of guilt when parents' instructions are breached. They are young to have a choice of discernment about what is right. They shadow the voice of their parents.
The conventional stage makes a child conform to social norms and rules. It is at this stage a cild would lie to escape punishment knowing that lying is not the right response. This happens in most children between 6 and 8 years.
The post conventional period is when a child becomes familiar with abstract and expected modes of behaviour morally. A child by this stage would know what hurts him cant hurt others as well. The morality becomes relational and formative towards the adult's moral thermostat.
The child Jesus would have travelled through this moral formative experience. He also would have been influenced by the Scripture that was read to him and the teachings in the synagogue.
I imagine that Jesus had a disturbed childhood, facing traumatic experiences and having a taste of the post-traumatic stress, while hearing recollections of stories of two years old and below, who were killed during the time of Herod. He survived the genocide. The survivors of a genocide too live with pronounced unsettlement emotionally. In His case, to know that He was the target of Herod to kill would have aroused fear and relief within Him. To know that other children were killed as Herod could not locate Him would have added a sense of guilt and unease.
The emotions attached to the victim-survivor story of childhood would have an impact on the parents too. Parents can be possessive of a child who escaped unhurt. Or they would still stay in fear wondering whether harm would come upon their child. There can be sinister activity towards the survivors by parents who lost their children in the genocide. A feeling of jealousy or hatred towards such families and children!
Whichever way one might look at the events leading to Jesus surviving Herod's terror, one gets the feeling of a challenging start for Jesus and the family at Nazareth.
When we read in Luke 2.40, that 'And the child continued to grow and become strong increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was with Him', we get an introduction about the childhood upbringing of Jesus. His parents weaned Him away from the normal effects of all that caused traumatic experiences.
It is further substantiated by the fact that 'His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the feast of passover' (Luke 2:41). It is not clear if Jesus accompanied them during those visits.
At the age of 12 years, Jesus did accompany them, which was when He stayed back in the temple, seated with the teachers of the law listening to them and asking questions. His parents not having found Jesus in the caravan retuning home, came back to find him in the temple. To his mother's question, 'Why have you treated us this way', His response was: 'Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house'? (Luke 41-52).
The verse 51 in the above passage condenses what happened arising out of this temple experience: 'Jesus went down with them, and came to Nazareth and He continued in subjection to them and His mother treasured all these things in heart'.
We come across Jesus in a dual role: Mindful of His calling and choosing the ambience of His home for formation.
The childhood formation is the result of parental longing and child's responsiveness. In this case of Jesus of Nazareth, His parents remained conscious of the few messages they received from the time of conception till they came to live in Nazareth that He was to be Jesus, the Immanuel. The parents educated the child Jesus about God's mission for His life. They nurtured Him to become who He was to be in God's purpose!
The movement from Egypt to Nazareth involved a significant recovery experience for Mary and Jospeh. They through their annul visit to Jerusalem prepared themselves to be parents to Jesus, who was not their son alone, but God's son in their care. Jesus chose to be formed to be the Christ, while living in subjection to His parents.
The three movements above prepared Jesus of Christmas to become the Christ for humankind!
A displacement which unsettled me was in 1965, when I left home to join the pre-medical course at Nagpur. With inadequate fluency in spoken English or Hindi, to study in a cross cultural environment, subjects which did not fascinate me dragged me into a sense of disillusionment. It was only when I reached the third year in the medical studies, I felt alive to study medicine and got a glimpse of the value we can add to the lives of those who are medically needy. This happened when I met friends who foresaw an opportunity to make practice of medicine as a means to care. Following this what was a burden earlier, became fascinating and enlarging.
I recall that change of consciousness followed by an introduction to the healing ministry of Jesus during His public life, during several conversations with Dr J.C.David, the general secretary of the Christian Medical Association of India, was a turning point in my life. He once showed me a map of India and pointed to inadequate health care facility in India. When I graduated in 1973, I felt I was a different person with natural traction to practice medicine because there were others who were altruistic with a sense of call to serve.
For Jesus of Nazareth, the forerunner role that the John the Baptist played would have prepared the ground for Jesus to draw people to faith in God. The season of Christmas is also a time to recall gratefully the mission of John and announcement of Jesus as the Messiah.
Let me quote one stanza of the hymn, 'We rest on thee' by Edith Gilling Cherry (1895):
' We go in faith,
Our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more
Each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts
A song of triumph pealing.
We rest on thee, and in Thy name we go' !.
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