New Perspective for the Season

The Way to the First Christmas
by: Malachi Martin

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Casear Augustus that all the world should be taxed..."

It is a matter of great urgency. As members of the tribe of Judah, Joseph and his wife Mary must register for the census in Bethlehem, their own ancestral city of David. The Romans, who occupy Palestine, are strict. Anyone not appearing at the appointed time will risk being branded an outlaw, fined, executed.

And there is the other reason. Mary is heavy with Child. The quickest way south must be chosen, not the easier plains of the Mediterranean or the more leisurely Jordan Valley, but the 3000-year-old trading route that winds for 70 miles through the rocky highlands.

Joseph purchases a place in a caravan passing through from Mesopotamia. It will provide protection from bandits, bears, mountain lions...

Day 1: The long, cumbersome caravan leaves Nazareth in a welter of dust and yapping dogs, the rich in their chariots and wagons, the poor on donkeys and foot. As they descend from the high Galilean hills, Mary observes Mount Tabor in the east. She cannot know it now, but one day it will be the site of the Transfiguration of the Child she carries.

Day 2: The lovely plain of Jezreel, Palestine's granary. Green forests, fresh water, carpets of wildflowers. Mary misses home. And sleeping on the ground beside the trail is not easy for her.

Day 5: Mile after plodding mile, the days go by. In the caravan they talk about Megiddo, 10 miles west, where Solomon kept his stables for 900 chariots and horses.

Day 6: The caravan clmbs into the mountains. In the village of Nain, famed for its flowers and clmate, Jesus will restore a widow's son to life.
Day 7: The Sabbath observed. No traveling this day.

Day 8: Climbing still. Slow going, yet Joseph and Mary are excited by being for the first time in the places they've learned about in the synagogue. There's Mount Gilboa! Where Saul and Jonathan were slain by the Philistines and David lamented the loss of his beloved friend.