25th Dec 2019 (extended tour) Christmas Mass at St Catherine Bethlehem, Citadel, Amman Jordan

Christmas Day at St Catherine Church, Bethlehem

This day was a joyous moment for all of us. We were so lucky to be able to join Christmas Mass at St Catherine on this day. We had the best seats in the church. We were glad that our spiritual leader Father Guido was one of the members leading the Mass together with Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the current apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

 

Christmas Celebration in Bethlehem

As one might imagine, Christmas in Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born, is a major event. Some of Bethlehem's Christmas celebrations would be familiar to Europeans and North Americans - the streets are strung with Christmas lights, there is a Christmas market and Christmas plays are performed. But other events, which are the most important religiously, are special to Bethlehem and in keeping with the traditions of the Holy Land. These consist of multiple services and processions led by many different Christian denominations, including Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Ethiopian, Armenian and more.

Most Christmas processions pass through Manger Square, the plaza outside the Basilica of the Nativity, which stands on the traditional site of Jesus' birth. Catholic services take place in St. Catherine's Church and Protestants often hold services at the Shepherds' Fields. Bethlehem Christmas celebrations stretch for a long period, as different denominations celebrate Christmas on different days. Roman Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas on December 25; Greek, Syrian and other Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 6; and Armenian Christians celebrate Christmas on January 18. 

Last day of Holyland Pilgrimage Tour. Back to Amman Jordan. Then flight back to KL.

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The 3 Wise Men in Bethlehem

Contrary to popular Christmas tradition, the Bible does not clearly use the terms “three wise men” or “three kings” to describe the travelers who went to see Jesus after his birth. (Matthew 2:1) Instead, the Gospel writer Matthew used the Greek word ma’goi to describe those who visited Jesus. The word likely refers to experts in astrology or magic. For this story I'll use wise men. The wise men may have visited Jesus a number of months after his birth. This is evident because King Herod, who wanted to have Jesus killed, ordered the slaughter of boys who were two years old and younger. He based that age range on information he had received from the wise men.—Matthew 2:16.

The wise men did not visit Jesus on the night of his birth. The Bible says: “When they went into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother.” (Matthew 2:11) This indicates that the family were by then living in a house and that Jesus was no longer an infant in a manger.—Luke 2:16. The Bible says: “The wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying: ‘Where is the one born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when we were in the East, and we have come to do obeisance to him.’”—Matthew 2:1, 2.

When he heard of a rival “king of the Jews,” Herod investigated where the promised Christ was to be born. (Matthew 2:3-6) On learning that it was to be in Bethlehem, he told the wise men to go there, look for the child, and report back to him. Only then did the wise men go to Bethlehem. The Bible says: “After they had heard the king, they went their way, and look! the star they had seen when they were in the East went ahead of them until it came to a stop above where the young child was.”—Matthew 2:9.

When the wise men left Bethlehem, God warned them not to return to Herod.—Matthew 2:12. How did Herod react? The Bible says: “Herod, seeing that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a great rage, and he sent out and had all the boys in Bethlehem and in all its districts killed, from two years of age and under, according to the time that he had carefully ascertained from the wise men.” (Matthew 2:16)

The holy family fled to Egypt

One of the most terrible stories in the Bible is that of the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. It's just one verse in Matthew's Gospel (2:16) but it contains a world of tragedy. Herod has learned about the infant Jesus from the Magi and recognises the threat the child poses to his regime. He orders the children killed – perhaps not a large number, but a dreadful thing, and one entirely in keeping with the actions of an extremely bloodthirsty ruler. Before this, though, the Holy Family has escaped and gone to Egypt. 

But why Egypt, and what can we learn from their flight? The borders of Egypt were only around 100 miles away from Bethlehem in a straight line. Another hundred miles would bring them to the river Nile in the heart of the kingdom. Egypt at this time was part of the Roman Empire and had a stable, well-run government. More to the point, it had large colonies of Jews, notably in the city of Alexandria. Of its 300,000 people, up to two-fifths were Jews. So Mary and Joseph would have been able to fit in with the community, Joseph would have been able to find work and they would have been safe from Herod.

The gospel of Matthew tells us that after the wise men had started back home, “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’” We don’t know exactly when to date this historically.  It was, however, no more than two years after Jesus was born, because Herod then tried to kill Jesus by slaying all of the baby boys who had been born in Bethlehem in the past two years, based on when the wise men told him they first saw the star.

And since, according to the gospel of Luke, Jesus was born around the time of “the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria,” his birth occurred some time between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C. We have a better idea of when the sojourn in Egypt ended. The gospel of Matthew also tells us that “after Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’”

Herod died in 4 B.C.  So depending on when Jesus was born, the journey to Egypt lasted no more than two years, and perhaps as little as a few weeks or months. It seems to me that the most likely scenario is that Jesus was born around 6 B.C., the wise men (by their own account) arrived in Jerusalem two years later in 4 B.C., and in that same year Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled to Egypt, Herod died, and they returned.  So the length of their sojourn in Egypt was probably about a few months.

One takeaway from this investigation is the realization that King Herod the Great, who had been on the throne for 33 years, died a short time after slaying the children of Bethlehem.  We don’t always see immediately what feels like fitting retribution for atrocities like this one that he committed, but in this case it seems that the perpetrator very quickly joined his victims in death and had to answer for his crimes. But the gospel of Matthew primarily wants us to take away from this episode an appreciation for how Jesus recapitulated the history of Israel in his own life.  

A historical recollection of the exodus from the book of Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called my son,” and says that through the journey to Egypt Jesus “fulfilled” this Scripture. That is, he gave it a fuller and deeper meaning in light of the significance of his own life. This same gospel shows how Jesus recapitulated the history of Israel in several other ways as well, for example, by spending 40 days in the wilderness, where Israel spent 40 years. Ultimately through his death and resurrection, Jesus inaugurated a “new kingdom” composed of those people from every nation who put their faith and trust in him.