Wednesday, 31 December 2008 00:00 | and posted in Jesus & the Gospels
The modern-day city of Bethlehem sprawls over the Judean hillside. As you look at the horizon you can see a huge man-made volcano-shaped mountaintop dominating the skyline barely three miles away. Two thousand years ago a circular palace had stood on this mountaintop that rose 14 metres into the air with a single tower standing an additional 15 metres higher. No expense had been spared on this magnificently luxurious palace come heavily fortified-fortress that was called The Herodian after its creator King Herod.
As the sun rises in this location, the shadow cast by this mountaintop reaches towards the Bethlehem. One can imagine that the Herodian’s shadow used to hover over Bethlehem at certain times of the day. It is here, in the shadow of Israel’s illegitimate king and diplomatic puppet to the Roman Empire, that Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings was born.
We’ve been considering the significance of Bethlehem over the past three weeks and asking why of all the places in Israel God could choose did he choose Bethlehem as Jesus’ birthplace? Our last answer comes in the form The Herodian. Jesus is the light shining in the darkness (John 1:5) and so where else would God have Jesus’ birthplace, than in the shadow of someone who represented that darkness and oppression? Once more God is communicating that Jesus is not what we expected.
When the shepherds heard the angels say a saviour had been born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:9-10) I wonder what their first response had been. Did they glance up beyond Bethlehem and look at the shadowed outline of the Herodian in the night sky and wonder why not there…?
Wise men turned up at Herod’s door not realising that the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:3-4) hadn’t been born in a palace but in a small town overshadowed by this illustrious fortress. These wise men had travelled far to worship a king whose birth had been heralded by a star so I wonder what they were thinking as they left the palace and travelled down the hill to a small village three miles away…
As you and I spend this Christmas time in the shadow of the kings of our time (consumerism and materialism spring to mind as examples) I pray that we too get a glimpse of why Jesus, our heavenly king and saviour, was born into such humble surroundings as Bethlehem.