Some guy just appears out of no where and tells your fiance that she is now pregnant with the coming savior?
...likely story, right? That's believable isn't it.
...and to top it off, she isn't just going to have a baby. She is going to have "the savior."
You must understand that this "savior" wasn't viewed in the same light we see Him today. Those around Joseph and Mary--namely Herod--didn't view Jesus' birth as the coming of salvation from sin. Those people saw Jesus' birth as the beginning of the end of a revolution against the Romans. The birth of the nation's savior over Rome.
Many, many years ago a family by the name of Maccabees started a revolt. They revolted against Rome because of religious differences, and many people sided with the Maccabees. As guerrilla warfare ensure for year after, the coming of "the savior" sparked fervor into the revolutionaries and fear into the kings and provincial leaders. The names that were prophesied for Jesus were not peaceful names: they were names to invoke fear into the enemy, names that overshadowed weakness, names identical to the names of the kings. Jesus' birth was meant to separate the entire Roman world: "choose you this day who you will serve" just became a whole new thing.
Not a great way to enter the world:
...1. being born to an unwed virgin
...2. taking the name of King Herod
...3. being born into the province with a power crazed king who kills anyone that might think about being powerful
And during the last few weeks of pregnancy, idiot king that he is orders a census to be taken. So Mary has to ride a donkey or walk from their town all the way to Bethlehem. They do say that exercise is good for the pregnant mother and soon to be born child, but come on! Riding a donkey?
When they finally brave the elements, other travelers, and bandits, Bethlehem has no room at the taverns, inns, or even family's houses for Joseph and Mary to rest. These two, surely exhausted, find themselves in a manger (most likely a small cave). Way to go God. Have your one and only Son born in one of the most un-sanitized locations of the farm.
...but why not? Why not have the one and only Savior of the world! be born in a messy place? Jesus came to a messy world, to get messy, to get into trouble for being with un-sanitized people, to rescue everyone and anyone from their mess. Why not start out on the same level as the people you are trying to help? Sounds like a brilliant plan to me.
Once Jesus is born, who are the first people to hear about it? Shepherds. Really? That's the best you could do, God?
God: Who should we tell about my Son being born? Well, who should we tell first?
Angel: Let's tell the towns' people! They will be really excited about it; they are staying in the same town as The Savior!
God: Eh. I was thinking more along the lines of
Angle: Well, how about the people who own the stable? They must be excited that Jesus the Messiah is now living in their stable! Oh how cool would that be!
God: No, I think you should tell the
Angle: Oh! The first person who said that Mary and Joseph can't stay with them. That'll show them that you should always be hospitable.
God: Oh be quiet. I have decided that you all should tell the shepherds first. Yes. Tell the shepherds.
So God sends the angles with all of His glory to freak these shepherds out during the middle of the night! Not just one angel goes to bring great news to these unsuspecting men on the hills outside of Bethlehem. This , this host? this huge group of angels -- I imagine them in white, with wings of gold, floating effortlessly in the midnight blue sky -- singing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" while the shepherds are there with their eyes all bugged out and their mouths wide open, unsure of what to do or say, perhaps even forgetting to breathe.
As the giant choir vanished in the night sky, I laugh as I think that one of the angels might have had to run back to the shepherds and remind them that they really should go visit this little miracle who will one day save everyone from tyranny.
And that is the real story of Christmas. A new teenage girl, pregnant and unwed, traveling with her fiancee perhaps twice her age, to a town she has never visited while riding on a donkey. She was almost ready to give birth to the promised one who will save the world as she knew it, but did she really understand what that meant? She did understand the danger she and Joseph and her new child were in, being the same province as crazy King Herod and his minions. Mary did understand that naming her child Jesus meant that she was to call Him "savior," the same self-proclaimed name of Herod. Joseph and Mary did know that God was providing for them, but wow! What a whirlwind of God and miracles and craziness.
It was not a silent night in Bethlehem.
Merry Christmas.
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