Mary and Joseph: Choosing the Parents
Once Michael decided on our planet for his final mission in submission to God the Father, the search began for the right place to bring him into the world. Gabriel and his staff started considering the various cultural groups on Earth; they looked at where and how they lived and how much of their religion and philosophy actually contained truth.
Gabriel decided on the Jews. Then, his staff started looking for potential parents among the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham. Eventually they nominated three couples, and of that group Gabriel chose Mary and Joseph to be Jesus’ parents. Biologically, both Mary and Joseph had excellent genes, and socially, in the Jewish community they both held the status that would offer Jesus his best chance to grow into his destiny.
Joseph was a Jew of the Jews. His father’s line went back to Abraham and far beyond, though not quite all the way back to Adam. His most recent ancestors came from the trades, like masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, etc. Joseph first started out as a carpenter and then later began to contract his own jobs. Mary’s family line also went back into the mists of time, and it was one of the most illustrious of the Jews. Her lineage was a composite of many different peoples, and included some of the most important women in Earth’s history, including Eve.
Gabriel Appears to Elizabeth
Mary had a distant relative named Elizabeth whose husband was a Jewish Rabbi, or religious leader, named Zacharias. These two had been married for many years, but they’d never been blessed with a child. One day toward the end of June, 8 B.C., Zacharias was away from home praying in the temple. Elizabeth was by herself at the house, when all of the sudden Gabriel appeared. After he made himself visible to Elizabeth, he then waited for her to calm down. She was, of course, a bit shook-up.
As soon as Elizabeth managed to get ahold of herself, Gabriel told her five things:
1. That the savior for which the Jews have been praying is coming soon.
2. That Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary, would be the mother of this divine teacher.
3. That a man named John would first be born to prepare the people for this coming savior.
4. That she, Elizabeth, and her husband, Zacharias, would be the parents of John who would grow up to be known as John the Baptist.
5. And finally, Gabriel told Elizabeth that he was going to tell Mary the same story.
Elizabeth didn’t know what to do. It took her five months before she even told her husband, Zacharias. And at first, he didn’t believe her. But then Elizabeth got pregnant, and that changed everything. It was odd because they’d tried for a long time to have a baby. And on top of that, Zacharias also trusted his Elizabeth: He didn’t think she was lying. So, he was forced to at least consider that maybe Elizabeth did see an angel.
Then, about a month and a half before Elizabeth had her baby, Zacharias had a dream that convinced him of everything. No one knows if this dream was just Zacharias’s mind wandering, or if an angel came to him in his sleep. But when he woke up, he believed all of Elizabeth’s story, and accepted that they were going to be the parents of a great spiritual teacher.
Elizabeth had a baby boy in the City of Judah on March 25, 7 B.C. She and Zacharias were both so happy and so proud: They’d been trying to have a child for a long time, and now, finally, their dreams had come true. Eight days later, Zacharias and Elizabeth took their newborn to the temple and according to Jewish law he was circumcised. They named their son John, just like they were told to do by Gabriel.
Zacharias and Elizabeth started telling John he was a special kid right from the get-go. The lad was raised knowing he was going to grow up to be a great man, and that he was going to prepare people for the coming of someone even greater than himself. John took his responsibility to heart, and spent much of his childhood at the temple when his dad was teaching.
Gabriel’s Announcement to Mary
It was in mid-November the year before John was born that Gabriel showed himself to Mary. She was in the house before Joseph got home from work. After she calmed down, he told Mary the same things that he’d told Elizabeth five months before that day. He also told her,
1. That she was now pregnant with a son.
2. That her pregnancy was blessed by God.
3. That her and Joseph are supposed to name their son Joshua.
4. And that their son, Joshua, would bring forth the kingdom of heaven on Earth and among men.
Gabriel warned Mary not tell anyone else except Joseph and Elizabeth about any of this. Gabriel told Mary not to doubt what he’d said, that God would make her strong, and that he, Gabriel, would keep watch over their family. Then he vanished from Mary’s sight.
Just like with Elizabeth, at first Mary didn’t know what to think. But then she realized that she really was pregnant. So, she told Joseph about Gabriel’s visit, packed some cloths, and headed off to visit Elizabeth and Zacharias for three weeks in the City of Judah. This was about four miles away from Mary and Joseph’s house in Nazareth. After the two women compared their stories, Mary became more convinced she really had been visited by an angel.
Joseph, like Zacharias, also trusted his wife. But even so, this story was a bit much for him. Joseph spent many sleepless nights before he finally believed Mary. And then accepting that she’d seen an angel caused its own set of problems. Because the very next question in his mind was, “how could this be?” How could two human beings like Mary and him have a baby that was supposed to be divine? You know, god-like? The two of them pondered their secret for weeks, and finally decided that somehow it was true. They didn’t know how it was happening, but they believed that they had been selected by God to be the parents of the coming Messiah.
Gabriel had waited until after Mary was already pregnant, before he went and told her that she was pregnant. In other words, there was no virgin birth. Mary and Joseph had conceived their baby in the normal way the night before Gabriel showed himself to Mary. The only supernatural event related to Jesus’ birth was Gabriel’s visit to Mary.
Joseph’s Dream
It was another dream that finally convinced Joseph to believe in Mary’s story of the angel. That night a spirit came to Joseph and told him that his son would bring the light of God to the world. The angel said his son’s own people, the Jews, would reject him, but the gentiles would believe and welcome Joseph’s son. And for the people who did accept him, Joseph’s son would, through the example of his life on Earth, show them a higher revelation of God the Father. This angel never said that Joseph was a descendent of the House of David, or that Joseph’s son was coming to save the Jews.
But people usually try to make something they believe in, fit with all the predictions that have been made about it in the past. For hundreds of years, the Jews had been waiting for someone to come and take the throne of David. This new king would then use miracles like the Jews believed Moses did. With those super powers, he would then rub-out all of the Jew’s enemies and they they would control all of Palestine. After Jesus was killed, many of the stories of the Old Testament where changed to fit better with him coming to Earth. And that’s caused a lot of confusion. Jesus himself stated that he had no link to the family of David or any desire to sit on that throne. Other changes that were made to the scriptures included altering Mary and Joseph’s family lines to make the old story fit, and saying a virgin instead of a maiden was going to bear a son.
Jesus’ Earth Parents
Joseph was dark haired and black eyed. He was the kind of quiet, easy-going guy that we’d call a deep thinker. He was very religious, and always concerned for the welfare of the other people around him. At the same time, being human, Joseph would have moments where he was discouraged about life and would doubt his faith.
Mary, now, was just the opposite. She was blond with brown eyes; one of those people who are always happy and cheerful and never seem to get down about anything. At least that’s how she was throughout Jesus’s childhood. Later though, when Jesus began his mission and the problems with Jews and Romans started to heat up, she became quieter and more reserved. Still, throughout all the chaos that Mary lived through, she showed guts, held herself together, and was an outstanding mother to Jesus and all of his brothers and sisters born after him.
Jesus took on traits from both his parents. From Joseph, Jesus got his deep love for and understanding of people. His father gave Jesus his religious training, and taught him the history of the Jewish people. But Jesus also took on some his father’s tendency to occasionally let events get him down.
Mary had a stronger personality than Joseph. She was more outgoing, and she wasn’t shy about expressing herself. She was better than most women at planning and managing a household, and she was a master at getting things done. From Mary, Jesus learned how to plan, teach, and adapt. But Mary could get angry in a flash if someone said something offensive to God. Jesus picked up this trait, and would also show this kind of righteous indignation later in life.
The story goes that one-day young Joseph was working for Mary’s dad putting an addition on their house. During the lunch-break, Mary came outside and handed Joseph a glass of water. And that’s where it all started. Two years later when Joseph was twenty-one years old, they got married. With the help of his brothers, Joseph built them a small house in Nazareth, the one where Gabriel visited Mary.
The Home at Nazareth
Jesus’s childhood home was on the north edge of Nazareth. It was next to some hills that Jesus would often climb when he was playing in the countryside. The house was made of stone, with one open room and a flat roof. Next to it was a small hut for their animals. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, just a stone table, some stools, an olive-oil lamp for light, and Mary’s loom for making cloth to sew their cloths. To sleep at night, they’d lay out mats on the dirt floor. Outside behind the house they had a mill. When Jesus was a kid, he’d pour in the wheat while Mary would turn the grinder to crush it into flour. As Mary and Joseph’s family grew, they built additions on the house.
The Trip to Bethlehem
Mary and Joseph got married in March, 8 B.C. That very same month the head of the Roman Empire, Caesar Augustus, passed a law that everyone had to counted. Augustus needed to know how many people there were in his empire so he could get more taxes. But the Jews had always fought against being counted, and they managed to get the census in Palestine delayed for a year. So, while the people in all of the rest of the Roman Empire were counted that year, the people in Palestine weren’t counted until a year later, in 7 B.C.
Mary was pregnant with Jesus when the Romans held the census in Palestine. So, Joseph thought he’d go to Bethlehem and register the family by himself. But Mary wouldn’t go for that. She didn’t want to take the chance that she’d have her baby when Joseph was gone. Elizabeth also lived close to Bethlehem, and Mary argued that the two of them could visit. But Joseph was firm, and said Mary had to stay home. Mary just ignored him. As said earlier, she had the stronger personality of the two. Mary packed enough food for both of them, and, of course, won the argument. After Joseph gave in, they headed off to Bethlehem at the crack of dawn the next day, August 18, 7 B.C. Mary rode the donkey with their food, and Joseph walked ahead leading the way.
The first night they camped by the river Jordan. The second night they made it to Jericho, and toward the end of the third day they walked into Bethlehem. The city was full of people, and there were no rooms in any of the places to stay. Finally, an inn-keeper cleaned out his stables to make room for more people. Mary and Joseph took advantage of this, and found themselves living right in front of the stalls and mangers. Their room was where the grain was normally stored to feed the animals. For added privacy they hung some tent curtains around them. Given the situation, they were happy campers, and settled in for the night.
The Birth of Jesus
But they didn’t get much sleep. By morning, Mary knew she was ready to have her baby. With the help of some of the other woman staying at the Inn, Jesus was born at noon on August 21, 7 B.C.
The next day, Joseph went and registered the family for the census. He found a man willing to give up his room at the Inn for Mary and the baby, and Joseph moved his family inside. They stayed there for the next three weeks. The third day Mary sent a message to Elizabeth, and the two of them made plans for Mary and Jesus to go and visit her and Zacharias a week later in the City of Judah. According to Jewish custom, on his eighth day Jesus was taken to the temple, circumcised, and given the name, Joshua, or to us, Jesus.
Now Mary and Elizabeth and Zacharias were all convinced that Jesus was supposed to grow up to be the king of the Jews and sit on the throne of David. And John, Elizabeth and Zacharias’ son, would be Jesus’s right-hand-man. So, since they were already in Bethlehem and since Bethlehem was actually the City of David, the three of them managed to convince Joseph that they should all stay and live right there in Bethlehem. Joseph agreed, and to support them all he took on part-time work as a carpenter for the next year or so.
While the angels in heaven did indeed sing when Jesus was born, no one on Earth actually heard them. Three weeks later, Zacharias did meet some traveling priests and he sent them to visit Mary. A long time before, these priests had met a strange man back in own country. This guy told them that he had had a dream about a man who was going to be born to the Jews in a far away land. He said this man would then grow up to become the light of life for all of the world. When the priests told this to Zacharias, he of course thought about Jesus and Zacharias told the priests what he knew. The priests then went and met Mary, saw Jesus, and left some gifts before heading home to tell their story.
There was nothing supernatural about these priests showing up. The tale we hear about a star guiding them to Bethlehem was added in later. That story was based around a strange but natural lining up of the planets, in particular, Saturn and Jupiter. And more amazing, this happened three times in the year Jesus was born, on May 29, September 29, and December 5. While no miracles happened, it was normal back then for the people to be superstitious and weave miracles into their stories. Later, of course, these stories got written down and the people came to believe them.
The Presentation in the Temple
All Jewish babies had to be presented to the priests at the temple. This cost five shekels, and Mary had to go through a cleansing rite like all of the other new mothers. So, they bundled up Jesus, took him to the temple, and got into line with the other parents and their new babies.
Zacharias knew that they were going to the temple to present Jesus. Earlier, he had told this couple, a poet and singer that hung out at the temple, that he thought Jesus was a special child. This man and woman believed Zacharias. So, the three of them wrote a poem about Jesus. The plan was that just as Mary and Joseph walked by carrying Jesus, Zacharias would give them a sign and they’d sing the poem for everyone to hear.
The did this, and everyone was pretty astonished when they heard the song. The poem was a bit long, and it let the whole Temple know that Mary and Joseph’s baby was a holy child. The word was now out that Jesus had come to save the Jews. This shocked Mary and Joseph, and neither of them were happy that their secret was blown.
Herod Acts
Palestine was ruled by Herod the Idumean. He was put in charge by the Caesar back in Rome, and he had good relations with those far off rulers. But in Palestine, the Jews didn’t trust him. There was always been tension between the two, so to keep his power Herod had spies reporting to him from all across the land.
Herod knew the Jews were praying for someone to come and set them free. When his spies told him some priests had come to Bethlehem looking for this same person, he had the priests brought to his court for questioning. These guys weren’t much help, and could only tell Herod that a man and woman who were in Bethlehem for the census had had a baby. Herod didn’t believe them, so he tried to trick them. He said that he, too, wanted to pay respects to this special baby, and he gave them some money to go out and find Jesus again. But the priests were on to Herod’s trick, and they took off with the money and never came back.
Then Herod’s spies told him about all of the commotion that happened at the temple. After they told him about the song sung for Jesus, Herod knew he had a problem. He had to find this kid and put an end to the people’s belief that a new King of the Jews had been born.
Now Zacharias had his own spies. When he found out that Herod was looking for Mary and Joseph, he and Elizabeth got out of town and went back to their home in the City of Judah. And Mary and Joseph and Jesus stayed in Bethlehem and hid out-of-site for more than a year.
Finally, Herod got frustrated. There was no way he could let a new King of the Jews grow up and cause him problems. So, just in case this baby was still in Bethlehem, he decided to kill all of the baby boys under two-years-old and get him out of the way once and for all. But again, Zacharias found out. Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus escaped Herod’s butchers in the nick of time. But sixteen other poor baby boys, didn’t, and were slaughtered the next day. The family made their way to the city of Alexandria in Egypt, and hid out there for two years. Finally, when Herod died, Mary and Joseph felt safe enough to take Jesus back to Bethlehem.
Okay folks, that’s it for Chapter 1, “The Birth and Infancy of Jesus.”
Next week’s Chapter 2 is titled, “The Early Childhood of Jesus.”
Have a super week, my friends.