Nazareth

Mosaic of Mary from the USA

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”  The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

Luke Chapter 1, Verses 26 through 35, from Holy Bible, New International Version

Upon returning to Azamara Journey from our exhilarating but exhausting day in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, we found dangling foil orbs and a "Happy Birthday" banner in our room.

Having been so fully immersed in our excursion experiences, we found it a bit disorienting.  We had just been to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, but it obviously wasn't Christmas in October.

Wes's Panama hat from Athens at Church of the Annuncation

Then it dawned upon us that it was my birthday.

Later, following our gourmet meal with free flowing wine in the beautiful Discoveries Dining Room, our smiling waiter brought a birthday cake to our table, fortunately without summoning other waiters to sing for me.  That's the Azamara way: attentive but never intrusive.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening with great entertainment, but we didn't party the night away at the disco, because in the morning we would have another long day, beginning in the hometown of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Micky D in the Heart of Bustling Nazareth

Nazareth is a bustling town of 60,000, and based on the number of cars jamming the streets on a Saturday, when orthodox Jews do not drive anywhere and only go outside to walk to nearby synagogues for worship, it's not surprising to learn that the population is 30.9% Christian and 69% Arab Muslim.  Yes, there are cities in greater Israel where few Jews live, and the residents have full rights of Israeli citizens freely expressing their faiths, including in the town where Jesus grew up.

Mosaics Line the Walls at the Church of the Annunciation

The beautiful Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth honors the Virgin Mary and designates the very spot where she received the good news that she would be the mother of God's son.

One of the highlights is the display of 43 international mosaic pictures of the Madonna.  As with most religious icons throughout the world, the pictures inevitably use cultural features found within the artist's homeland.

Mary's Childhood Home

The current church, completed in 1969, sits on the site of what had been a Crusader church and before that a Byzantine church established under Emperor Constantine I.  The first shrine was established in the grotto beneath the modern Catholic Church by Emperor Constantine's mother Helena within a few months of the establishment of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jersualem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  The grotto is believed to be Mary's childhood home.

We also passed Mary's Well, which is indisputable because 2000 years ago in a city as small and poor as Nazareth, there was only one well, so it must have been Mary's, too.

Outside the beautiful church we were again surprised when, coming upon ruins of underground grottos, we discovered this was the type of place and in fact could be the exact place where Jesus was raised.

Childhood home of Jesus?

I guess it makes sense that in the desert, a cave would provide the best insulation against the temperature extremes, but it is surprising to learn Jesus and Mary both grew up in homes more like Fred Flintstone's than my family's.

Or should I say I grew up in a home more like the one occupied by the Flintstones than that of Jesus?

After all, fictional Wilma, Fred and Pebbles had more creature comforts (made out of real creatures, usually) than real life Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  We've come a long way, baby.

Click the photo to enlarge it and make it easier to read about the ancient village of Nazareth.

Doors to Basilica of the Annunciation

However, the first two years in the life of Jesus were not spent in Nazareth but in Egypt.

As you'll recall, Joseph and Mary had been forced to go to Bethlehem in order to comply with a census ordered by Caesar Augustus.  This was an arduous journey of several days for anyone in those days before trains and buses, but for a very pregnant teenager and her young husband, it would have been exceedingly difficult.  When they finally arrived, they found no room at the inn, forcing them to sleep in a manger with livestock.  That, of course, is where Jesus was born.

The three Magi, searching for the newborn King of the Jews which their omens had foretold, went to Herod, the Jewish King of Judea (a Roman province), asking for directions.  Herod, pretending he wanted to also worship this child, asked them to let him know when they found this special child, but the Magi figured out his intentions and never returned to share the information.

Exact Spot Where Gabriel Appeared to Mary

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Matthew Chapter 2, Verse 16 from Holy Bible, New International Version

Fortunately, according to Matthew, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and told him to immediately take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, because Herod planned to kill the infant.

The Egyptian border was another 75 miles from Bethlehem, which again would be no easy trek for a teen-aged new mother and her baby, but they made it safely.

Tile Floor at the Basilica

Herod carried out his sinister plan, killing all the babies under two years old in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas.

Despite being in a foreign land, Joseph found a way to work hard and support his family until a couple of years later, the angel again appeared to Joseph and told him that those who would harm the baby were dead, so it was now safe to return to Nazareth.

Once again, Joseph shepherded his young family through a long, grueling journey, this time twice as far as the previous trips, to return back to Nazareth.

Certainly Mary receives a great deal of adulation, particularly in the Catholic Church, but in the first book of the New Testament, the emphasis is on Joseph's viewpoint of the arrival of Jesus.

Mexico's Mural of the Madonna
at the Church of the Annunciation

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 

Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Crusader's Jerusalem Cross Prominent at Front of the Basilica

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Poland's Mosaic of  the Madonna

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. 

Matthew Chapter 1, Verses 18 to 25 from Holy Bible, New International Version

Before addressing the birth of Jesus as quoted above, Matthew began with a quick summary of generations leading to Jesus directly from Abraham.

Now it may well be possible that Mary also had a direct line back to Abraham through King David, and in fact that may be likely, but the lineage referred to specifically finishes with "Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born."

Exterior Display at Basilica

But, since Jesus is the Son of God, then actually Joseph was a stepfather, not father, so what would his lineage have to do with Jesus?

Remember that Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome, was adopted by his Uncle Julius Caesar and became heir to the throne, so an adopted son succeeding to "the throne" was not unprecedented, but I personally don't think that is the major intent.

I read a message to all men to be good fathers and role models, even if a child under their care is a step child rather than a blood relative.  More importantly, I think this shows the formula to raising children to be the best they can be: a father and mother sharing the responsibility.  When families are whole, they have far less chance of living desperate lives in poverty.

Courtyard Outside the Basilica of the Annunciation

In that light, consider that Joseph did not live as a king.  At that point he would have been a young man, maybe a teenager, who dwelt in a dirt poor backwater town in a desolate desert region of a rather inconsequential province of the Roman Empire.

He worked hard as a carpenter, probably still in the apprentice stage learning his craft for little compensation.

In a public declaration, Joseph announced he was formally bethrothed to Mary, who was most likely 12 to 14 years old.

France's Madonna and Child

When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, it must have created quite a dilemma for him, because he'd never had sex with her.  Many men have left pregnant girlfriends in the lurch, including Apple founder Steve Jobs according to a recent movie (quite good, by the way), even when they're fairly certain they're the fathers.

According to Matthew, Joseph nonetheless became her husband, because he was faithful to the law (engagement as a binding agreement) and wanted to avoid embarrassing Mary, whom he obviously loved.

Being a young man with his whole life ahead of him, however, Joseph contemplates divorcing her quietly later, until an angel of the Lord appears and advises him to trust that Mary really has been true to him.

However, the church we visited in Nazareth was the Church of the Annunciation, in which Mary receives the spotlight, not one dedicated to stepparents who stand by the ones they love.

The Gospel Writers are honored on the facade of the Church of the Annunciation above the doorway.

Door Panel Details Life of Jesus

Consider that the opening four books of the New Testament are based on first-hand accounts of the disciples who knew Jesus personally.

Each was selected for two primary reasons: they were widely used within Christian churches (essentially the pre-mass publishing equivalents of best sellers), and they reveal different aspects of Jesus and His significance.

As you read at the beginning,  Luke told the Christmas story more from the viewpoint of the Virgin Mary.  Mark skipped past the Christmas story to the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, and John (the disciple, not the Baptist) went with a metaphysical approach, writing "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

There were many more gospels around in the early years of Christianity, as well as other religious texts, from which the 27 books of the New Testament were selected, probably in 325 AD at the First Council of Nicea arranged by Roman Emperor Contantine I.

Octagonal Oculus of Inner Dome Allows Light to Shine on
the exact location of the Annunciation

In the year 331 AD, that first Christian Emperor commissioned Fifty Bibles of Constantine to be written in Greek and sent to the Bishop of Constantinople, in the city now known as Istanbul which we'd explore later in our cruise.  That may have established the order of books later canonized by the Catholic Church, but no surviving copies are known to exist of those first compiled Bibles.

Exact Location of Annunciation
With Ancient Shrine Beyond

In any case, Matthew's account that focused on the lineage of Joseph has a very honored position indeed, as the very first book of the New Testament.  Any writer knows that the beginning must grab the reader, or he will stop reading, while every journalist knows that you always start an article with the most important piece of information, because the average newspaper reader is most likely to read only the opening stanzas.

I've often heard that the primary objective of Matthew was to show Jesus to be the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecies and King of the Jews, and while I wouldn't assume to dispute that, I think there's a valuable lesson for all of us in the 21st Century.

By the way, please never blame tour guides for any of my interpretations of what they showed us.  Like you, I experience everything in my own existential manner.

Walking in the footsteps of history, I contemplated how fortunate I was to have both mother and father, each unconditionally loving my sister and me.

Each shared their unique viewpoints with us, and I feel pity for any child who does not have both mother and father in the home.

When people talk about "privileged lives," they usually mean rich families, but that ignores the real privilege in the lives of most people: loving parents who made sometimes-tough choices for their family over personal egos and hedonistic pursuits of the single life.

Yes, a few kids are born with silver spoons in their mouths, or with DNA that makes them naturally smarter, prettier or more athletically gifted than others, but if you think about it, that all comes from the parents.

And none of those factors ensure happy and fulfilled children nearly so much as loving parents.

Those parents give up partying in bars and make longer commutes in order to be sure their kids have access to good schools.

They make lunches their kids will actually eat and help them with their homework when maybe they'd rather have another hour to sleep or watch their favorite TV show.

Statue of Mary in Courtyard

They discipline their kids when they act up, getting their beloved children back on the right path rather than pretending nothing is wrong so their spoiled child will like them better at the moment.

That's not to say that single mothers or fathers can't be awesome, like Dr. Ben Carson's mom, but the statistical deck is stacked against them.

This is especially true for mothers who create babies out of wedlock with men ill-suited to be fathers before either have established careers.

Those children growing up without sufficient supervision unfortunately tend to have troubled lives, and too often the next generation repeats the mistakes of the prior one.

The narrative of Joseph's perspective written by Matthew at the beginning of the New Testament speaks volumes to solving America's social problems in the present day.

What will you discover on your next cruise?  I'd love to help you get there.

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