'twas The Night Before Christ - The Real Story

'Twas the Night Before Christmas: The REAL story

'Twas the Night Before Christmas. It's a poem by Clement Clarke Moore that tells us about how Santa Claus visits our homes to bring us gifts.

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

Christmas Eve! The night before Christmas.

Tonight, I want to tell you the real story of the Night before Christmas.

And maybe you will find in the familiar story some surprises.

ANGEL

It actually starts with another visit – a visit of an angel = God’s messenger.

A spiritual being who can show up in the most unusual places.

On this occasion, the angel suddenly showed up to a teenage girl

ViD: Luke 1 26-38 MSG

MARY

A teenage girl

She lived in Nazareth – a town in north Israel, which didn’t have a great reputation. One guy said, “Can ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM Nazareth?”

Mary lived there and she was “pledged” to be married to a carpenter in town – a guy called . . . Joseph. Pledged – that means an agreement has been made between families. At a date in the future Mary would marry this guy. Until that date, they remained with their family. They would not be intimate until the wedding day.

The angel informs Mary, “Good news! You will be pregnant, and you will give birth to a son”. That was a shock to say the least. It probably then created a panic attack!

“Pregnant! Outside of marriage!”

“Pregnant!! How? And NOT with Joseph!!! Pregnant with Joseph would be shameful. It would destroy the agreement between the families. But pregnant outside of being with Joseph could mean the death penalty.

“No!” said the angel, “this child is from God”

Do you think that made it any easier?

How do you explain that to the neighbours?!

JOSEPH

Although Joseph was not the father, he too had a visit from the angel to assure him what was about to happen. It must have created loads of questions, and lots of doubts. As Mary and Joseph talked, they KNEW they had an incredibly special role to play in the coming of the Messiah – who had been promised for centuries!

Now Joseph was “Of the line of David” – that’s KING David – the famous king of Israel. The one who started as a shepherd boy and killed the mighty Goliath. Yes! That David.

Since David’s rule, God had promised that the Messiah would come from the royal line of King David. Enter Joseph! Yes, he was only a carpenter in Nazareth, but he was a descendant of King David.

Things were definitely coming together!

It must have been pretty tough going for this couple; but, just as Mary was 9 months pregnant, the government issued a decree:

Caesar Augustus announced that a census be taken. This was done by the Romans in order to count everyone – for the purpose of claiming tax off of the citizens. The way it was done was to get every male to go and register in their families hometown. In Joseph’s case – Bethlehem – the town in which David himself was born in.

That meant the couple travelling 90 miles on foot (maybe donkey).

This would have taken several days.

BETHLEHEM

Population at the time – around 2000

But for a census – double, treble . . .

Mary and Joseph would have travelled more than most (from the north to south)

By the time they arrived – Mary may have exclaimed, “I think my waters just broke”

Oh! The panic of a father!

Banging on doors – “help! My wife’s having a baby – like…. NOW!”

The place was heaving with people.

The innkeeper – is he in the bible story? No! It only says, “there was no room at the inn”

There was no room anywhere!

Maybe, in desperation Mary and Joseph went to the Inn’s “Car park” – the stable where the guests “parked” their camels and donkeys for the night.

The Ox and cattle mention in Carols? Hmmmmmm…..

T’was the night before Christmas, and a teenage mum gave birth to God’s Son in king David’s town – Bethlehem

SHEPHERDS

Angels proclaimed – made big bright announcement.

So – let’s get this straight:

God chose a humble, poor teenage mum to bore His Son – the Messiah

They travelled to Bethlehem. This was a way to confirm the prophecy that Jesus would be from the line of David

He was born in the lowliest of places – a stable and laid in the feeding trough.

And the people invited to witness this moment were . . . shepherds. At the time no-one much cared for shepherd. They lived outside the towns and lived rough with their sheep.