…Jesus comes into the world as an infant, the weakest of the weak, completely unnoticed by most of the outside world. What’s more, he shows up in the womb of an unwed teenage mom. The story has scandal written all over it.
Rick McKinley, Jesus in the Margins
I took my kids to see The Nativity Story today, and I as watched the film, I could not help but think of McKinley’s summary of the pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Jesus in the second chapter of his book, cited above. The film does a beautiful job of capturing the feel of Jewish society in a small town, something that we would not necessarily glean from the Gospel accounts in our 21st Century western worldview. We are transported 2,000 years ago, viewing the story through the eyes of Mary and Joseph, so that we can understand the scandalous nature of the event from a materialistic and legalistic viewpoint.
Mary, his mom, was probably somewhere between twelve and fifteen years old when she conceived Jesus. She’s a young teenager who is engaged to a man…whose name is Joseph…And since everybody knows everything in small towns, all of Nazareth knows that Joseph and Mary are engaged.
Then comes the shocking news. When Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant, he’s a broken man. All the things run through his mind that would run through anyone’s mind if he found out the young woman he loves and is engaged to is carrying a child, even though he’s never had sex with her. Joseph decides to break off their relationship quietly, trying to make the whole horrible mess go away without totally destroying Mary’s reputation, when the angel of God shows up and explains to him what God is up to.
Rick McKinley, Jesus in the Margins
And that is what we see in the film…and more. We see Joseph’s shock and confusion, we see the confusion and anger and sadness with Mary’s parents, we see the townspeople of Nazareth, once so welcoming and friendly towards Mary, shunning her because of her apparently scandalous behaviour. I kept thinking of the passage in the Gospel of John, “can anything good come Nazareth?”
What’s amazing is to see that when God speaks, Mary and Joseph listen. When He literally speaks to them through the angel, they realize what it is they must do. Certainly, they are afraid of what is to come, but they know they are doing God’s will.
I was touched on many levels watching this film. Like my friend Will, in his review of this film, I was moved to tears on more than one occasion, and I know I will never read the first chapter of Luke (in particular) quite the same after seeing this film. When Mary and Elizabeth meet, I could feel the joy each woman shares in seeing the other, especially when in all humility Elizabeth asks why she should be so blessed that Mary, the mother of the future Messiah, would visit her.
I have read that passage many times, as a youth and as an adult, yet the power and the beauty of the moment hit me as I witnessed it reenacted on film. There is joy knowing that neither woman is alone in terms of their experience, but more so in knowing that they are now part of something considerably bigger than them, and that there is hope.
Out of what appeared to be a huge scandal, from human eyes, comes the One who would one day die for our sins. Seeing the baby on screen, and knowing what will become of that child thirtysomething years later, I could see that the true scandal is that we allowed ourselves to make the choice to sin in the first place.
The sacrifice He made for us, so that we could be with Him again, is quite simply the greatest gift we could ever hope to have.
I saw the film and also was moved by it. What struck me was the realism in showing the difficulty of the times – the poverty, the cruel treatment by Rome, etc. We can see the kind of world Jesus came into, and the miracle that he survived even past infancy.
The only weakness was the girl who played Mary. She just didn’t look or act like Mary, with the impudent sort of look on her face, and knowing she was sleeping with her boyfriend at the time of the shooting. Ach!
Out of all the girls one could pick, and virgins, and they picked her. However, the film was powerful enough to carry the message despite this. I think a better Mary would have made it perfect.
Joseph was awesome.