Christians return to Bethlehem each Christmas

As those shepherds and wise men so long ago journeyed to see the Christ Child, so at this time of year we want to travel to Bethlehem anew to reawaken the wonder and majesty of that holy time and place.

Bethlehem means “city of bread” and also “city of peace” in Hebrew. This city was founded long before the Israelites arrived to possess the Promised Land that God was giving them.

In time it became the birthplace of David, the young shepherd who would grow to become the king of Israel, and who would be described by God as “the apple of his eye.”

Many different peoples have lived in this region over the millennia. The number of times this region has been captured, then freed; taken by one group, then by another; oppressed by harsh regimes and nurtured by others. So many times this land has seen change, yet it endures, and so do its peoples.

Although a plethora of peoples call it home today, most are either Jewish, Muslim or Christian in faith.

Naturally, this has brought great conflict, and that continues unabated today.

Likewise, long ago when Bethlehem found its special and unique place in time and space, the region was suffering under the often heavy-handed burden of local political appointees, and the distant Roman rule that maintained order throughout the empire with the sword and the cross.

So on the occasion of an order for a census across the empire, St. Joseph and the Holy Virgin Mary found themselves arriving in Bethlehem, looking for a place to stay.

The Orthodox Church of the Nativity can be seen from many places around the city. There is a square next to the church where crowds gather and especially at Christmas. Proceeding toward the front entrance into the church is a small door. As you get close you discover that the door isn’t very high; in fact, you must bend over to enter the church. For this reason it is called the Door of Humility. The supreme humbling of God in order to take on flesh and blood and walk among us is unfathomable. But for us to barge into this special Orthodox Church without humbling ourselves would be hard to see as anything but a slap in God’s face.

The interior is as beautiful as it is ancient. The Icon Screen that stands in front of the altar with gold and silver and the lighting imparts a wondrous air about it both day and night.

Recently during some repair work, a section of floor was removed, uncovering what has been determined to be mosaic flooring from the original fourth-century church built under the direction of St. Helen, mother of Constantine the Great.

Beneath the church proper is the grotto. This cavern is attested to be the actual location where Christ was born.

As the Gospel writers tell us, there were no rooms available in the inns when they arrived in Bethlehem, so someone offered the use of the stable, typically a cave in that region. Our Western pictures of leantos or barns are most unlikely.

And that “manger” in which the newborn Christ Child was laid, was of course, a livestock feed trough, not the building, despite the frequent use of the term for what we see on lawns and public squares.

So this place of most humble beginnings is honored and revered to this day. There is a star in the stone floor that was placed to mark the spot where the delivery took place. We cannot know for certain, but it does provide a focal point as we stand and kneel in reverence, an “icon” in silver and stone.

Each year we return, figuratively or actually, to Bethlehem. We see the clergy processing in and out of the church. The crowd gathers on the eve, many reveling at the Western adornments of lights and trees. We get pulled into Vorobiev’s painting from 1833.

Looking at the painting, it’s as if we were there so long ago, waiting for the birth, when a small town became the place where angels were awed by what God was doing.

XThe Rev. Daniel Rohan is pastor of St. Mark Orthodox Church in Liberty.