Advent Week 2: Journey to Bethlehem

Dec 6

¹At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. ²(This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. ⁴And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁵He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.⁶And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

--Luke 2:1-7

Joseph made the journey to Bethlehem with Mary. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine that trip. But regardless, they went. And Jesus was born and the rest is what it is. Or have we been missing a small detail the entire time (by we, I’m calling out myself)?

In Hebrew, Bethlehem is two words – Beth-lehem. Beth means “house” and lehem means “bread” (in the words of Gru, “Lightbulb”). I think that sentence alone already indicates where this one is going. But stay with me. Bethlemhem means “House of Bread.”

Bread. Bread is this ordinary element of a meal. Think about it. Breakfast: muffins, bagels, English muffins, toast, biscuits. Lunch: sandwiches, wraps, subs. Supper: rolls, croissants, biscuits, loaves of bread. Dessert: waffle cones, fruity breads, cakes. It is a basic thing served at a meal. We hear it again and again, “Jesus could have come as a king, but instead came as an ordinary human – a baby.” Jesus could have been born the best hospital around or the five-star inn, but he was born in an ordinary barn in an ordinary manger. Ordinary, like bread.

In John 6, Jesus calls Himself the “Bread of Life”:

³³The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”³⁴“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”³⁵Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
--John 6:33-35

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to ask for our “daily bread.” On one hand it means that we are asking for basic (material) needs, but on the other we are asking for our daily dose of Jesus Christ. Abide in him, and hunger no more. Heck, I’d eat bread for every meal, everyday! Jesus is essentially asking us to seek him in our everyday, ordinary life. Ordinary, like bread.

John doesn’t stop there. In John 13 we see the Last Supper. Ann Voskamp, summarizes it in this way in her book 1000 Gifts:

…it is the most common of foods, bread. The drink of the vine has been part of our meal taking across centuries and cultures. Jesus didn’t institute of the Eucharist around some unusual, rare, once-a-year event, but around this continual act of eating a slice of bread, drinking a cup of fruit from the vine.

Last month, I spent time looking at Communion, this just reinforces that same idea. God repeats Himself. He does it for (1) emphasis on important factors, but also because (2) we are slow learners/bad listeners. But regardless, we partake of ordinary elements and the Eucharist becomes, simultaneously, divine and ordinary. Ordinary, like bread.

This means the journey to Bethlehem, the “House of Bread,” was the preface to the journey to the Upper Room, and sequentially the cross. The journey to Bethlehem seemed ordinary, procedural, but what actually was lying there was Divine.