Holy God,
As Lent begins, and we turn our thoughts to the Passion of our Lord, we walk with your Son through five places where He spent time, to catch a glimpse of His life and Ministry. As we move from village to town, open our hearts to what happened in each location, and how the events may help shape our understanding of Christ’s Ministry here on earth.
We give you thanks for those who gathered together the stories, and wrote the Gospel in four diverse and complementary ways, so giving a full picture of the Ministry of your Word made Flesh among us. Grant us a sense of peace, as we turn from the daily chores, the worries over Covid, and the anxieties about our families and friends, and meditate on the life of Jesus, and His teaching through word and deed, and through Him we pray, Amen.
Bethlehem
The city’s name is derived from two Hebrew words, Beth, meaning house and Lehem, meaning bread, House of Bread. Bethlehem is mentioned first as the place that was known as Ephrath, in Genesis 35:16, where Rachel gives birth to Benjamin, and where she died.
The next mention of Bethlehem is in the Book of Ruth, when Elimelech the Bethlehemite is forced to leave the city due to famine, and flees to Moab, together with his wife Naomi, and his sons Mahlon and Chillion, and their Moabite wives, Ruth and Orpah. All the men die, and Naomi goes back to Bethlehem with Ruth. In Bethlehem Ruth meets and marries Boaz. Their son is Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, who, as king, united the Tribes of Israel.
Over time Bethlehem became known as the City of David, and was to play a vital part in the story of Salvation, as the Prophet Micah wrote: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for meone who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.’
Both St Matthew and St Luke set the Messiah’s Birth Narratives in Bethlehem, as the fulfilment of the ancient Prophesies. Matthew 2: 1-12 & Luke 2: 1-20.
Bethlehem is also the first place where an attempt to kill Jesus took place, when King Herod gave orders to kill all the boy-children aged two and younger, Matthew 2: 13-23
There is no evidence Jesus ever returned to Bethlehem.
-o0o-
How can we relate the name of His birthplace to a saying of Jesus?