12th December, 2006

DAVID ADAMS

The Nativity Story (PG)

We all know the story. A young woman, in today’s terms probably a teenager, living in a poor rural village is engaged to be married but before the wedding occurs is visited by an angel and told she will bear a child conceived by the Holy Spirit who will be the Son of the Most High.

A JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN: Joseph (Oscar Isaac) and Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) on their journey to Bethlehem. PICTURE: © 2006 Jaimie Trueblood/New Line Productions. "A film like 'The Nativity Story' can help us to put flesh on the bones of the Christmas story and bring to us a fresh revelation and insight into an event which changed the world forever."

Her husband to be, a carpenter called Joseph, decides to quietly divorce her but then he too is visited by an angel confirming Mary’s experience. The two of them set off on a long journey to Bethlehem to take part in the Roman census. There, in a stable, Jesus Christ - God incarnate - is born and worshipped by visitors including shepherds and Magi from the East.

Yes, the story of the nativity of Jesus Christ is a familiar one - we’ve all read it a million times (in the Bible and other "versions"), seen it acted out in countless nativity plays and looked on as it's symbolised in the many nativity scenes that appear at churches, carol services and even shopping centres at this time of year.

It's our very familiarity with the story, however, that can lead us to forget its miraculous, mysterious and world-changing nature.

We forget that, despite their mature response, Mary and Joseph were still so young. We gloss over details such as the pain and anger Mary’s pregnancy must have initially caused her future husband and her family, not to mention the ongoing hostility the pregnancy of an unwed girl might have created in her community. We don't dwell on the fact that Mary didn't come from a rich or powerful family but from a poor, rural village, nor that Herod, the Judaean King, did everything he could to prevent the coming of what he saw as a rival king - including butchering countless innocents.

We forget how strange it must have been for the new family sitting in the stable and being visited by shepherds and strange men from the East. How Mary and Joseph must have felt knowing that the child Mary had given birth to was the Son of God - in an illustration of this, the movie has Joseph wondering at one point whether he will be able to teach Jesus anything.

Just as it was with Easter and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, a film like The Nativity Story can help us to put flesh on the bones of the Christmas story and bring to us a fresh revelation and insight into an event which changed the world forever.

This is an amazing story - the most amazing part of it being that it actually happened. The Nativity Story sticks fairly tightly to the Biblical script and, like the Bible, is wrapped in power and mystery.

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, it's a stirring retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ and while the power of the film is in the story itself, the cast - including Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary, Oscar Isaac as Joseph and the likes of Shohreh Aghdashloo as Elizabeth, Alexander Siddig as the angel Gabriel and Ciaran Hinds as King Herod - do a tremendous job in breathing life into the events of 2000 years ago.

Filmed in Italy and Morocco, the evocative cinematography provides the magnificent canvas on which this story is played out while the accompanying score speaks of the beauty and "otherness" that surrounds it.

Despite it’s PG rating, people might want to be cautious about taking very young children. Although any violence is implied, it was a frightening timethe movie opens with Herod sending his soldiers to kill every child under the age of two in his desperate hunt for the Messiah.

Do yourself a favor this Christmas and make time to go and see this movie. Bring some of the wonder back into what truly was a wondrous event. May God use it to reveal Himself afresh to you this Christmas!

~ www.thenativitystory.com

For a range of resources for Bible studies and outreaches, visit:

~ www.nativityresources.com

~ www.outreach.com