THOUGHTS ON "THE NATIVITY STORY"

Last Saturday my wife and I took my daughter to see "The Nativity Story," the new movie about the birth of Christ. I had read several reviews on this and had seen the previews and thought it would be a great movie, especially right before Christmas. And it was. It was generally faithful to the Bible story and the screenwriters really fleshed out who Mary and Joseph were, how young they were, and just how the miraculous pregnancy of Mary affected their lives.

Several things stood out to me as I watched the movie that I never really considered. First, just how difficult it was for Joseph to be the father to the Son of God. I always appreciated how difficult it was for Mary, but Joseph was being called to set his son on the right path and to show him the way of a man in that day and time. At one point in the movie, Joseph exclaims, "Will I even be able to teach him anything?" You could sense the worry and the fear that he either was going to be unneccesary to the child Jesus or that he was going to fail.

Another thing that really stood out to me was the size of the towns and their condition. Reviews I read on this movie and interviews with the screenwriter pointed out how much research had gone in to make this movie accurate in regards to village life in that time. When I picture the nativity, when I picture Bethlehem, I picture it as a much larger city than portrayed in the film. I guess this is a good case where my reading of Scripture has been based on the Hollywood-image of Bethlehem rather than historical fact.

Finally, I was really struck with the attitude of the women in Nazareth to Mary after she was found to be pregnant. Their indifference, their shunning, their coldness was apparent, and you can just imagine how that impacted Mary. The rejection of Mary by her own family and friends foreshadowed the rejection of Jesus by His people ("He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him" -- John 1).

Overall, I thought it was a great movie. However, we were not prepared for the violence in the film. While there was no blood or gore and the majority of the actual violence was off-screen, it was strongly implied. The movie opens with Herod killing the male children in Bethlehem, and includes scenes of Romans chasing Hebrews, the portrayal of Hebrews nailed to trees and crosses, and the sacrifice of a cow in the temple.

It was very upsetting to my daughter (age 11) and to other children who were in the movie with us (sitting behind us). While I have seen some reviewers say that this movie is acceptable for children over 9 years of age, I would disagree. I think this needs to be seen only by those 13 years of age or older. I would strongly urge you not to bring young children or pre-teens to see this unless they are prepared before-hand.

I just wanted to share this with you in case you were planning a weekend visit to the movies to see this. Don't misunderstand -- it is a very good movie. But, I think there should have been a stronger warning concerning the violence.