On a dirt road in old Nazareth, a young couple travels under the night sky. The woman is pregnant. She rides a donkey. Her husband walks beside them, past rows of olive trees, and a flock of sheep on a hill.
It could be that night, 2,000 years ago, when Joseph and Mary set out for Bethlehem. Except for the electric lights in the distance, and the occasional plane overhead. This road is in modern-day Israel. It’s part of Nazareth Village, a meticulously recreated Galilean farm. This is their annual Christmas celebration.
My own first visit to Nazareth Village was in springtime. I was part of a group of journalists on the trip of a lifetime: a week in Israel.
Our guide, Marion, took us from one amazing site to another: The River Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, the Mount of the Beatitudes, where he delivered the Sermon on the Mount.
Each day’s activities were more amazing than the last. So we were surprised when she announced our plans for the morning.
“Nazareth Village,” Marion explained, “was the brainchild of Sherry Herschend. She and her husband, Jack, created Silver Dollar City in their hometown of Branson, Missouri. But it was Sherry’s dream to recreate the world Jesus lived in here, in Nazareth.”
The other journalists and I exchanged puzzled looks. I’d heard of Silver Dollar City—it was a recreated town from the old west. It was also a theme park with roller coasters and waterslides.
“I hope we don’t stay long,” said one of the other journalists.
“Yeah, I only care about the real Nazareth,” said another.
Only one journalist didn’t share our trepidation. He just grinned—obviously he knew something we didn’t. “Just wait,” he said.
We reached our destination and I climbed out of the bus. A guide led us through a large door. Actually, it was two doors, one inside the other.
“Back in the first century, everyone had to pass through doors like these to enter a city,” he explained. “The smaller door was for travelers on foot. If they were leading animals, the larger door was open so they could fit through.”
Looking at the ancient door, I was reminded of something. Where had I heard of a door like that before?
“The Gospel of Matthew!” one of the other journalists cried. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.”
Of course, I realized. That must have been what Jesus meant. I had never had a clear picture in my mind of what the narrow and wide gates would look like, but his original audience would have seen these gates all their lives.
Suddenly Jesus’s words, which had always sounded so abstract, were easy to understand.
Our guide then showed us some ancient stonecutting tools. “We all know Jesus was a carpenter,” he said. “But how many old wooden houses have you seen since you’ve been in Israel?”
We laughed. Not too many. “As carpenters in those times, Jesus and his father would have worked more with stone. If you look at the Gospels, Jesus often refers to stonework to explain a point he’s making. The metaphor came naturally to him.”
It might have seemed a small detail, but at the guide’s words my whole perception of Jesus began to shift, his hammer and nails were replaced by mallet and chisel.
I was still getting used to stonecutter Jesus when our guide led us outside. Any fears of roller coasters were immediately dispelled. Nazareth Village was a living archaeological site.
In 1997 the remains of a vineyard were discovered, with the original stone winepress still intact in the bedrock. Nazareth Village had added a donkey-powered olive press, and a synagogue, all made to look just the way they would have back in the first century.
The tour turned out to be the highlight of my trip.
How did the first lady of Silver Dollar City wind up in Nazareth Village? I got in touch with Sherry Herschend as soon as I got home to find out. It turned out Nazareth Village was a dream long before it was a reality.
On the first of many trips to Israel, she visited all the historical sites. As exciting as it was to be where Jesus had once walked, she wished the world Jesus lived in didn’t seem so far away. “I looked around,” she told me over the phone, “and saw nothing but dead stones.”
Back in Missouri she discovered that her friend Pat Boone had felt the same way. “We need to build a Holy Land experience for people.”
Pat wanted to build this new attraction in Missouri, but Sherry felt strongly that it had to be in Israel. It looked like it might not ever happen. Then one day Sherry got a call from Pat about a group in Israel and a man called Dr. Nakhle Bishara.
“Sherry!” he said. “They’re building our dream in Israel! And they didn’t even know it was our dream!” Sherry found out all she could about these dream-builders. “If it was a God project,” she says, “I wanted to be a part of it.”
Sherry joined the board, where her unique experience and expertise turned out to be just what Nazareth Village needed.
Today, Nazareth Village does exactly what Sherry dreamed it would do for so long: bring first-century Israel to life. Going to Nazareth Village really is, as Sherry says, like “visiting Jesus’s hometown.” And what better time to visit than on the anniversary of his birth?
For the Christmas program, staff and volunteers of all ages don first-century clothing and recreate that night so many years ago.
As usual at Nazareth Village, there are a few surprises. According to scholarship, our idea that Joseph and Mary stayed at an inn may come down to a misinterpretation of a Greek word that means guest room.
Small villages did not have hotels. When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, they would probably have stayed with family. As more and more relatives arrived for the census, the house would have gotten crowded.
At Nazareth Village, Joseph and Mary walk from room to room, searching for a place for Mary to have her baby.
Instead of a stern innkeeper trying to rent out a stable, they encounter something a little more familiar: a boisterous family reunion. Great aunts baking bread, cousins drinking wine, children getting underfoot, mothers finally getting their babies down for a nap.
From the young couple’s point of view, a manger packed with animals must have looked pretty inviting!
After the presentation is over, visitors step back through the narrow gate, back to the skyscrapers and lights of modern Nazareth. But they bring with them a world where Jesus the stonecutter came to life before their very eyes.
Take a virtual tour via our Nazareth Village slideshow.
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