|
born of the Virgin Mary, |
The key message
of Christmas! We do not believe the Roman Catholic doctrines of Mary – she
was simply an ordinary girl chosen for an extraordinary event. |
Jesus
was born as a human being, just as we are – the only difference was the manner
of His conception. Mary was at this time still a virgin – Matthew’s gospel
specifically states that she and Joseph had no sexual relations until after
Jesus’ birth.
He
was born at Bethlehem, the “city of David” – the home of the greatest King of
Israel must have had a sense of civic pride. A Roman edict meant that Joseph
had to travel with a heavily pregnant Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem, some 80
miles as the crow flies (more by road), probably on foot (the Bible makes no
mention of a donkey, though it’s a possibility), in order to
complete a census. The journey probably took 3 or 4 days.
Bethlehem
was Joseph’s family home town, but they had to seek
accommodation. There is no mention of either a stable or a cave, only that
Jesus used an animal feeding trough as a bed. The birth was announced the same
day to a group of shepherds, who visited that night; the Magi travelled from far
away, and would have arrived some time much later
(when Mary and Joseph were in a house) – Herod had killed all male babies under
two, suggesting that Jesus’ birth may have been up to 18 months earlier. So Jesus became a political refugee in Egypt – where quite
possibly the gifts from the Magi would have kept them from starvation.
Not
usually mentioned in the “Christmas story”, but a key part of the events, is
the account of the presentation of the baby, and of the prophecies of Simeon
and Anna.
The
birth of Christ …
·
Is
found in Matthew and Luke
·
Was
the fulfilment of prophesy (see for example Isaiah 9,1-7 and Micah 5,1-5a)
·
Was
a very humble event, prompting a glorious angelic announcement
·
Is
accompanied by a lot of activity of the Holy Spirit, not just in the
conception, but the surrounding prophecies of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary,
Simeon and Anna.
·
Is
wonderful mainly because it happened .. so impossible
an event has to be a cause of wonder; “infinity
contracted to a span, God incomprehensibly made man”.
Why
is this important?
·
The
details about the birth of Jesus are perhaps the best-known parts of the Bible, but are of lesser importance. They are narrative, but
with a symbolic element, for example “no room at the inn” indicating a
widespread rejection of God/Jesus; the announcement to the Shepherds echoing
back to David the Shepherd-King, and indicating that
the good news was for the humblest of people.
·
But
the conception of Jesus is of the utmost importance. If Jesus had a human
father, under Jewish law he would inherit his father’s sin, and in that case he
would (1) not be divine, and (2) not be a worthy sacrifice to deal with the
problem of other people’s sin (his death would be the ‘just punishment for his
own sin’).
·
Many
suggest that there is no need to believe in the virgin conception of Christ,
stating that Isaiah word “virgin” (shall conceive) means just a “young woman” …
that is true; it could mean a young unmarried woman. But young unmarried women
conceive all the time, then as now, so how could that be the special sign
Isaiah is talking about? For the birth of the Messiah-Saviour, the “sign” had
to be something pretty unusual. Interestingly, the
translation of Isaiah from Hebrew to Greek (done some time before Christ)
translates “virgin” to a Greek word that can only mean a literal virgin,
so the people at the time of translation clearly expected that to be the case.
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