Chapter 2 - Jesus' Birth and Early Years

Ah yes! - the Why? and the How?

Why was Jesus Baptized? If you listen closely, someone always has something to offer the conversation. Drane points a fairly significant challenge with which many of us may wrestle. If Jesus is the God-Man, if He is perfectly holy, and John's baptism was of repentance - well then, "what could [Jesus] possible have to repent of?" (p. 54) I've heard that Jesus' baptism was a witness for John the Baptist and those nearby. I've heard that Jesus did it to set an example for His disciples to follow. Drane examines the idea that Jesus wanted to identify with the regular people He came to save and who would need to make sweeping changes in their lives. It strikes me that later in the Scriptures we find that Jesus not only was cursed for us and took on our sin, but that He was that curse (Gal. 3:13) and that He became sin (2 Cor. 5:21) so that folks like us could be saved. Now, I haven't worked it all out - but I think the weight of the world's sin on Christ's shoulders has something to do with Him identifying with you and me in the Baptismal waters.

Maybe more on that another day...

WARNING: The following images may contain useless rhetoric that may offend some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

Okay - I am no master of the theological arts, but I have a fairly basic (it's gotta be grade 2 or 3 anyway) understanding of theology - and it comes with two premises: 1) God is real - He ain't made up or debatable - He just is! 2) You and I and everybody are His inventions - He made us and loves us so much that He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in various ways. Two of these are the Bible and His own personal flesh and blood Son, Jesus - yet other ways remain.

Right then, with that out of the way - on to the "How?" Which how? The "How did Mary end up pregnant with Jesus?"

So, because it's my belief that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His Son and His word, I believe Matthew and Luke on the matter of the virgin birth. But then again, I believe Adam was the real, first man who once walked the earth and who got kicked out of the garden. I'm going to start with Matthew - he doesn't just say that Jesus was "born of the Virgin Mary," (you pick your favorite Apostles' Creed) he begins by explaining to us how she became pregnant to start with.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his Mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18, NRSV)

We aren't left guessing as though this is some mystery. Drane points out that some folks have trouble with the idea that "to be a virgin and pregnant is a contradiction in terms - so how can these stories be understood?" (p. 58) The author reminds us that there are many people who are unable to believe in anything outside their own experience. Even Luke didn't leave the immaculate conception up to the imagination. He tells us of a visit Mary had from the angel Gabriel.

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High...Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:30-32, 34-35, NRSV)

So Jesus is the direct-line Son of God; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Drane points out that some people (it seems he may be included) find it surprising that aside from "Matthew and Luke, there is no explicit statement in the whole of the rest of the New Testament regarding the circumstances of Jesus' conception and birth." (p. 59) Well, aside from the one mention in John 13, you'll find no other mention of Jesus washing His disciples' feet - so I guess we should doubt that episode too! And speaking of John - didn't he record Jesus' words to Nicodemus as, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (St. John 3:16, KJV, emphasis added). I'll let you look up the word "beget / begotten" - http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=6746&dict=CALD

Do I doubt that we've been to the moon? - maybe, just a little.

Do I doubt that anyone will ever figure out how they get the caramel into the Caramilk bar? - yup.

Do I doubt that Elvis has truly left the building? - you'd better believe it!!

But, do I doubt that "Lord Jesus Christ [is] the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men [sic] and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made a man?" - not even for the slightest measure of time.

Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the Story

Who knew? - times change, and people stay the same! Or something like that.

Reading the first chapter of John Drane's Introducing the New Testament (2001), I could help but sense that not much will ever change with humanity. In the millennium that man has been given on this planet, and even with the revelation of God in Jesus, the people of this world are a mixed up bunch of religious appetites, consuming mostly nothing but junk food. And, as Drane points out, it has always been that way.

The author reminds us that at the time leading into Christ's arrival - and for some time following His departure - the Roman empire was filled with followers of mystery religions. Drane says that these Roman advances were probably "developments from the various fertility religions which had been popular for thousands of years through the middle east." (p. 24) Say! Do you remember mention of Baal worship - you know with it's big orgies in honor of fertility and such. Then I think about Molech - you know, that God to whom the ancient middle eastern peoples sacrificed their first child by throwing him or her into a furnace. God's law spoke out against that - "And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech..." (Lev. 18:21) And then I think about the massive proliferation of pornography in all sectors of modern media, and how in 2005 there were 97,254 induced abortions across our country. You can check it out (http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/health40a-eng.htm).

Drane examines the days of the philosophers in ancient Greece - men who searched endlessly, in empty caves, invented in their own mind. These "searchers of the truth" were convinced that it was to be found in the nature they occupied and within themselves. The stoics believed that "the world and its people ultimately depend on just one principle: 'Reason'." (p. 17) Meanwhile the epicureans were in constant hunt for the "good life [consisting] in 'pleasure'." (p. 18) But I can help but remember that in their search for the truth, they killed Socrates for his voice and version of political wisdom. Since then, Descartes has not made himself (or anyone else for that matter) any more or less real simply by thinking about it, and no matter what good I think of John Dewey I can't change the reality I don't like around me anymore than he can from the grave.

It was into a mixed up world that Jesus was coming. Even the religious leaders of His own ancestral people were so self assured that they knew everyone else was wrong - including each other. They saw each other in polar ways - as conservatives and liberals. Some called for war to defend their religious ways, while others went and hid in the wilderness. Now friends, my theology is conservative, and so I know yours must be liberal - but I can promise you that there are others out there who see themselves as more conservative than me and so I too am liberal. I don't want to even start about those in our world who choose to defend their faith with firearms - and I don't even need to look overseas when I remember Waco. I guess every religion has got its take on zealots.

That God would send His Son into a mess like that is incredible. Then again, He was the only One who could do anything to correct the situation. Nearly 2000 years later, the Church He started is still going - even while the world continues to rip itself apart in the same old ways. Times change, and people stay the same. That's why we need Jesus now every bit as much as they needed Him then.

Hi ye all!