His entry to this world was as amazing as His Ascension

The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem of Judah, two millennia ago, was the fulfillment of a promise made by the Almighty to His chosen people, the Jews through their ancestors. Though He took the form of a human being, Christ was the Word, the Love of God incarnated on earth. He was born as a mortal, like anyone of us, save sin, and His birth was of the Virgin Mary who was unique in being selected as the surrogate mother of the God made man.

To understand the Virgin Birth we must know something about the Palestinian milieu of Jesus’s day. Jewish marriages had three stages, the first being the engagement which could be as early as when the couple were children.

The second stage was when parents approved the engagement at which stage sexual relations were taboo, though the couple was referred to as man and wife. Strange as it may be, the announcement of the birth of Jesus took place while Mary and Joseph were still engaged. That is why Mathew’s Gospel in chapter 19 calls Joseph, the husband of Mary.

The early church believed in the virgin birth of Jesus and added this as an article of the Creed. Aristides wrote about it as early as 140 AD. Justin Marty wrote about it in 170 AD. It was included in the Chaldean Creed in 451 AD. St. Luke the evangelist in his narration of the birth of Jesus, says that “Nothing is impossible with God”, an obvious reference to the virgin birth. (Luke 1/ 37).
All the different Christian denominations are agreed on this issue, though they differ in other beliefs. Further the inclusion of this in a very early Syrian edition of the New Testament is proof of this pristine belief.

Considering the life of Jesus, where He performed spectacular miracles, like raising the dead, giving sight to the blind et al, His birth via a virgin is no surprise especially since He rose from the dead on that first Easter Sunday dawn. His entry to our world had to be as amazing as His exit via His Ascension.

The Holy Writ is careful to mention the relationship of Jesus to Joseph as His foster father. Whenever reference is made of His parents, it goes as “Joseph and His Mother” and never of the former as Jesus’s father. Further Jesus referred to God as His Father, indicative of the fact that He had no earthly father. If God was able to create the world sans anything, would it be difficult for Him to make a man out of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity? Jesus’s first utterance recorded, according to the gospel was “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business” ( Luke 2/49).

So, Christmas though misunderstood today needs to be celebrated in a holy manner, with less outward show and more religiosity. Christians must not make a pantomime of the holy birth of the Son of God, enjoying eating and drinking to the extent that the sacredness of the event is negated by the outward extravaganza.

Let us make Christmas a holy feast taking a cue from the Buddhists who consider Vesak, the birth, death and enlightenment of the Buddha too sacred to enjoy in an excessive manner.