Faith Expressions

He is the central figure of the gospel stories. How his life began is as dramatic as to how his life ended and started again.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem between the period when the B.C. era was about to end and the A.D. period was about to start, and when the Holy Land was under the rule of the Roman Empire. His earthly parents were Mary and Joseph. Mary was a young virgin and a Jew living a quiet life in Nazareth. She was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, who was a law-abiding Jew and a descendant of King David. Mary’s quiet, normal life was altered, dramatically, when she experienced a supernatural event. An angel of God named Gabriel appeared to her in order to inform her that she – Mary – was chosen to be the mother of God and that she will conceive a child named Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When Joseph the law-abiding Jew learned that Mary was pregnant, he planned to divorce her quietly. He had his doubts about Mary and the idea of virginal conception. At about this time, another supernatural event occurred. This time it involved Joseph. In a dream, Joseph received a message from an angel sent by God to take Mary as his wife. The angel informed him that the child whom Mary carried in her womb was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, that Mary will give birth to a son who will save the people from their sins and that he will give the name “Jesus” to the child after birth. Joseph believed his dream came from God, acted on it and married Mary.

At about the last trimester of Mary’s pregnancy, Emperor Caesar issued a decree for a census of the entire Roman Empire. The Holy Land was under Roman control. The decree forced Joseph and Mary to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, which was Joseph’s hometown and King David’s hometown. There, in Bethlehem, the holy couple registered their names. And there, in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to a son whom she wrapped in strips of cloth and placed him in a manger and whom Mary and Joseph named “Jesus,” which was the name given by the angel.

At about the time Jesus was born, another supernatural event occurred. An angel of God appeared to some shepherds in the fields on the night Jesus was born and announced to them the “good news of great joy”: that their savior – their Christ or messiah and Lord – had been born in King David’s town, which the shepherds saw for themselves when they found Mary and her baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger in Bethlehem. At about this time, too, the Jews had been waiting for the coming of their messiah. For centuries, their wise old prophets had prophesied the coming of a messiah who will emerge from the royal line of David and who will rule the chosen people of God. The Holy Land was a territory of the Roman empire and Pontius Pilate was the governor of the territory and designated representative of the empire. Herod was the appointed king of the territory – with the permission from the Roman authority.

Herod was the king who learned about the birth of the “king of the Jews” (Jesus Christ) from three traveling kings (magi or learned men). The magi from the east saw the star of the king of the Jews and followed it until they reached Jerusalem where they asked about the birthplace of the newborn king, an inquiry which deeply disturbed Herod and Jerusalem. After a brief conversation with King Herod, the three magi continued their journey, saw the star again and followed it to Bethlehem, where they found Mary with the child Jesus. The magi bowed down to worship the newborn king and offered gifts to him. When it was time for them to leave, they used another route because an angel had warned them in a dream not to return to Jerusalem and see Herod. Herod got extremely violent when the three learned men did not come to see him on their return trip and ordered the massacre of children 2 years and below in Bethlehem.

Jesus’s life was spared. In a dream, an angel sent by God told Joseph to leave at once for Egypt, and the Holy Family escaped the carnage that happened in Bethlehem. Herod died, and in a dream, an angel of the Lord instructed Joseph to go back to Israel. The Holy Family left Egypt for Israel. At this time, the king of the region was the son of Herod. Again, in a dream, God warned Joseph about the danger, so the Holy Family went to Galilee and lived in Nazareth. At one time during this period, Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem to present Jesus to the Lord, following the law of Moses. The temple priest who presided over the event was named Simeon who carried the child Jesus in his arms and thanked God for the gift of witnessing God’s salvation. The Holy Family went back to Nazareth where Jesus grew up with God’s special favor. And every year thereafter, the Holy family went to Jerusalem to attend the Passover festival.

Back To: Faith Expressions Main Page

Back To: New Testament Main Page