Chapter 1

Chapter 1

THE BABY IS THE CREATOR

The birth of Jesus occurred in a very unusual way. His mother, Mary, lived in Israel in the town of Nazareth. She was a virgin and was engaged to a man named Joseph. Before they were married, an angel appeared to her. When he appeared, she was frightened both because it was scary and because she didn‘t know why an angel would visit her. But the angel said not to worry because God was going to give her a great honor. He said that she was going to be pregnant and have a child that would be very important, the "Son of the Most High."

This was confusing to Mary and she asked how this could happen. After all, she was a virgin! The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.‘" (Luke 1:35) In other words, without having sexual relations with her, God was going to somehow just make her pregnant!

Now this was both good and bad news. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be causing Mary a lot of problems. Can you imagine telling your fiancé you‘re pregnant and having to say something like, ― But it‘s okay… because it was God who made me pregnant. You see, an angel appeared to me and told me it was going to happen!‖? To make things worse, they lived in a very religious society where getting pregnant outside of marriage was a huge scandal.

Apparently Joseph didn‘t believe her since the Bible said that he would divorce her (The pledge to be married was more formal than most societies, requiring an official divorce to end the engagement). This must have been devastating for Mary. At least Joseph still cared enough about her to go about it quietly so that he could reduce the amount of public disgrace she would endure. Fortunately, God changed his plans: "After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.‘" (Matthew 1:20-21)

During this time in history (somewhere around 4BC to 0AD), the Romans ruled the entire area of the Middle East, as well as other parts of the world – including Israel. Caesar August, the Emperor, made everyone return to their hometown so that they could take a census of the empire. This meant that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem and take his fiancé with him – even though she was about to give birth! "So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (Luke 2:4-7) So Jesus was born in a barn and placed in a feeding trough, most likely filled with hay, which was used to feed the animals because they couldn‘t find a place to stay.

FLASHBACK

Actually, Jesus isn‘t the only person ever to be born without the usual male and female sexual relations. This takes us back to how God created the earth and how He created the first man and woman. The first sentence in the Bible says that, ―In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth." He also created day and night, the sun and the moon, water and land, and plants and animals. After this He created mankind. As a matter of fact, everything and everyone has been created by God.

―Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.‘ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:26-27) He created Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him through his nostrils. He made Eve from one of Adam‘s ribs.

While we don‘t have a specific explanation in this story regarding what it means to be "created in the image of God," there are a few things from the rest of the Bible that help us to understand. First of all, the Bible clearly and adamantly teaches that there is only one God, the Creator of everything. Although we are created in His image, we are NOT God. We will not become a God. We are not part of a life force made up of all things that is called "God." We are created by Him and separate from Him. But what "in the image of God" does mean is that we are special in His eyes. He loves us. It also means that we are different than the animals and other parts of creation in a significant way in the eyes of God. The Bible makes it clear that He wants a relationship with us. It also means that we have the ability to make choices based on a knowledge of good and evil.

The first man and woman created by God were Adam and Eve. They lived in a beautiful garden in a place called Eden, had a perfect relationship with God, and had an incredible life. All their food was provided for, there was no disease, and they had absolutely no problems with their relationship with each other – no fighting! Eventually things didn‘t go well because they actually rebelled against the only command God had given them. Because of their rebellion, people have rebelled against God ever since. That is why we have so many problems in the world. We‘ll talk more about that in our next story.

God knew that people would not be able to save themselves from the problems they caused, so from the very beginning He was planning a way for this perfect relationship with Himself to be restored. As a matter of fact, one of the four books about Jesus‘ life begins by saying this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-3; 14) From these verses, we know two very important truths. First of all, when it says that the ―Word became flesh," it was saying that God became man. That‘s who Jesus was – God in flesh and bones. Also, when it says that ―through Him all things were made," we know that Jesus was actually involved in Creation! Go back to Genesis 1:26. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image.'"

The Bible makes it extremely clear, as we have already made clear, that there is only one God. The Israelites believed very strongly in this. All belief in other gods was condemned. And yet the word God uses for Himself here is plural - "let us make man…"

The explanation for this is the Christian teaching of the Trinity. We could talk forever about this teaching, but to sum it up, we can just say that the Bible teaches that there is one God made up of three distinct persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So while we are learning the story of Jesus‘ birth, we now know that He already existed way before this. After all, He is God.

BACK TO JESUS

So it‘s really an amazing thing that Jesus was born in a barn – not in a castle. It‘s perplexing that God didn‘t choose a princess for this huge event. Also, after Jesus was born angels appeared to a group of shepherds who were watching their flock of sheep during the night. Shepherds! Being a shepherd wasn‘t exactly considered a position of honor, yet God considered them important.

This is what happened: "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. (Luke 2:13-16)

The way the birth of Jesus happened was God‘s announcement that He loved all men and women in the world. He didn‘t care about their race, social status, how much money they had, or how they looked. He wants all people to have a relationship with Him. The good news of Jesus starts with the fact that all men and women have chosen to sin against Him – the bad news. The Bible also makes it clear that we can‘t possibly earn our way to God. Our sin is too great and it separates us from Him. That is why, when we couldn‘t make our way to Him, He came to us!

Reflection Questions:

1. How was the world created?

2. Why did God say, ―Let us create man in our likeness?‖ Does the Bible teach there is more than one God?

3. What difference does it make that we are created "in God's image"?

4. Is it wrong to eat meat? Why or why not?

5. Why was Jesus born in a barn? Why did God send angels to shepherds?

6. Why did God create Adam and Eve?

7. Why did God have to come to us instead of us trying to reach out to Him?