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the Christmas Story.

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Christmas Story

Incarnation and The Birth of Jesus

The meaning of Incarnation

The word ‘Incarnation’ means ‘in the body’. Christians believe that that God and man were joined together in his life and that Jesus was, in some way, God become man.

• This does not mean that Christians think that Jesus was like a puppet controlled by God, or that God disguised himself in a human body, as though he were putting on a suit of clothes.

• Jesus was not a mask, a secret identity for God; Jesus was a real, complete human being with his own feelings and his own mind. Most Christians today take this as symbolic language, meaning that the presence of God could be seen in the life of Jesus.

• It is impossible to explain how it happens or to even understand it fully.

• It is important to say though, that it was God, and not an angel or his deputy, that was in Jesus, and also that Jesus was a full human being, and not some strange ‘Superman’ figure.

• The Gospels, for example, are clear that Jesus could feel pain like the rest of us.

Why the Need for the Incarnation?

• As a result of the fall, mankind has broken its relationship with God and sin has become the natural state of man.

• The result of the fall is, as God warned Adam that it would be, humans experience death.

• However, God came to us in the person of his Son Jesus so that a sinless man might die for the sins of mankind.

The Purpose of the Incarnation

The purpose of the Incarnation is redemption. Satan has captured man through sin. For God to save man from Satan it involves a price, that price is the death of Jesus Christ.

• Only a sinless man can pay the price of man's sin.

• Meaning through God becoming the person of Jesus Christ.

The Main Points

• Jesus was not a man who became God. • Jesus was not part man and part God.• Jesus was not God disguised as a man. • When God became man in the Incarnation

He did not leave heaven unoccupied. • Jesus was fully man and fully God. • God reveals Himself to man through His

Incarnation.

The Developing Message

• The first Christians did not think of Jesus as God Incarnate, however. This belief developed gradually.

• St Peter’s message, soon after the Resurrection, was that Jesus was a man blessed by God as shown by the signs and wonders he had performed through him.

• As the years went by, people thought more and more about Jesus and why he could do the things he did. The Church came to see that there was more to it than they had realised, and so their message changed.

• Jesus had made people so aware of what God was like that God must have been living and working in him in a unique way. Jesus presented God in a human life.

The Birth of Jesus• Mary, mother of Jesus, the baby,

Joseph his father, visiting shepherds, worshipping wise men (often shown as kings). It is a quaint, familiar scene, almost sentimental. Childhood carols like ‘Away in a manger’ reinforce this:

‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.The stars in the night sky looked down where he lay, The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.’

• The story tells about God, creator of the universe, stepping into his own creation. It is like an author writing himself into one of his own novels.

• Christians believe that God became a human being in Jesus (remember that they use the special word ‘incarnation’ for this, meaning ‘in a body’). He came in a powerful way, born of a virgin who had no sexual relations with any man.

The Birth issue

For lots of people the virgin birth is a bit like the Adam and Eve story – a little hard to accept. The Old Testament prophesises that the Messiah will be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). The world used here is the Hebrew word ‘almah’ which can mean virgin; young woman or both.

Some Christians worry that too much time is spent on whether Jesus was conceived this way or not – others think it is central to the whole question of who Jesus was.

Supporters of a birth say…

• If Jesus had been conceived in the normal way by Mary and Joseph then he would be a normal human being. He would have been born inheriting the Original Sin of Adam and so would have been sinful.

• As a result he would not have been able to bridge the gap between God and mankind because he’d only be a man.

• He had to be completely human and completely God to fulfil the role He had been given and the only way for this to happen was for Him to be conceived without the usual human business being involved.

• This would also mean that he would be born sinless – as he would remain throughout his life.

• Other Christians say he could still have been conceived in the normal way but then given something special by God which marked him out as more than human.

• Finally, some Christians say that as a human – however conceived, he was in a way, ‘God’s Son’ just like everyone is and could still fulfil the special role given to him by God.

The Gospel Accounts

• The story of the birth of Jesus is told in only two of the Gospels; Matthew and Luke. The other two Gospels (Mark and John) start their stories when Jesus is an adult.

• Matthew and Luke tell different stories, although they agree on the central details. In both Matthew and Luke the story is that Jesus was born of a virgin mother as a result of a miracle

• Mary would have been a young girl when she gave birth, some think possibly between 14 and 16 years of age. According to Luke she and Joseph have to travel to Bethlehem because of a census (a register of names) that was being taken by the Romans on the orders of the Emperor Augustus.

• There was no room at any of the inns and so she had to give birth in a stable. Many eastern stables are in caves, and are not very clean

Matthew

Mary was engaged to Joseph when she found out she was going to have a baby. Jesus was born in Bethlehem at the time Herod was king.

Magi (astrologers) saw an unusual star and knew it was a special sign. They travelled to Jerusalem and asked where the baby who would become the King of the Jews was. Herod was furious to hear this because he was the king! He met with the magi and asked them to find the baby and tell him where it was.

The Magi found Jesus in a house and took gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. God warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.

An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream warning him that Herod would try to kill Jesus and that they should escape to Egypt.Herod was very angry when he found out that the magi were not coming back and that Jesus had escaped so he ordered that all boys under the age of two should be killed.

Luke

Mary was engaged to Joseph when the angel Gabriel tells her that she will have a baby, called Jesus.

At the time Mary was ready to have her baby the Emperor Augustus ordered a census. Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to register and he took Mary with him.

When Mary gave birth she wrapped him in strips of cloth and put him to bed in a manger – because there was no room at the inn.

An angel appeared to some shepherds and told them the Christ had been born. They set out to visit the special child. On the way they tell people what the angel said and they are amazed.

Eight days later, as is the Jewish custom, Jesus was circumcised and called the name he had been given before he was conceived.

Did Mary know how famous her son would be?

History Versus Myth

• Many Christians understand the stories in Matthew and Luke as history, as fact.

• That is how Jesus was born; it is different and special because it was a unique event. God became man and the events in the Christmas story actually happened. Others though, do not believe this!

• They believe that Jesus was born, and that God was with him in a special way, but they think the Christmas story is a collection of symbolic stories with a meaning rather than a report of historical events. They think the story is a myth.

• By ‘myth’ they do not mean that it is not true,

and that is that. They mean that it is not literally true, but has a true message or meaning.

• Such Christians believe that Jesus was God; but they think he was born in a normal way. They use symbols and myths, to draw out the mystery and majesty of Jesus. The stories were made up, like stories with a moral. This man, they are saying, is really God.

The Meaning of Christmas

• Christians believe that God came to people in a special way at Christmas.

• He showed his love for people through the life of Jesus, showed that he is with people and that good is stronger than evil. The birth of Jesus is seen by Christians as a turning-point for the world and a hope for a new beginning where nations can live together in peace. This is up to each person, though, and will not happen magically, but Christmas reminds Christians of this goal, this ideal.

To Do

Read Chapter on Jesus birth then try these questions

1. Explain two symbols associated with the birth of Jesus. 2KU 4AE

2.’For a Christian it is important to believe that Jesus was born of a Virgin’. Explain two ways a Christian might respond to this statement. 2KU 4AE