Last week, on December 25, as Roman Emperor Constantine ordered in 325 C.E., 2.4 billion Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Being roughly 30 per cent of all religions, Christianity is the dominant religion in the world.
It started about 2000 years ago with the birth of Jesus when Caesar Augustus was Roman Emperor and Herod was king of Judea. Herod reportedly ordered the killing of baby boys but the earthly parents of Jesus reportedly escaped to Egypt where Jesus grew up. They then moved to Nazareth to engage in carpentry and await his time which came when he was roughly 30-years-old. Tiberius was then the emperor.
The subsequent Jesus’ activities, teachings, and claims became the foundation of Christianity, hinging on two miracles and a promise. Jesus claimed to have come from God and, unlike other humans, knew exactly where he was before being conceived. He therefore must have been part of the heavenly decision to come to earth without getting contaminated by what Aurelia Augustine believed was the sin of Adam.
He entered Virgin Mary’s womb to be born a human without the assistance of an earthly man. The virgin birth of Jesus was thus the first miracle which all Christians have to accept as an article of faith.
If the virgin birth was the first miracle at the beginning of His mission on earth, the ‘resurrection’ was the second one towards the end of His earthly life. Both miracles underpinned the divinity of Jesus and became articles of faith to Christians.
In between were numerous little miracles that raised him above other humans. He asked his cousin, John the Baptist, to baptise him in the River Jordan and shortly afterwards, Antipas ordered John’s head delivered to him. In replacing Cousin John as spiritual magnet, Jesus started by picking 12 men to assist him.
One of them, Simon Peter, was like a bodyguard, carrying a sword. He then started performing the unusual acts like giving people good wine at Cana, casting out demons, feeding multitudes, healing the sick, making the blind to see, and teaching about a ‘kingdom’ to come.
Using parables and simple language, Jesus broke no Roman law but he occasionally rubbed religious authorities wrongly by seeming to challenge the Laws of Moses, the foundation of Judaism. He angered the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, by beating up ‘forex’ dealers and other traders who had turned the temple in Jerusalem into a market. He knew that his fate was sealed.
Beating traders in the temple had two outcomes; preparation for the second miracle and as reason for fighting what is called just war which Augustine and Thomas Aquinas later elaborated. Before the actual second miracle, Jesus gave his disciples a good supper and ordered them to drink good wine in his memory. When the arresting officers showed up and Peter used his sword to cut the ear, Jesus returned the ear where it belonged and told Peter to return his sword where it belonged. It was the wrong fight, the wrong war.
Jesus was therefore ready for his second big miracle, that of death and resurrection. After Pilate washed his hands, religious authorities crucified him to death. He then surprised followers by rising on the third day. It was Apostle Thomas, argues Pope Francis, who recognised the resurrected Jesus as God. Before ascending to heaven, He performed a third miracle, of empowering disciples to perform miracles in his name.
He also promised to return to earth without specifying the day. This promise is the source of Christian hope of a future that is better than what is on earth. To maintain that hope for this long, Christians take the Virgin Birth and Resurrection and in the promise of Jesus’ return as articles of faith. They therefore have annual ceremonies marking the two Jesus connected miracles; Virgin Birth and Death and Resurrection.
