Jesus

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 cloths 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 two 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.

 About 3 decades after his birth, Jesus began his ministry of preaching, healing and reconciliation. This ministry was preceded by the ministry of baptism and forgiveness of John the Baptist, a man who was considered a prophet by the people of his time. Jesus had himself baptized by John the Baptist, who recognized the superiority of Jesus as he was the Lamb and Son of God.

The place where Jesus began his ministry was in Galilee, and he spent a lot of time in this region, particularly in areas surrounding Lake Galilee. He spent a considerable time in Jerusalem, especially during festivals. He went to many places in order to preach the good news of salvation. His purpose was to bring all people to the kingdom of God: to save individuals who were lost, marginalized, shunned and ostracized, to save the people who were waiting for their savior, and to save all who were wanting to repent, be healed and believe in God. In a sermon on a mount, Jesus declared that the kingdom of God belonged to those people who recognized their need for God. He went about preaching the forgiveness of sins and the coming of the kingdom of God. He, in fact, forgave the sins of the people who went to hear him preach and be healed by him. He matched his claim to the power to forgive sins with his power to heal, miraculously, people who were suffering from various kinds of diseases.

Jesus spent time teaching his gospel and performing miraculous acts in places which he visited, and he gave two reasons why. He informed the people that his very existence at that time was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah about the servant of God who was destined to bring the good news to all people. He taught in order to fulfill the Laws of Moses and to bring into fruition the teachings of the prophets. He taught the people that lust was a form of adultery, anger was as bad as murder, and swearing was an evil behavior. He informed the people that fasting and praying for public approval was unacceptable to God, inordinate affection for wealth was a hindrance to one’s spiritual growth, and “lip-service” worship was an act to discredit God’s teachings. He asked them to resist temptation, to avoid judging and condemning people, to remain faithful to their spouses, to love their friends as well as their enemies, and to give to others in order to receive God’s blessing in full measure.

Indeed, Jesus taught the people how to achieve the kingdom of God. He told the people that now was the right time to turn away from their sinful lifestyles and be forgiven by God. He showed them how to pray to God the Father and to ask and seek for his assistance. He, himself, prayed a lot. He told them that true fasting and true worship involved acts of social justice and acts of love of neighbors who were in need of help. He gave them the two greatest commandments which were loving God without any reservation and loving one’s neighbor. He told them that God’s mercy was dependent on God’s infinite love and operated on the command to love and forgive one another. He informed them that love was at the heart of his ministry and it was the love of God that will save humanity.

During his ministry, Jesus performed a lot of miracles. In Cana, he changed water into wine. In Capernaum, he healed a man with many evil spirits and brought back to life the dead child of an official. In Capernaum, too, the power of Jesus to heal manifested itself when a woman, who was suffering from bleeding for 12 years, touched the edge of Jesus’s cloak, believing that if she did so she will get healed. And she got healed! In Bethsaida, Jesus fed five thousand people using five loaves of bread and two fish. In Jericho, he made a blind man see. On Lake Galilee, he commanded a storm to stop at one time and walked on its water at another time. In Bethany, he raised to life a dead Lazarus quite dramatically. In many places Jesus went, he healed the sick, cured people with various kinds of diseases and physical disabilities and exorcised individuals with evil spirits.

During his ministry, too, Jesus informed the people who he was. He told the people that he was the bread of life that gave sustenance to humans. He told them that he was the truth and the way to reach God the Father. In fact, Jesus claimed that he was God when he used the title “I Am” for himself. He told the people that he was the resurrection and the life, the one source of eternal life. He told them that he was the good shepherd who was willing to die for them in order to save them.

Many people heard the teachings of Jesus and saw the healing and miracles he performed. They were astonished by what Jesus did. Some have learned to accept the idea that he was a prophet while many were beginning to accept the idea that he was the messiah and promised king for the Jews as prophesied by their prophets of long ago. This disturbed, greatly, the officials and religious leaders of that time. They knew quite well what the consequences were if Jesus was accepted by the people as the messiah. For the officials and religious authorities, they had no king but Caesar. They were able to put Jesus on a farcical trial and to sentence him to die on the cross.

Three days after Jesus died on the cross and was buried, he rose from the dead to be with his disciples and followers. Many days later, he ascended into heaven to be with God the Father.