The birth of Jesus was a time of contrasts. The Roman Empire was at its height under Augustus Caesar. Yet Jesus, king forever, came into the world without fanfare in a remote corner of that empire.
The first people to visit the newborn were humble shepherds, dirty and smelling of sheep. But they had come to know of the event through a heavenly visitation of angels singing, “Glory to God in the Highest!”
Mary was forced to lay her newborn on the straw of a manger or cattle trough, but he was given gifts of gold and rich spices and perfume.
Soon after his birth, his family was forced to flee the wrath of a jealous king who ruthlessly slaughtered babies in a futile attempt to slay him. Yet he was called “Prince of Peace.”
He was Immanuel, “God with Us,” the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us,” and yet “he was tempted in every way, just as we are--yet without sin.”
The two major events of Christendom--the foci of the Gospels--were his miraculous birth and his all-too-human death.
In this website, I’ll be considering the birth of Jesus in the art of the Great Masters and the first century world Jesus was born into, as well as what the coming of Jesus has meant in my life.
Please write me at b.silvey@sbcglobal.net and tell me what the birth of Jesus means to you. |
