THE BIRTH OF JESUS

Every December 25th Christians celebrate Christmas, that is, the birth of Jesus, a carpenter from Nazareth, who, because of his holy life, his miracles, his teachings and his resurrection, among the dead, is recognized as the Son of God. Christians understand this event as God's own entry into humanity to save it from the yoke of sin and death. In Luke's narrative 2:1-10, three aspects reveal the uniqueness of this event: the realization of a spiritual reality that permeates the world of matter; the birth itself; and the discreet character of the announcement of this event. 

It was to be, only another night of vigil, next to the flocks, but suddenly the shepherds found themselves taken by a spiritual vision in which a being not of this world, that is, an angel, appeared to them and announced to them: “today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord" (Luke 2:11). After this angel's speech, material reality is miraculously torn again and they, the shepherds, see a scene from another world in which “suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God...” because of the birth of the child Jesus. 

Although living humanity immersed in a world of matter, the Holy Scriptures speak from beginning to end a non-material reality, a spiritual world that interferes in this world in which we live. The Apostle Paul, for example, speaking of himself, said he knows a man who "was caught up to Paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permited to tell" (2Corinthians 12.1-4), a reality of existence incomprehensible to the human mind. The Apostle John, too, prisoner on the island of Patmos, because of the gospel, on the day of the Lord was swept away in spirit and had a vision of the throne room of God and other ambiences and scenarios of the Creator's spiritual world, as described in his Apocalypse. 

With respect to the birth of Jesus, lucana's narrative actually deals with the moment when the Creator becomes a creature to live among men and rescue them from the prison of death because of the original sin that drove them away from God. See that Luke 2.11 says that is God who born: "...today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord". "Christ" is the Greek form of the Hebrew word "Messiah", which means "Anointed". And this Christ, that is, this Messiah is the "Lord". The word "Lord" in greek in which the gospel was written is κύριος, which Gingrich and Danker (2005, p.123) state that it was used, among other senses, to designate "God", as well as Jesus, indicating their divinity[ 1]. Kύριος appears more than 700 times in the New Testament in reference to Jesus. 

With regard to the discreet form of the announcement of such an important event, is relevant the fact that it was made to humble pastors. It was the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, promised and prophesied in the Old Testament. The religious were waiting for this event with great expectation. But it was to the simple shepherds that God broke the news. Pastors, in Jewish society at that time, constituted a dishonored class of people. They were even regarded by religious as unclean, for they did not fulfill certain rites of purification because of their occupation and their testimony had no value in the courts. Why exactly to these people was anounced the arrival of the Son of God? 

Paul explains some of God's action in the world in his first letter To the Corinthians (1:18-31; 2). The Apostle says, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" (1 Corinthians 1.27-29). He also says that if the powerful had understood the mystery of Christ they would not have crucified Him, but God revealed it to the little ones through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:8,10). 

The religious, with their theological schemes, did not become aware of the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus was only recognized as the Son of God by the humble, because the way that God revealed himself in Christ fled the human logic. Jesus remains misunderstood for many. The Jews asked for miraculous signs, the Greeks asked for wisdom, today men ask for a rational explanation, but God decided to save man by Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1: 21,22). Christ can only be understood through faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

[1] GINGRICH, F. Wilbur e DANKER, Frederick W. Léxico do Novo Testamento: Grego - Português. São Paulo: Vida Nova, 2005.

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