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Perhaps the most consulted professional by
everyone in Jersey is the GP. And, in chatting
with friends, the necessary GP attributes come out frequently - thoroughness,
care and medical expertise.
Luke, the first century physician/writer
was no exception. He wrote two books - a thoroughly researched record of the
life of Jesus Christ (AD 0 - AD 33) and a similarly accurate record of the work
and activities of those who were disciples of Jesus Christ in the years
immediately following his resurrection and return to his Father in AD 33. Both
books have been checked many times against political and geographical facts and
found to be extremely well-informed.
Luke's thoroughness in research is one
thing. What about his care? Interestingly, Luke had the caring nature of a good
GP - he cared very much for the ill and the disadvantaged. He also cared
greatly about females - a reflection of the first century AD male dominated
society in which he was seemingly very uncomfortable.
And medical expertise? Yes, his two books
record more medical details than any other New Testament biographies of Jesus
Christ.
But what about Luke's record above of an
angel coming to Mary, a young virgin engaged to be married to a carpenter,
living in Nazareth, an undesirable town in
Galilee 50 miles north of Jerusalem.
And the angel saying to this virgin that she will have a child whom she will
name "Jesus" and that her son will be called the Son of the Most High
and that there will be no end to his kingdom?
Luke records that Mary (above) asks for an
explanation about her key problem with the angel's words: "since
I am a virgin". And Dr Luke uses the Greek words for virgin: ginosco
ou aner = know no man.)
He doesn't balk at that: this is an
intervention of supernatural proportions and he has researched it.
Mary is given a two-fold explanation.
First, the holy spirit (Greek hagios = uniquely pure, inviolably pure; pneuma
= life, breath) will come upon her. Second, the power (Greek dunamis = inherent
dynamic power) of the Most High (Greek hupsistos = the highest of
all high rankings) will overshadow her.......
That's quite something: the uniquely,
inviolably pure life spirit will come upon you and the inherent dynamic power
of the highest of all high rankings will overshadow you.......
And there is a consequence from those two
explanations, a "therefore".....
Therefore the child to be born will be
called holy (Greek, as
earlier, hagios = uniquely pure, inviolably pure) - the Son of God.
And so it came to pass. The child was born
in AD 0; he was called Jesus; he was uniquely pure, inviolably pure (so much so
that key folk could not abide the sight of him and killed him); he was called
"Son of God". He was executed as a convicted criminal. He rose from
the dead.
All religions involve a search for God; all
proceed from man outwards. Here was an intervention from Almighty God into
world history.
Christmas is fantastic but nothing of Jesus
Christ is fantasy.
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