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[Note: This is one of a series listed under the heading: Wordie Post." It was originally posted on the Word Press blog entitled "Our Daily Bread," found at rtippett97@wordpress.com. The changes at Word Press are similar to those on Twitter and Facebook, where I was posting to an empty space. That was because I began and maintained that blog as one of their free offerings. When their force to change to a paid blog website did not move me, they cancelled their "Reader," so posting on Word Press has become like a caged animal at the zoo, where only workers occasionally toss the animals a bite to eat. Word Press [et al] is like what I imagine life was like in the satellite countries of the Soviet Union: meager, bleak, spiritless. So, I am transferring those forty articles here.]
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I watch a Baptist minister on the Internet each Sunday. I have developed a fear of sitting next to people in churches, because they fear dying and think anything can prevent that. I see them as contagious and because they might breath that fear disease on me, I stay away from churches these days. I don’t want to catch that deadly fear. Anyway, last Sunday the preacher was telling the story of the Magi, since it is nearing Christmas.
He asked a question a couple of times, which I will now pass onto you. He asked, “Why can’t we just accept a miracle happened?”
Okay, with that question posed to you for you to consider, I will now count to ten before offering more about what those miracles were.
In the meantime, while you ponder his question, I’m going to watch this funny video. It won’t take long. Then I’ll be back.
Okay, I’m back.
The pastor mentioned that it was a miracle birth that brought Jesus into the world. The Virgin Mary must be accepted as the one woman who gets a pass on unmarried pregnancy. She is the only one who gets to say, “I promise I never had sex” and be believed. It is a miracle that she is the only sixteen-year old girl who is allowed that excuse, without question.
Then, the Baptist minister said there was a lot of wondering about what the star of Bethlehem was. He said some think it was a comet, some think it was Jupiter and Saturn getting real close together [he motioned with his hands, putting them close to one another], and then he said some think it was some super nova kinda thing in outer space.
All of that led him to give the convincing logical argument, “Can’t it just be a miracle? Can the virgin birth just be a miracle?”
Then, he began talking about the Magi. He presented them like they were the Persian equivalents of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, who all rode into town on horses. He said the scuttlebutt was they were on camels, but he asked, “Why not horses? They were rich!”
In his talking about the Magi speaking with King Herod, the pastor made a point of telling everyone how terrible a person Herod was. He said, “The Romans said it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” That was because Herod the Great had some of his sons killed, simply because he feared they might be plotting to overthrow him and take his kingdom from him.
After painting that horrid [and true] picture of Herod the Great, the Baptist minister told the audience-viewers how the Magi then left Herod, after asking where the King of the Jews could be found; and, the Magi went to Bethlehem. He told us, “Then they found the star they had seen in the east and it led them. The star stopped right over the house where baby Jesus was!” He told us, “I have never seen a star stop.” Must be a miracle then.
Okay … pause the fiction right there for a moment.
Knowing how Herod was afraid of his own sons stealing his throne; and, after having just had some strangers come in, asking to see the King of the Jews … because they had seen his star in the east … do you think it would be safe to trust Herod? As troubled as they got him [along with all Jerusalem], would it not make sense to think that wily old fart would wave goodbye to the Magi, as the door was closing and then tell someone in his court, “Follow those guys and tell me where they go.”?
If the star stopped right over the house, why couldn’t everyone else see it? Why couldn’t Herod send someone to Bethlehem, asking them, “Did anything strange happen here lately? Did any rich guys riding horses show up? Did any stars hover over any one house?”
Herod knew the Magi saw a star. Why didn’t he go outside and ask them to point out the star they saw? Maybe he couldn’t sleep one night and got up and looked to the east; so, maybe he too saw some strange bright light in the night sky. Why didn’t Herod ask the Magi, “Do you mean the great strange star in the night sky the last month or so? The one everyone has seen?”
Now that is when one needs to ask the question, “Can’t that just be a miracle that wise old Herod played such a patsy?”
I have written a book that makes all of the Christmas stories be amazingly real and truthful. The miracle of the star was it was the sun; and, the Magi were astrologers [the Baptist minister said they knew astronomy]. They saw an astrological chart that was amazing; and, that chart was based on where the sun would be on a specific date. Seeing that chart is what led them to go to Jerusalem. They arrived close to that specific date; but it being Shavuot, non-Jews were held out of Jerusalem until the pilgrims left [why the inn was full].
The book can be found on Amazon at this link.
When you tell the story that says the star was the sun, you do not have to ask, “Can’t the sun just be a miracle?” It is a believable miracle. Even atheists have to say, “Yes.”
It would be more a stretch of wild imagination to say the Magi were rich smart men who somehow found Jesus soo after he was born. That is unbelievable because a lot of them have be around for more than two thousand years; and, none of them have figured out the star of Bethlehem was the sun. Heck, last year all the science-astronomy hype was on Jupiter and Saturn being conjunct [a celestial event that is rather rare and not very bright]. So, no. I cannot accept the miracle of rich wise men finding Jesus in a haystack, following some unexplained star.
Astrologers, yes. It was a miracle. I know, because I have seen the chart the Magi saw. They were led by Gabriel to look at that date of miraculous birth, perhaps a year in advance, using astrology.
As for the miracle of a virgin birth, that is the miracle that is called a soul divinely marrying Yahweh, getting impregnated with the soul of His Son, so the miracle birth on Christmas is oneself being able to claim, “Merry Christmas! I have been reborn as Jesus!”
Every soul that gives birth to Jesus is a miracle … one called a Saint. Mary was simply the physical embodiment of a soul that received the Spirit [by the name of Gabriel]. Mary is a reflection of what all souls in human flesh must be … pregnant with Jesus without having had physical sex.
Going to a Baptist church and finding a pastor who is a virgin soul is easy, because none of them have ever conceived the idea of being reborn as Jesus. They are all still waiting for him to come back and destroy the world … after they get raptured up to safety.
Or, maybe that is when those rich billionaires come in and fly them to Mars? [Their modern version of horses.]
Now that would be a miracle!!!
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