Is
it absurd to connect Nativity trail to tax cut?
One
of my Facebook friends said he and his son will walk the Nativity
Trail (about 80 miles) before Christmas, to which I made a comment,
It is nice to learn that you are going to walk the Nativity Trail. I presume you'll let us know when you reach Bethlehem, sending out the gospel. According to Luke, the Nazareth to Bethlehem journey was prompted by Caesar Augustus' decree for tax and that Joseph, a native of Bethlehem, was required to go back to register for census. We read in Will Durant's book [The story of civilization], “Luke adds that 'in those days there went out a decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. . .” and “Josephus notes a census by him in Judea.”
President Trump promised a tax cut before Christmas. It may sound absurd to connect nativity to tax, but it is what Luke wrote. Gospel of Luke was written probably in the year 70 to 90 AD after the Christ's birth; so one may say it is almost “contemporary”.
Both Caesar and Jesus walked on this earth
Rarely
did I write about religion in my blog. But Christmas
season is upon us, it may not be entirely inappropriate for me trying
to be “evangelical” whatever it may mean to you.
Being a history buff, I don’t just read medicine, I read the history of medicine. While reading about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, I need to find out who was the one first connected HPV to cancer (yes, he is a Nobel laureate), who developed the vaccine or even the folly of trying to connect herpes simplex virus (HSV) to cancer. And that is also the way I approach religion.
While reading history I always tried to read the works of the serious, credible and respectable historians. Will Durant is one of them (I may have to add his wife, Ariel, to be fair); his Caesar and Christ (The Story of Civilization, Book 3) is the source upon which I am writing this post.
If you’re one of the non-believers who was not sure whether Jesus ever actually walked at Galilee or on this earth, you may have to presume Caesar was a myth, invented to glorify the Roman Empire. Durant told the stories of Caesar and Jesus exactly the same way.
In fact, He began with “Did Christ exist?” in the Chapter of Jesus. “Napoleon, meeting the German scholar Wieland in 1808, asked him no petty question of politics or war, but did he believe in the historicity of Christ?” Durant wrote. History written by contemporary historians tends to be more trustworthy.
Credible historians tend to use the stories written by the contemporaries, the same is also true when it comes to religious writing. In Antiquities of the Jews (AD 93 by Josephus, a Jewish historian), we read,
“At that time lived Jesus, a holy man, if man he can be called, for he performed wonderful works, and taught men, and joyfully received the truth. And he was followed by many Jews and many Greeks. He was the Messiah.”
How and why I believe in the “miracles” Jesus performed
Many
are troubled by the fact that a man with flesh could do “miracles”.
Josephus said He did “wonderful works”, this is also more or
less in line with what Durant wrote.
He [Jesus] did not claim omniscience; he could be surprised by events; only his earnestness and enthusiasm led him to overestimate his capacities, as in Nazareth and Jerusalem. That his powers were nevertheless exceptional seems proved by his miracles.
Probably these were in most cases the result of suggestion—the influence of a strong and confident spirit upon impressionable souls. His presence was itself a tonic; at his optimistic touch the weak grew strong and the sick were made well. . . . With a few exceptions they are not beyond belief; similar phenomenon may be observed almost any day at Lourdes, and doubtless occurred in Jesus’ time at Epidaurus.
Christ himself attributed his cures to the “faith” of those whom he healed; and he could not perform miracles in Nazareth, apparently because the people there looked upon him as “the carpenter’s son,” and refused to believe in his unusual powers. . . He felt he could work them only through the help of a divine spirit within him. . . He was reluctant to attempt them, forbade his followers to advertise them, reproved men for requiring a “sign,” and regretted that even his apostles accepted him chiefly because of the “wonders” he performed.
I am not well versed in discussing Jesus’s combined divinity and human nature. But this is the Jesus that I accept. This is His teaching and performance that I believe. He is above us, but is also one of us.
St.
Paul might not have met Jesus in person before resurrection, and he
enviously admitted that Peter, James, and John had known Christ in
the flesh.
Science and religion are non-exclusive to each other
Many
of the respectable scientists that I admire are all atheists or
agnostics. Science is my first love; I am a true believer in
science; life process is a bunch of chemical reactions that follow
physical laws. But, “Science and religion are non-exclusive to
each other”, as I said in my letter-to-the-editor (to
Observer-Reporter, a newspaper in Washington, PA) in 2003
after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster with a title of
“Understanding Science and Religion”.
Jesus
being baptized by John the Baptist is a historical event that is well
recorded
Pope
John Paul II visited Al-Maghtas (in Jordan) in March 2000, he said
“in my mind I see Jesus coming to the water of the river of Jordan
not far from here to be baptized by John the Baptist,” at which
moment the Pope was subliminally connected with Jesus and John he
Baptist.
Luke recorded Jesus was baptized in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Roman Emperor 14AD to 37AD), so that happened in the year of 25AD. This suggested Jesus accepted John’s teaching, but somehow Jesus himself never baptized anyone.
Josephus (the Jewish historian) attributed John’s arrest to Herod’s [ruler of Galilee] suspicion that John was fomenting a political rebellion in the guise of a religious reformation. Gospels of Mark and Matthew may have somewhat different reasons of John’s arrest. Nevertheless, the fact of Jesus’ baptism and John’s arrest were vividly recorded in history book and gospels.
In
her “Everyday in Tuscany”, Frances Mayes wrote about
seeing Signorelli's Baptism of Christ by John te Baptist (I
will talk about it more next post) in the church of San Medardo.
This is such a pivotal event in the history of Christianity, no
wonder so many Italian Renaissance painters have a painting of this
event.
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