Why we Need Christmas

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In history, the ones who recorded events and dates and wrote the stories altogether were mostly people who were hired to write about it. They were employed by generals, kings, queens -powerful people. Of course, hiring a scribe to write your history comes with a special perk. You can SUGGEST things. You can suggest that they downplay your defeats and shameful moments or erase it altogether. You can also suggest to exaggerate and heroize specific moments of triumph and greatness.

Of course, if the Scribe believes in his or her employer, the scribe would have no problem writing the story with the suggestions.

Let’s look at Jesus’ history as written by Matthew.

Genealogy of Jesus – Only the book of Matthew started with a genealogy

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

² Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
³ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
⁴ Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
⁵ Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
⁶ and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

- Matthew 1:1-6

It includes 4 very unpopular women:

Rahab the harlot, Ruth the moabite, Tamar the daughter-in-law of Judah who deceived him and the mother of Solomon who had been Uriah’s wife.

Now why did Matthew had to write about them? Wouldn’t you be writing all the good stuff when you want someone to look good? I mean, this is the Savior and Messiah Jesus Christ we’re talking about!

Two categories of unclean people:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.” - Matthew 9:10

“Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him.” - Luke 15:1

“When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” – Matthew 9:11

Sinners and Tax collectors – that’s how bad tax collectors were. They had their own category. They were considered traitors to their own nation because they were collecting tax for Rome. And as long as the Romans were happy with the tax, they can add any amount of surcharge they wanted for their tax collecting.

via h3sean.com

Posted via email from h3sean's posterous