{"id":4072,"date":"2016-12-16T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T00:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4072"},"modified":"2021-11-25T18:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T10:14:33","slug":"166-birthing-christ-the-word-an-exhausting-experience-for-mary-and-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4072","title":{"rendered":"166. Birthing Christ the Word: An Exhausting Experience for Mary and Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world<\/span>.<\/strong> [John 16:2<\/span>1<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

T\"\"\u00a0T<\/span><\/a>he<\/span><\/em> Nativity<\/em>, 1891 by Julius Garibaldi “Gari” Melchers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From time immemorial, doing theology could be and often was a dangerous and even life-shortening occupation for some. Theologising that God always puts people before<\/em> the Law, cost Jesus his life. Claiming Jesus Christ to be the Son of God caused Saint Stephen to be stoned to death. Respecting the immutability of God and insisting upon the subordination of the Son to the Father had Arius excommunicated. In the fourth century Christological controversies, priests and bishops were deposed, imprisoned, mobbed and lynched. In the fifth century, when Pelagius opposed Augustine on the theology of grace and free will, insisting on the human capacity and hence the duty to do good and avoid sin, Augustine hunted this ascetic moralist down and not only had his theology of grace denounced as heresy, but had the holy ascetic monk personally pronounced a heretic as well. To this day, most of those officially banished from the Church are deemed to be beyond the pale of salvation and remain \u201cunsaved\u201d, however holy and ascetic a life they had lived. Church history is replete with instances of religious people in positions of power and influence demonstrating no qualms in committing atrocities against other religious people who happened or dared to hold theological views different from theirs. Jesus had found the religious domain the most unforgiving.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dangers inherent in doing theology notwithstanding, we must insist that salvation is not entirely the business of God\u2019s. As Luke spotlighted God\u2019s dependency on the consent of Mary for the very idea of Incarnation to begin to work, Matthew drove home the message that upon the active and sacrificial collaboration of Joseph, the very survival of Mary and the infant Son of God she bore in her womb depended.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, we want to cast light on the fact that birthing the Word of God<\/em><\/strong>, that unimaginable grace of cooperating with God to incarnate Emmanuel – \u201cGod with us\u201d (Matthew 1:23) \u2013 was a thoroughly exhausting experience for Mary and Joseph.<\/span><\/p>\n

In John\u2019s vision of the \u201cwoman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars\u201d (Revelation 12:1), she is Mary, the Mother of Jesus who is also the New Eve according to Roman Catholic interpretation. The power of evil, represented by a monster, was all out to destroy the Messiah and his people. The woman\u2019s birth pangs thus symbolize the eschatological woes which precede the appearance of the Messiah. As the woman attempted to give birth to the Saviour, she would be pursued by the horrible monster, the personification of evil. The cosmic battle does not spare humanity the harshness of earthly hardship, however. The fact that the woman had to \u201ccry out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth\u201d (12:2) helps us tremendously to appreciate the birthing of Christ as a realistic earthly event. Further, just as the triumph of Jesus Christ will be achieved through failure, and that the Messiah would suffer grievously and be put to death before rising again, those who chose to associate with him would also be destined to suffer. Their life itinerary, like the itinerary of the Master, would move from pain to hope, from darkness to light, and from death to new life. Like Jesus, they too would suffer. The Nativity birth pangs in the vision of John are stark reminders of Mary and Joseph\u2019s hardship at Bethlehem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost every artistic depiction of the nativity that we have seen shows Mary and Joseph kneeling over the manger adoring the Baby Jesus. That might be the case a long while after they had struggled through the anxiety, the labour, and the delivery. What is commonly missing is an honest and truthful representation of how absolutely exhausted Mary must have been, and how terrified Joseph must actually feel at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Breaking that lacuna is a delightful piece by Julius Garibaldi Melchers<\/strong> in his 1891 composition entitled quite simply \u201cThe Nativity<\/strong>\u201d. In style realistic and in goal emotive, the artist in this exceptional portrayal of Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus offers hints of inevitable struggle in bringing to birth the Word of God. Capturing the scene immediately after the birth of the Savior, Melchers leaves us with much to contemplate.<\/span><\/p>\n