- Royal Birth in a Vassal Nation under the Roman Jack boot
- During a census decreed to unjustly tax all
- To a girl living in abject poverty
- Betrothed to a poor but just man – rare masculine who would treat her with honour – during delicate sensitivities
- Living in the worst city Nazareth, condemned even by rest of Galilee which was looked upon as the backwoods of Israel
- Enduring a long hazardous journey to obey Roman dictate in time to be registered
- Finding no room in Bethlehem Inn, made by Davidic ancestor Chinham, built on royal patrimony land from David to Barzillai BC 990
- Born at a time lambs were frequently born to be wrapped & kept in mangers – best were sold for temple sacrifice, without spot or wrinkle. Exorbitant prices. He would be Lamb of God – free of mammon. Rectifying errors of priestcraft, money for souls, sacerdotalism.
- Lowly vilified shepherds honoured with God’s glorious annunciation. Angels came, Not to priests but to the hard working shepherds.
- Shepherds instantly honoured the message & visited the King with their “poor” presence – establishing that worship & witness are not second to work. They became first evangelists. The poor, uneducated, low born, working people became ministers of the Gospel. What a revolution!! Here it was that dignity of work & labour was asserted. Not the King nor the priests who served king, who received the greatest news ever broafcast – it was lowly working shepherds – labour class, blue collar workers. Richly garb in priestly office is a contradiction.
- Their message of excelsius deo, cheered Mary’s & Joseph’s heart, if they wondered how can royalty & deity look so terrible
- Sacrifice & being poor for others to be rich, at Jesus’ Birth, became cornerstone for all Christian Mission. Why Cambridge mathematician Dr Henry Highfield would come to Sri Lanka & ride a bicycle on the roads to collect funds to build Wesley College or Evelyn Carney go to Thalawa to heal wounds of Yaws or Colonel Arnolis Weerasooriya die so young ministering to Cholera patients.
- Science establishment of the day, the wisemen came to worship the King.
- Jesus’ birth transferred riches of the rich – gold, myrrh, frankincense, to the needy. This is Christianity’s socialism before Marx mixed blood into social injustice.
- Priests dismissed the news & Herod planned assassination. This cross (sword) would pierce Mary’s heart again & again