Merry Christmas

 

https://stream.org/how-god-used-roads-to-pave-the-way-for-jesus/

"As the Roman Empire grew militarily, so did its need for roads. As a result, Roman roads were widespread and usually well paved. Wherever they conquered, the Romans built long, relatively straight roads to make the movement of military equipment easier. This desire to avoid curves necessitated the advanced engineering of bridges, tunnels, and viaducts to traverse mountains and valleys. Roman roads were well built and often populated by the military, making them much safer to travel than their Greek counterparts. Spanning nearly 250,000 miles, these roads became a symbol of Rome’s power, connecting diverse subcultures within the empire."

Not to get too long, just a short synopsis.  The article states that the Messiah came at the perfect time I concur.  But not just because of the roads.  The values of freedom of movement for a Roman citizen were still acknowledged due to the resulting peace of the beginning of the Empire and end of the civil wars from the last of the Republican battles for supremacy.  The confluence of events allowed an opportunity.  Once under the control of the Roman republic and later Empire, a person could live quite freely, under strict Roman Law of course.  But areas sought acceptance as parts of the republic, citizenship was a treasure that was highly valued and even paid for.   

A citizen and entourage could travel freely, even non-citizens could travel if not criminal element.  Trade flourished.  

This allowed a young man and his wife, to travel with her young child from the modern region of Israel to Egypt to avoid the predations of a power-hungry Judean king, also for the Apostles (Roman citizen Paul and maybe Barnabas, but also the Jewish fishermen) to travel freely not only within Roman borders but into areas outside the Empire.  Still under the protection of Roman Law and influence.  This due to the value of Roman Citizenship and the iron Roman Law created a unique (up until recent times) era of freedom of movement. 

This era ended first with the start of Emperor worship that destroyed the Jewish state structure that existed within the Roman Empire (Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians) with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  In this window the Temple still existed, allowing for the Jewish lineage to be established, which was and is a requirement to establish who the Messiah was and is.  And not very much later, the resumption of civil wars and break down of Roman Law disrupted and eventually stopped free travel and trade.  Eventually this resulted in the dark ages and times of heresy and man-made religious structures and spiritual imprisonment.

A window of opportunity.  The Messiah could be born, safely grow into a man.  Conduct His ministry and later, His disciples could spread the Word throughout the civilized world getting it established.

It is a long discussion whether or not The Son of God was born on a cold winter morning in Bethlehem.  Well; He was born, but what date?  Well, the flocks were in the fields, the Judean king was in his winter palace in Jerusalem. Exactly when?  Not for us to know.

We can pinpoint when the Resurrection happened because it is linked with the Passover, which is a date that can be determined and is established on the Judean calendar.  The exact birthdate and even the exact location of the death of the Messiah however is left in the air.

Probably because the Lord knew that as men, we would begin to worship the site and date, instead of the Saviour.

So when is Christmas day?  The birthday of the Saviour?  Well, my first Pastor years back even before I put my trust and faith in Jesus Christ, when I asked (due to my Roman Catholic youth and education) why we were not meeting on ‘Christmas Day’.  Answered “everyday is Christmas day”.

We should celebrate every day that we are alive, that our Lord recognized our sinful fallen state, and sent a Saviour, who later died on a cross, a poor man, who owned nothing in this world but the cloak on His back.  And yet, The Son of God.  A perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Sent: at the perfect fulness of time.

Praise the Lord.  Merry Christmas.