Virgin Born, Paternity Suit

Who really was Jesus’ father ?

Rocking Christmas?

Yes, if in terms of jingle bells and the clicks of spoons and forks on the plates! Or speak of the colourful light works dazzling on to bring the galaxy down to earth and that you don’t have to chose between the melodious drumming strikes of paran-pan-pan or the clicks of turkey drumsticks. Forgive me if you are a veg, while we do our best to rock Christmas hard, nobody really wants their Christmas rocked.

Got the Balls to Rock Christmas?

For everything under the heaven, there is time and this particularly is a time of peace, not hitting the rock. In fact, Jesus’ birth berthed the reign of a peace so doubtless that anyone who shared the same breath in his time touched the word finally made flesh. Christmases since its 1038 coinage, thanks to the unknown very-day baby Jesus cried his first in BC 4 to quench christo-pagan arguments, poses to celebrate the approximate birth of the prince of peace Isaiah prophesied, not to take away a piece of our peace.

A peaceful Betrothal

It’s no wonder at all Jesus was just too peacefully disappointing to the Jews to be messianic in the way and manner a craved saviour would have dealt with Roman Empire besieging and taxing Isreal to death. And when He would be leaving about 33 years later, He would still say, ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you,’ but mark the clause that followed, ‘NOT as the world gives …’ A bit of hmm there! So, the kind of peace Jesus bequeathed isn’t the world type as we come to know it. If you follow John 14:27 through, it’s indeed one that reassures, “Let not your heart be troubled,” perhaps it could be troubling, and “neither let it be afraid...”

Zoom back to his first days in shawl, how peaceful really was it!

Was it the part of telling an engaged or betrothed virgin she would get pregnant without having sex? Take a look at the drama in reality of the original nativity unfolding. Tell how peaceful it might have sounded from the first minute between Mary and the mighty Gabriel the Angel:

What manner of greeting is this?

“But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.” That surely didn’t sound like the compliment of the season to the teenager wondering at the manner of such greeting in Luke 1:29. “Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.”

Any wise virgin would jump at that if it would come out of consummation, but it wasn’t going to be. Personal righteousness of chastisty was bruised. At first, it didn’t sound like the first Christmas was going to be merry for Mary. Neither would she seem any exciting or the like of reward of inner peace any gentleman gets for choosing the right lady anymore. Oh no! For Joseph, not after keeping himself justly with a reputation that his fiancee was a chaste.

Which part was humanly peaceful? The part where she had to explain it wasn’t fibroid and he had to stay away for a while, do some bits of thinking through to strategise a peaceful break up or legal split as betrothal was legal. What wouldn’t have course his mind, that her parents might be hiding her deflower cloth which was evidence of virginity or that she was raped or altogether not telling the truth, but the last word of this wouldn’t be coming from her mouth that she saw an angel. There was no way he would check her out to confirm she was a virgin, that is being complicit, ‘unbrotherly’. A release might make her retrace her step to the true baby’s father. A sad goodbye Mary, with a very disturbing peace. Think for Bro Jo if you will, until a dream set him up with an Angel of the Lord while sleeping over it . Sum it up in my paraphrase, “yes we knew you aren’t responsible, but from now on, you have to wake up to the reality and act responsible”.

This now began the true nativity in camera and not on stage. Act two, scene one: Bro Jo, act like a father!

That’s not peace as any human knew it. Accepting the role cast was a dent in his brotherly character, not doing so would attracts the battles of in-laws and her outlawed. But who marries a sentiment in a monogamy? You would think it will just stop there at becoming premature parents. But merry no, instead they likely got a merry-go-round to finding a maternity suite after about 100 miles on a dinky at 9 months to Jerusalem ! What peace was there in getting “No’s” in a busy city in one of its religio-political peaks in years. Certainly holy but how silent was the night! We shouldn’t even be talking about how peaceful the cry in Rama was for the infants and toddlers who met the early bloody sharp swords of Herod or their bereaved families as a result of the royal anger at Jesus birth much later. The words of the man who lived not to die until he saw Jesus born was, “this child is born for the rise and fall of many…” — Simeon dedicating Jesus at eight day in Luke 2:34 . But let’s quote Jesus verbatim, “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on ,five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

I think we had just better left this piece be for now for BIRTHING JESUS coming in the future BICQ 32 to detail.

We didn’t mean to rock your Christmas, perhaps the peace Jesus left behind, which wasn’t the world type was the same kind of peace He brought at birth.

A very rare kind of peace that would make the angel to quickly add a fear-not to Mary, just as Jesus would do to His disciple in John 14:27. Mary, initially alone feeling such had the right to fear. But more than that, perhaps God had seen she was likely to be troubled by what was going to come, so cushioned her. When the news of joy sounds troubling or scary, something truly was about to happen! Being found pregnant without knowing man, than perhaps his name and his pious character. Sure there was recorded thoughts of termination of marriage by conception of pregnancy. Surely rocked, at the prime of her life. This wedding was all she had waited for, as every unforced spinster will. Imagine the shame of looking defiled with bed undefiled. Pardon being a case unheard off, perhaps because this was what the strange ears of Isaiah and every torah believer have heard that a virgin shall conceive. But who pardons becoming a spectacle of what eyes haven’t seen. She was indeed a woman of faith to say be it unto me according to your words, even had a song, surely was peaceful to bear the prince of peace. For if this wasn’t the kind of peace which surpasses all human understanding, please tell how His biological mother and foster father stemmed the unconsummated however perceived short gun wedding hijacked by the Holy Spirit!

I’m so done, just no public shaming

Now, let’s spill it. Their wedding was rocked, hard rocked, just that it didn’t hit the rock because it was founded on the rock. This is what this edition is all about. Putting the first Christmas on trial.

Son of a Carpenter?

Mary was a holy host and surely not the Holy Ghost, her son was flesh directly from the word made into the body prepared for Him , not a fold of scroll ticked as fulfilled promise with a Nike’s mark on a prophetic checklist. And if the carpentry nails of Joseph or any sharps in Joseph’s workshop were to pierce Jesus’ skin because he chose the nails, and definitely at the cross, red blood and not golden type would drip. The questions remained whose blood group would that be, Mary’s?

That precious blood of Jesus what was shed on the cross, the emblem of which He said we must drink of alongside the bread body in remembrance of Him, whose was it? The same blood He as the high priest took up to the throne as the blood of the lamb at resurrection, whose was it? These aren’t conjectures because scientifically, a child blood type is determined both by the egg and the sperm sources. The same way it wouldn’t have been paternal only, Jesus didn’t come about from Mary alone, more so, he Had a male gene. A father was involved, who?

This question would need to be answered if anyone other than Elizabeth met Mary with her baby bump balling out or found out the Holy Ghost secret. Perhaps there was no chance for Mary to answer that question as it wouldn't have been asked, precluded by Joseph already taking the responsibility.

I will father Him

So, did he safe Christmas some blushes?

For if Joseph hadn’t woken up to take up his role play in the nativity for real, Jesus was going to grow up under the whisper of being born outside wedlock as some already thought the Pharisees alleged in Jh 8:41. When it comes to tracing one to their fathers, He had accused them of being born of liar father the devil, and read their response: “we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God”. Whereas, some felt this referred to rumours in the village that He was conceived before the proper marriage, yet it appeared more that they were simply defensive by tracing themselves to legitimate sexual lineage of Abraham.

Nonetheless, it makes sense that Jesus grew up quietly under the assumption that He was Capenter’s son, for God in His wisdom had not want His son revealed, keeping the devil second guessing whose his father was. Because if Joseph hadn’t played his role excellently in this nativity to the extent that some unbelieving neighbourhood practically saw nothing special about Jesus — as there still are today globally, they wouldn’t have been offended at His miracles, not even from Nazareth where nothing good could come out of.

You go ahead to spot the difference between Jesus doing great and might work in verse 2 and not being able to do same in verse 5 of Mark 6 from who people said He was in verse 3-4:

“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”

Sometimes, I have wonder if there was ready a need for this edition. Scripturally, just affirming that Jesus came in flesh was the acid test to all spirits, irrespective of denomination. While someone who believes the immaculate conception might swipe from this edition to the next, those uncertain of His conception might linger a little longer for one more line, then another. Yet, this might be a hard read to anyone who bought the story that Joseph pretended to play along Mary– that he was Jesus’ father.

You mean there are those who believe He actually impregnated Mary after the betrothal? Yes. And that was actually the selling story that might have saved the heydays. Maybe as a boomerang, also kept some from being saved for their overfamiliarity with Jesus, they think they know Jesus from Adam. Not even when her labouring pangs and delivery tourism to the manger birth which looked under-ordinary than most of us, so humbling would make anyone think of him as having a divine father. But born to the peasants, among animals, and was called the son of the Capenter with nothing to be proud of unless traced to fallen Adam.

But who was Jesus’ father? What was Jesus’ surname? Son of God, Son of Joseph, Heli as historians traced it — the tag-along father, Son of Mary — a single mother or a she-dad?

It’s me, not you!

This edition looked into the miracle of Jesus’ fatherhood, which would perhaps won’t be easy on eyes if Joseph had called off the engagement, be it for his personal ego of sanctity or sanity. Even then, his private put-away still has a chance of becoming a public trial. In-laws and friends of the groom and most especially her bridal train would wonder why the wedding was called off. Canaan of Galilee was communal, wedding holds there even if intending peasant couples couldn’t afford wine for all. Even if Bro Jo kept an hush tag, the hashtag of sudden breakup or mini-divorce if you argue, would hit the local headlines soon enough when the pregnancy becomes heavier and not concealable. If Bro Jo took himself out of the picture, left Jesus fatherless or orphan on the stage of Judaea spotlight, and sit back, decide to watch the nativity unfold from the audience , what would have been Mary’s alibi? Think of it.

Although enslaved by the Romans, what sort of example to Jewish spinsters would the Jewish law maker who still have the right to punish locales with stoning until AD 28 want to make of an unconsummated preggie with a baby bump balling out, and no hand in the air to claim for her. Especially when she get found out, side by side with Elisabeth’s, both under the baby-trying roof of a suddenly deaf Zechariah! No it would not have made it easy for the defendant or any plausible explanation from the childless old man. Not only would Zech’s priestly incense fan into a rumour mill. Remember the precedence case of Abraham and Hagar in the Torah is quite citable. Sadly he would need his tongue to pray Gabriel back, to loose it just for a moment before the tongue tie becomes a tongue choke. And so goes the brewing storm to terminate both the forerunner and the messiah before they took their first breath. It would have been cinematic, unthinkable!

Mary would be put through a paternity test, as Joseph quiet exit wouldn’t be quite enough to save her from public shame. Unless another Joseph lurking in wait for their betrothal to break came along, it was a matter of time before her hideout is swept open. Give her 6 months into the pregnancy, when both John the Baptist and his father would have found their voices finally, at his naming ceremony, the prophet , put in a difficult position would have denied knowing much about Mary’s but Elizabeth’s.

That there are those who innocently believe that Jesus name being Jesus, son of the Capenter or whatever the surname given by his father Joseph from christening was , attested to being the son of man would have killed any paternity trial even before it began. Evidence abound that He even answered the blind Bathemeus - Son of David, and to them it meant that His virgin conception was null and void. Hence, Not my king, and obviously not my prophesied messiah till date. Do you see the implication of just humanising Jesus! This are people that call him one of the prophets. And this is where one must not miss the memo where Bro Jo had initially said no to Sister Mary. If he wasn’t a pregnancy denialist, in this case rightly so, why would he do the it -wasn’t-me of a thing at first? If it’s the same Bible we read, it only makes sense he wasn’t Jesus biological father. If anyone was still in doubt to accommodates a foster male parent. Then, this is one such edition for you.

Remember, this case would still have gone to trial to prove the divinity of Jesus’ sonship and veracity of His blood, even if Bro Jo was found out by the midwife or anyone else for her intact hymen, either at antenatal clinic or at delivery. Perhaps the glorious chaos to avoid all professional midwives, was divine, as we are not told anyone attended to her in the manger but Joseph.

DISCLAIMER!!! WE ALL KNOW JESUS WAS BORN IN THE MANGER AND NOT A INN

BUT Let’s say,

Bro Jo had found A Inn in the City of Jerusalem

THIS is where the plot gets twisted.

The Inns were the guest rooms cum mini-labour rooms, not really an hospitals as they were. But must have been that clean to welcome a baby guest to the earth. A smart and kind midwife in the inn would allow the baby boy born before bring up the case to the public. Why public? Why not among strange guests alike. She is seeing an intact hymen round a crowned or engaged baby — she would have to , as delivering a pregnant virgin. That was atypical, not taught in the school of midwifery, even if she let it pass, someone in the delivery suite would not cut her slack a few weeks later when they lol at delivery book.

Bro Jo’s part was done, although not dusted.

His trust in her virginity is now even further proven at Jesus’ birth but this midwife wouldn’t let it slide. She doesn’t need Angel alive or in the dream. Far away from being accusatory, she is seeing a miracle and couldn’t just keep quiet. Except Gabriel the Angel appear now or render her dumb for seeing before believing. Sadly, not everyone believes in miracles. This is where the paternity trial begins. It has spiralled out of the good intentions of the midwife.

Think of it, Bro Jo isn’t sure again if he’d saved the would-be saviour of the world the shamed of being born out of wedlock. His hairs ruffled and on end. He is no longer sure if he has saved the virgin Mary of being called an harlot despite bearing the personal pain of a shotgun marriage in a very twisted nativity, all to make it look easy on eyes? No to please a one man audience - God!

Called to question by the inn manger the morning after, he would still have to say he wasn’t the biological father or do you think he would tell a lie that he is the biological father? Outside the inn, there would be those who disbelieve him anyway, not only because they believed his make-believe father role all along, some just believe that Jesus was nothing divine, perhaps Bro Jo impregnated Mary from foreplay without penetration.

Mr Jo! Yeshua was going to be called son of the capenter, but the Capenter is now at a cross road, doesn't know where to nail it. He was found guilty faking a father. A case is laid at him for not going through the legal process of adopting the pregnancy in the first place, if he wasn’t indeed the father. Poor Mr. Jo is largely not the father. Mary’s parents who got news of their grandson arrival were asked by midwife to bring her bloodied cloth evidence when deflowered but you are sure they don’t have it from look on Mary’s face. They just couldn’t. Which is why Mr Jo was better of let out from the witness box, for now. But he want to be in there for love.

Mothers Always know

Tell us, who father is

Now let’s bring Mary out to the porch of the inn, for the case before the Magistrate who had been working all day on civil charges bothering on census. The midwife insisted she stays in her caravan with which she wheels mothers found in labour pangs on the street into her inn. While everyone else with Bro Jo roll her by.

The matter at hand: the blood running through this baby’s vein wasn’t Joseph potentially. In a patriarchal culture, that tends to look down on women until the daughters of Zelophahad made Moses amend the inheritance law, it mattered whose fathers name you answered. Not just an identity for the ongoing census where Mary and the baby raring to come out of her womb to be counted was.

“ Mary!” The Inn manager charged, “You need to clarify if His father’s name on census register now need to be amended, as well as the one we need to put on his birth certificate, although we knew you go by your dads or hubby’s”.

Not looking to change a thing, other than looking at Bro Jo, who seems to be searching the eye of the cloud for the Angel that implicated Him to fall through the glittering sky. Then the midwife quickly came to whisper in her ears to speak up now or never, lest the case gets to Judge Judy or the mighty Sanhedrin’s.

Instead, she remained muted. If anything, enraptured, humming her newly composed song in Luke 1: 46-55 melodiously. Perhaps a bit distracted by the unspeakable joy that fills her heart as she perceived Angels have began to rejoice. She would only smile now and again, like one who has got joy in chaos, having a peace that made no sense. She wouldn’t speak to anyone but her baby and Joseph.

Anguish! The midwife thought it this must be baby’s blues at first. She began pleading for an adjournment. She knew, in case anyone push hard against it after 7 days, Jesus was still covered legally by Joseph mere fact that Joseph had adopted him. But he would still need to be proven as His son or otherwise should Joseph be found out. But not at the moment, another preggie has just arrived to be attended to.

Speak now or never!

Well covered for the cold in the midwife caravan, Mary lost no time rocking the baby in her hand to a rhythm in her aura. Then asked the midwife she would need to breastfeed him soon. She nodded back in affirmative, “wait a bit,” as she felt spellbound by the most peaceful bond growing between new mother and a baby she’s ever been.

“Look!” A Rabbi from Mary’s lineage jabbed in, “I speak of Mary only, Her ancestral pool could be traced back to David immediately and no doubt .

“And her baby is a legal offspring of David.” Another added. “Why must we waste the noon on such a trivia as this, when matters arising on tax for Caesar wait!”

Musing began as the magistrate looked keenly at the scroll from the Inn manager again. He lifted his face and still met no words from her lips. Then angrily passed the case on with a seal stamped on a scroll to the Sanhedrin potter whose porch was conveniently a few stroll away, asking the couple to vacate his concourse immediately.

“This woman is in her unclean period,” the midwife protested , and pulled her away from the accusing grip of the Inn manger, “there will be no trial until her seven days is passed!”

Startled, “hmm!” The scribe intern with the stamped scroll responded her loudly, “Yes, seven dayish —reasonable because she gave birth to a son. However, because of your claim to her virgin birth, the magistrate already passed the case onward,” “He said the lower Sanhedrin would be interested for some reasons I can not tell you now. So, no more time would be bidded. You keep the mother and baby away for her bleed, we have her husband. He must continue the case in their stead. Afterall, she wouldn’t speak to us. They have no court in Galilee, this must be settled here in Judea, once and for all.”

“Hold on, lad,” A Galilean solicitor close to Joseph Heli family limped in anger after the intern already galloping away through an alley to the Sanhedrin Court, just at the turn across the high street Inn. While people began to weigh in their numbers , Bro Jo, drained and drenched with sweat could only dragged along with each steps closest the Sanhedrin’s porch the heaviest he’s ever had to take.

Set precariously high amidst a stack of 22 bronze chairs arching sideways, with his headgear towering towards the dome of the temple in the far background , the white woolly bearded eye sunken Sanhedrin Lead was met adjusting his woollen tunics. He wasn’t estranged to crowds flocking around him but his initial frown at the intern for barging into his break time soon melted away. He was taking a break from state matters involving Herod and Guerrillas ambushing the Roman soldiers. His dimmed eye lit up suddenly at seeing the content of sealed scroll snapped open before him. He quickly called on the scribes filed out behind him to adjourn the kings matter to the following day, to focus on this.

“My Lord,” a pro bono lawyer for Jerusalem city opened the floor, “the case is brought forward from the magistracy on the heels of time. A virgin at delivery found by the most reputable midwife in the High Street Inn, and a playdad who had fooled the entire Nazareth community he was the biological father!”

“Can anything good come from Nazareth!” One jeered and was flogged with a dozen lashes immediately by the city guard — just from the look of the Lead Sanhedrin.

“Before this rabbinic court,” he continued while the Galilean solicitor huffed and puffed. “ It remains to be determined who the father of this baby is, failing which she was either raped or truly a pregnant virgin, and erm …” he coughed, “you know the implications of this to Jerusalem and precedence.

“By the Matrilineal law of Torah, this newborn baby boy of Mary whose first morning sleep you hoped to disrupt is Jewish.” He faced the appellant, the Inn manger with the crowd behind him, then turned to the prosecutor close by, holding up a copy page of the Mishnah in the air, to the applause of some foreign crowd.

“I object, my Lord,” the city counsel interrupted, “ this isn’t a case of Mary’s origin, but the origin of Mary’s baby. For want of a proper lawyer, perhaps if my Galilean friend need to be taught the difference between a mother and a newborn.”

A bout of laughter rent the air until the Sanhedrin Lead uttered his first words.

“Objection overruled.”

“Thank you my Lord,” he read on from a just updated scroll brought out of his sling to the Sanhedrin who don’t have the latest , “ I was going somewhere if only he who has ears will hear, ‘The book of the genealogy of Jesus…,” he cleared his throat as he was wise to skip “Christ” for the moment , “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac,” he continued despite the mounting exchange of frowns threatening to break what people perceived would be a long and boring read, “Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and —“

“ Do you think this is a joke?” The Inn manager interrupted him. “Or that we are in a fools theatre like what this play-dad took your entire village for 9 months?”

Then he switched to another scroll, “Now the birth of Jesus… was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.!”

The Sandherin Lead stopped him there with a jut of finger in the air.

Case At Hand: Mary Found pregnant , whom for?

With Mr. Jo apparently ditched to the grin of some other virgins whose gestures he had turned down. He answered the first question for Mary, in the open, Whom for?

Are you the Holy Ghost?

“Are you the Holy Spirit that impregnated Mary as alleged,” the Sanhedrin lead turned to Mr Jo, “because if that was true, it would make it easy for you both?”

“No!” He mumbled but surely, “ She said it and I believe that it was the Holy Spirit that overshadowed her!”

“What Spirit?” The crowd jeered, especially the Sadducees. “And you believe that?”

“You fool, half a man!” The trail of foul words were endless.

“Her mother knows who,” someone in the crowd pointed at Mary’s mother just coming form the baby’s cot, after just arriving for census and the arrival of their grandson,

“So does Mary herself this child’s father!” another added.

But with absence of the deflower cloth in her hands or the father accompanying, it soon became obvious to the Galilean solicitor and Mr Jo that it would not be any easy to make annunciation a paternity proof of Jesus’ patriarchal core. Yet, that was actually the evidence. Alternately, bringing up the book of Isaiah and turning to chapter 7 verse 14 as an alibi would be a though call. Not even the rabbinical courts would buy that from them, Mary or anyone, as the jeers and vulgar rhetorics raged on Bro Jo for letting a Spirt impregnate his wife while he looked on.

Who else hears the scorn and laughters drowning them out until followed until a Chief Priest with a huge Torah marched forward to raised his voice above all after signalling to the Sanhedrin lead. “If this wasn’t a joke as it appeared let me read what needs doing in earnest!”

He looked in the direction of the grandparents haven been hinted of their presence, “Can the father and mother of the young woman bring out the evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city right now!”

They stepped forward into the witness box but with nothing in their hands, or words in their mouth but joy in their hearts - drawing of the rage of the assembly.

“What we are saying Sir,” the solicitor quickly bridged in, “there isn’t any evidence of such even if we wait for them , than that from the midwife! I repeat, Mr Jo hasn’t carnally known her.”

“Then who did”, the High priest blurted out and fuming, flipping back and forth between some pages of the Torah in his hand, not knowing which verse of Deuteronomy 22 to apply. “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.”

“She might have been raped!” The public pro bono lawyer added, and helped the Cheif priest focus on a verse.

“ If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,” he reads from verse 24, “then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbours wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.”

“Which of you forced himself on this lady?” The chief priest hectored, “ or who has the information staring down at the Galileans flocking around Mr Jo, “there shall be rewards of 30 shekels if such is found now or within the next 7 days!”

“We are not waiting for 7 days! Give the baby to another nursing mother, we can’t wait!” A side of the people started chorusing until a Roman soldier passing by wondered what was going on.

The hardline Jews retorted against the sniffing Roman who saw no woman but Joseph, “she is a Jew, and it’s our jurisdiction.”

The punishment was clear and the Roman solider could hear it on the lips of the swelling majority: “Torah! Stone her to death,” “shameful death to the harlot!” The. Some Galileans who felt betrayed joined in, “even Rehab the Harlot would have fared better as a wise harlot than this foolish virgin.” Swiftly, the chief priest swooped on him and whispered into his ear that it was a local matter and dismissed him.

Run run Mary Run!

Now waiting only for the Sanhedrin lead to give assent, with looks splits between his face and High Street Inn, stones are now being picked, different sizes fitting for different palm sizes. Fists clutch on tightl, with a growing call to bring her out again, this time for a spoil. Run Mary run, now not even to Jo. He could bearly see for tears. If running to anyone, you would have to be led by the same spirit that overshadowed you. Perhaps only to Zechariah the priest who also can vouch he had met the angel, unfortunately he has just regained his voice for unbelief. He is not allowed to join any public hearing for not being able to defend his own wife pregnancy without scribbling.

Run Mary run, not to any other but another who else has a living evidence of this strange possibility – an Elizabeth, though not a virgin, but can testify if the stones comes calling, but wouldn’t be plausible unless her baby can leap again to speak ahead of infant milestones and Jordan that this is the lamb — the son of God who takes away the sins of the world. Run Mary run, whom to?

“Bring her out quickly and let the stones do the verdict my lord, or dismiss this petty case now,” one of the Rabbi on whom right hand the Sanhedrin leans suggested aloud, “it’s not worth our time and wouldn’t even have been considered if not for the claim that she might have,” he then whispered “born the Messiah of we Jews.”

“ But, but just before the stoning…” the solicitor inched closer to the high priest, “ Do you mind if I read directly from your own holy Torah Sir, he lined up his reading bar out on verse 25 and red out loudly:

“ But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbour and kills him, even so is this matter!”

“This doesn’t apply here!” The city counsels was quick to point out.

“Even so is this matter!” The solicitor insisted, “ I have said it many times that she knew no man, the couple has said it, the midwife confirmed same, even the womans parent, since you instisted there was a man. Now bring him out,” he pressed his face into the searching face of the Galilean registrants and repeated, “Even so is this matter!”

“Of course, no man wants to own up and die,” the city prosecutor softened up while the Chief priest spat on the group and retreated.

“But I know the man!” The Galilean solicitor shocked everyone in a spiralling moment that took the breath out of Mary’s mother, and left her dad fanning her back to life, while Joseph’s heart skipped multiple beats.

“Say it now or never!” The Sanhedrin lead beckoned as the city for the first time plugged into a silent noon.

“The man is the Holy Ghost!” He quipped as the whole High street went agog. “And I have said it for the umpteenth time. it’s the Holy Ghost we have to stone.”

“Rubbish!” The prosecutor blurted and called for some quietness while He faced Mr Jo, “Perhaps the next question My Lords is , “what makes you think that your wife was the Virgin Isaiah wrote about!”

“She is!” Mr Jo couldn’t be louder than he had been ever so. “Yes, she is!”

“How so?” The Inn manger objected, “Will my Lord believe a couple that has fooled us all along from betrothal till delivery, this man especially?”

At this point, Mr Jo was let out of the witness box as the Sanhedrin lead discharged him, with a warning not to hear a word from him again.

Then a Greek who worships the unknown gods belted out, “So, will you judge this poor damsel only by the witness of a midwife and a play-dad who doesn’t know where to stand again saying I was the father but not now not really the father?’ We have said you Jews know nothing but seeking signs. Now she said she is the signs but you don’t believe.”

“She is the sign!” A few Jews heckled repeatedly . A splinter group began to tremble and started singing towards the High street Inn, “ Holy Mary! You are blessed among all women, blessed is your womb,” while others restrained them. By now, stones had began to drop from weakened grips to the dismay of the Sanhedrins.

“You know nothing about knowledge,” the Greek took the centre stage, “Can someone take me to the baby boy and let’s look at the fine ridges on the roof of his mouth and compare it to the play-dad , whom you let out of the box too early?”

“What do you mean ?” The Chief priest jibbed, “ you know nothing about when we focused on the mother or the father as the proof of Jewish legitimacy. She isn’t bringing the baby up as a priest for Yaweh’s sake. Otherwise, a probe of patrilineal significance would have been weighed into here deeper.

“What science do you Jews know?”

“He is not the father, period !” Stumping her feet, the midwife made her way back into the foray , having just taken delivery of another woman in labour.

“ We won’t be belittled by you alien who doesn’t even know when the basic numbers 1:8 is used as patrilineal.” The Chief Priest added.

“No one has even asked me why I brought her up,” the midwife told a swipe at the Inn manger who escalated her labour finding. “It was not because I thought she was raped. It is because I have seen nothing of this before, a virgin at delivery, it’s impossible!”

“For the Lord Himself shall give you a sign!” The Galilean solicitor restated, and read on top of his voice “a virgin shall conceive,” don’t you all belief in the Torah any more?”

Then there was a rabbinical humming amplified by the audience silence.

Simply test Jo and son

“Not that I doubt he’s not the father,” the Greek philosopher found his voice again, “ it’s just that it needs proving. In a case as this, while we can’t match the baby blood with the Holy Ghost whose sample we can’t get now, we can at least get this play-dad samples and truly rule him out as not responsible, instead of the crude sack cloth that could be anywhere!”

“He is ruled out already,” the Sanhedrin lead ask him to be pulled him out of the ring. “ We don’t joke here with our midwives. There’s no need for paternity test stronger than this”

“But at the same time there is no such thing as Spirit anywhere!” a Sadducee who hasn’t spoken since argued to the pleasure of the greek.

“No, let me call you the Galeinic physicians, summon the Greek hero’s of Alexandria” the Greek kept on screaming as he was bundled out, “ or if possible Hellenic natural followers of Aristotle and the Peripatetic school,” he wouldn’t leave easily without a last words. “ Didn’t they all existed before this baby? I insist, his blood needs testing. Please bring back Joseph to the box, or his hair, swab his tongue for mitochondria and Y-DNA. Goodness me!” He was out and out.

“Mr Jo lives freely, and can proceed to adopt or foster the child legally if he wills.” The lead Sanhedrin declared, “ Mary the mother and the son lives as well. I hereby adjourned this matter till after seven days and will not reopen thereafter until anyone one the pain of death finds the father or the Holy Ghost or true evidence of Mary’s deflowered cloth before now. How that progressed, we would never know.

“Peace Be Still” - Prince of Peace

But immediately, after the judgment, joy erupted in the Galilean camp, some Shepards had started finding there way to the baby boy while the Simone a priest who would name the boy came to congratulate Joseph and beckoned on him to wait till the eight day In Jerusalem temple for naming.

With the lens of the future, Mary sure supplied Jesus X-gene the gender information, for Him to the the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, but who supplied the Y chromosome that made Jesus complete as the son? Because it’s actually the father that determines the gender of a child, based on donating his X or Y chromosome. If we found whose, that’s who blood Jesus carries alongside Mary’s, and that would be His father!

Say “Ah! Ba..

Remember, Mary was going to be defenceless, if not one belived her evidence of virginity and reality of a baby boy. Not even if she summoned Isaiah up from the grave to read his prophesy to make it a bit more believable. Perhaps She would have to summon Abraham along side, to say, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”

To have stayed through such a tricky trial takes power, Mary. That is the Spirit by which Christ was born. One that revitalises mortal bodies. Or what do you think of the power that overshadowed her in the first place? One that I believe brought forth a Y-Chromosome since Jesus was a male child biologically. And don’t say of the blood of the Spirit? Little wonder it’s everlasting! I doubt if Bro Jo wouldn’t stay by her through and through. But to bring such an evil of stoning to such a gentleman like Joseph whose voice we hardly heard from the Bible would be surreal.

We know that the real father of Jesus — the Holy Spirit — wouldn’t have turn away, it wa stop early in the scripts put together and called the Scripture. It wasn’t yet Golgotha, for he was not written that she or would die by stoning. In fact, because you carried and nursed God in flesh Mary , no one could stone you, for He is the chief cornerstone, anyone who hits it would break into pieces and should this stone move to fall on anyone, they sure grind into powder. The Spirit which is God of all flesh would still have rescued her with power!

WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?

WHO IS Daddy?

It is time you read this like never before.

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it.”

— that was Jesus and His disciples as recorded by one of them, Matthew in his 16th chapter.

“And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Perhaps Mary would find her voice in the recall of Dr Luke1:35 in years to come.

It takes the Holy Spirit for Mary to conceive Jesus, to announce Jesus to John , reveal Jesus to Peter, that is His father. He said it. Christ’ birth was all about the invisible spirit becoming flesh that can be held, touched, pierced and finger thrusted by every doubting Thomases.

We must get to the point in this edition where the same spirit that birthed Jesus reveals himself to you as His father. If indeed this same spirit could make the first Adam a living soul, He could doubtlessly make himself a living spirit! If he could make the body, he could make the blood, if this blood was the blood of the Spirit, it’s the reason it’s the only one that can wash away your sins, and still does since it was shed on the cross!

The born and given son, the father and the wonderful counsellor in one verse of Isaiah is what Jesus’ birth is all about, even if you don’t want to call it Christmas, you don’t have to. A lot of people before the coinage of the word Christmas who believed in his birth, death and return are saved eternally.

“A virgin shall conceive and give birth.” Pause! A virgin actually giving birth, think of it . The reality words of Prophesies are now flesh unwrapped in swaddling shawl. Believe it like Mary. If she could carry the word, you can believe and His Spirt becomes real in your life.

Jesus birth brings us from, ‘can read it forms of theories.’ to ‘becoming it’. This spirit has the power to move you from The Volumes of books written about you to becoming read without a paper and ink because you are now becoming living epistle. The spirit that birthed Christ moves you from theoretical letter which can kill into the spirit which gives life , If the spirit of the Lord isn’t upon you, it’s difficult to shift from “thus says the Lord” into “today this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes”.

You can be sure Mary ended fearing no one, because she was given a Spirit not of fear but of power! While Zechariah asked “How shall I know this”, meaning seeking signs of knowledge as though in doubt, Mary asked, “how shall this things be,?” She questioned the being and since was answered, in other words I want it to be but how since I know know man, how shall it be, and once that was answered she moved from how shall it be into “be it unto me according to your words.” She believed she was the one, not just a good woman who would be obtained as a favour from God by her Joseph, but became the Highly favoured one because she was to carry the anointed one proclaiming the year of the lords favour.

John 8:44, Jesus at twelve back at the temple was feared lost in the crowd back from Jerusalem to Galilee. When found, He told His biological mother and foster father, looking for him, “don’t you know I must be about My father’s business?” While I hope Mr Jo wasn’t offended, that he wasn’t found in the carpenter’s shop, but the temple tells you who is father is.

God The Spirit fathered the Son

When He chided the Pharisees, that they belong to their father. He had made it even clearer in vs 23, “I come from above and you come from below”. And wasn’t that why the grave couldn’t hold Him down after death? You would note that right before that death, when He cried to His father, it wasn’t Joseph that answered. It was God the Spirit -bodiless that He committed His Spirit to, Mary was there again crying.

He only needed the body suit prepared for him try Mary to journey His Soul through death into to hell for our sins, to save mankind otherwise locked up forever in hades for judgements. But His Soul could not rot in hell, His Spirit which He had committed back to the father that gave it at conception came back to raise His body up after the third day . He the God in flesh presented the sinless blood of God mixed with man’s to God father - all Spirit dwelling in an otherwise unapproachable light.

The blood He shed was the blood of man mixed with the blood of God Spirit made flesh — without which there is just no remission of sins. Only the blood of God mixed with ours can line you up Into God’s blood line, hence God’s children. We have identify and identify with Jesus’ father— the Spirit to be born of the same Spirit . Believe it now and you are welcomed into this family reality of heaven on earth!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. — Jh 3:16-17

—Topic writer , Olusola Olusanya

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