Gospels said: “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising god for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told” (Luke 2:10 20).
In this account Luke isn’t trying to show how the story fulfils the Jewish prophecy because he isn’t Jewish. Luke tells the story of Jesus’ birth from more of Mary’s point of view than Joseph’s. He describes the birth as paranormal because Jesus was born from a virgin.
Matthew says in his account that an angel appears to Joseph but in Luke's account he says that an angel appears to Mary. Both of the accounts say that Mary was pregnant and was engaged to Joseph, so she was pregnant before marriage. Another point the same is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that an angel did appear before Jesus. Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth was more complicated and detailed and Luke’s story was very simple, with a simple stable and normal shepherds. He says how Jesus’ birth was a fulfillment of the Jewish prophecy but Luke says the birth was a miracle.
Christians believe Jesus is the ‘Son of God’ so the story of his birth is very important. When Christians celebrate Christmas, the stories are told in churches.
Explain how the life and teachings of Martin Luther King is
A good example of how to put the teachings of Jesus
Into action, particularly the Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is of Jesus’ teachings from the Christian bible, in ch.5-7 of Matthews’s gospel. A lot of it is telling the followers how to lead their lives; this is the most important teaching for Christians. Jesus sat down and taught this to a crowd of a people. It is said that this was the greatest gathering Jesus handled in his through his time. The prime thing he done was to just teach these people lessons, which were aimed for benefiting them. Jesus read his sermon to his followers and other people from different countries and ethnic origin. They all came for various reasons: some were looking to seek help and others wanted to listen to him. The sermon isn’t something you are forced to be doing but it’s just how you should be acting normally. If they wanted to reach the kingdom of heaven you had to behave like this.
The Sermons were separated into five sections the beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, the new laws, attitudes towards money and a series of warnings. They are the main teachings of Jesus that is why they are the most important teachings. Martin Luther King was Christian and these teachings of Jesus are what encouraged him.
Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in the USA. He was the son of Martin Luther King, the civil rights leader. As he was getting older he found out about the racism against black people, he wasn’t allowed to do anything with the other white kids. This got him to grow up to be an American Baptist Minister and wanted to change the way black people were treated in America. He didn’t believe that white and black people should be separated and have different facilities.
In 1955 Martin Luther King became president of the Montgomery Improvement
Association.
Martin Luther King was a great public speaker and is well-known for his famous
Speech: “I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation
Where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their Character.” The people said he was too passive and they wanted him to use violence to get what they want, but Martin believed he could succeed from what he was doing now. He arranged many protests and all of which didn’t involve violence. Soon his dream was ended after he was assassinated on April 4th 1968. Martin carried out his teachings the same way Jesus did.
Jesus taught his followers many things on the Sermon on the Mount. He taught them about the beatitudes. He taught them to love their enemies instead of hating them because it is easier to love your friends who you love anyway but it is even more difficult to love those who you completely hate, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies.’ But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your father in heaven”(Luke 6.27-28, 32-36).
Jesus taught them about revenge, “You have hear that it was said ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ but I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you” (Luke 6.29-30). If someone hurts you, you wouldn’t want them to feel the same pain you did because you would be just like them.
Jesus’ teaching about anger just taught Christians not to hold grudges and to stop the anger you have on someone. Jesus taught about not judging. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you used, it will be measured to you”. He said that you shouldn’t judge others before looking at yourself and looking at your bad qualities.
These are the basic teachings Jesus believed Christians should follow in normal life.
Martin Luther King proved he followed Jesus’ teachings. He still worked with the white people in happiness so he loved his enemies. Also Martin Luther King was able to work productively with white people without holding any anger. He also followed Jesus’ teachings on revenge because even though the whites hurt his race a lot he didn’t do the same thing back to them. Martin Luther King followed another important rule, whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. He treated the whites respectively because he didn’t want to really hurt them, as that would be stooping to their level. He knew how much it hurts so he didn’t want to treat them like he was treated. Even though other black people were thinking of ways to hurt them with violence, Martin used his own passive way and proved it to be more effective. He said all different coloured people have been made by the same god and are equal. Christianity isn’t just a white persons religion.
Martin Luther King used the teachings of Jesus and used them to make a better world for black people. To blacks these days he is an example of a person that used the teachings from the sermon and used peace to help his people. Martin Luther king followed the teachings of Jesus and he succeeded in life so if more Christians follow these teachings they could become successful also.
Evaluate how far Christmas has become
A commercial event rather than a religious festival
We celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December; this was the day of birth of Jesus to Christians. Jesus’ birthday wasn’t actually on this date, the exact date of his birth is completely unidentified, but we think that he was born sometime in March because that was the lambing season, which is when the shepherds would have to watch their flock at night, in spring. The 25th December was a date that was picked by the Catholic Church to satisfy the pagans who they were trying to convert but were not eager to give up their traditional holidays and festivals.
Saturnalia was a popular Roman pagan festival of celebration, which was from the 17th to the 24th of December, then gifts were exchanged on the 23rd and 24th and the 25th December they would celebrate "The Birth of The Unconquerable Sun."
New significance was known to the celebrations, which linked them to the birth of Jesus so people started to recognize who Jesus was.
It was decided that this would be a day for celebrating the birth of Jesus instead. So this is why we use the old pagan traditions like decorating the house and trees.
Christmas time was when the messiah was born and is so important to Christians, but these days the real meaning is lost. Modern day children think of Santa clause when they hear Christmas and they don’t know about Jesus. Santa, reindeers and trees don’t have anything to do with the real meaning of Christmas. These things were introduced from drawings from artists. Christmas trees have fairies on top instead of the star, which led the wise men. On the other hand the mistletoe and berries were to do with Christmas. In pagan times mistletoe was thought to have amazing healing powers, which led to the kissing under the mistletoe. The holly berries symbolize the torment of Jesus on the cross. Giving presents and cards are well known at Christmas, people look forward to getting presents, giving presents is to remember the wise men giving presents to Jesus. Christians should be remembering that Jesus is the greatest present they have.
Christmas has become the time for getting things, like presents instead of celebrating Jesus’ birth. As people are rushing to get presents, the workers get more money than any other time. Industries see Christmas as a time of gaining income, because all the gifts, cards, decorations and everything else associated with Christmas that is sold at this time of the year. Christmas has become a time of food, alcohol and time off work. Looking around you will find advertisements for Christmas deals, and nothing to do with Jesus. Everyone of all religion celebrate it only because of these reasons, if it were more religious it wouldn’t be like this. Everyone does not celebrate festivals like Diwali and Eid because they are more religious and not commercialised. Other religions celebrate Christmas because they think it’s a time for getting presents. Christians shouldn’t see it like that they should see it as a remembrance of Christ. The advertising and influence from television has attracted other religions and lead Christians to forget about the true meaning. People think about what presents they are going to get too much but they really don’t realise no gift on earth can ever be as excellent as the gift he gave to Christmas which is eternal life. Christians should all really remember Jesus Christ on Christmas. Mostly it is the younger generations that forget the meaning of Christmas and use it as a time to get presents and indulge instead of thinking of Jesus.
It isn’t all Christians, which have forgotten the true meaning. Some like to go to the church on Christmas Eve and enjoy the Midnight Mass, candles are lit, sweet incense are lit, carols are sung and everyone remember Jesus’ birth. At some churches white robes are worn and some bright colours are worn.
Why is Christmas really celebrated? Presents, food, holidays or even time off work. No, but simply for the remembrance of the birth of Jesus.
