Chapter Four - Jesus and Mary

CHAPTER FOUR

Jesus and Mary

THE BOOK SAYS Mary was chosen.
Chosen above all women in the world.
Pure.
Devout.
Raised in the temple.
Cared for by Zachariah, a prophet himself.
Every time he visited her, there was food waiting.
Unseen.
Unexplained.

She withdrew from her people.
She went alone to the east.
That’s when the angel came.
He told her she would have a son.
She said, “How can I have a son? No man has touched me.”
He said, “It will be. God creates what He wills. He says ‘Be,’ and it is.”

And so she became pregnant.

She carried the child.
She left her people.
She went far away.
When the pain of labor came, she sat beneath a palm tree and wished she were dead.

Then a voice came from below her.
It told her not to grieve.
To shake the tree.
Fresh dates would fall.
A stream had been made for her.
She should eat, drink, and rest.

She returned to her people, carrying the baby.

They were shocked.
They said, “Mary, what have you done?”
“Your father wasn’t a wicked man. Your mother wasn’t unchaste.”

She said nothing.
She pointed to the baby.

They said, “How can we speak to a child in the cradle?”

And the child, Jesus, spoke.

“I am the servant of God.
He gave me the Scripture.
Made me a prophet.
Blessed me wherever I am.
Told me to pray and give charity.
To be good to my mother.
Peace was on me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I’m raised again.”

That’s how his story begins in the book.

There’s no stable.
No Joseph.
No manger.
But there is a virgin birth.
And there is speech from the cradle.

Jesus is called the Messiah, a Word from God, a Spirit from Him, a prophet, and a servant, but not the Son of God.

The book says God has no children.
That’s not a metaphor.
It repeats it often.

Jesus performed miracles.
He healed the blind and the leper.
He raised the dead.
He breathed life into clay birds.

But he did it by God’s permission.

He was not divine.
He was not crucified.

The book says, “They did not kill him. They did not crucify him. It was made to appear so.”

God raised him.
That’s all it says.

He will return before the end, that’s the way the believers understood the signs.
He will speak the truth.
And on Judgment Day, he will deny ever asking people to worship him.

He will say, “I told them to worship You, my Lord and their Lord. And after You took me, You were the witness over them.”

Mary is praised.
Jesus is honored.
But the line is drawn clearly:

There is only one God.
He does not beget.
He is not begotten.
He has no partners.