..the [New Testament] birth stories have become a test case in various controversies. If you believe in miracles, you believe in Jesus’ miraculous birth; if you don’t, you don’t. Both sides turn the question into a shibboleth, not for its own sake but to find out who’s in and who’s out.
The problem is that “miracle,” as used in these controversies, is not a biblical category. The God of the Bible is not a normally absent God who sometimes “intervenes.” This God is always present and active, often surprisingly so.
While I see Wright’s point that it is the death & resurrection that are the cornerstones to salvation, I disagree with what I perceive to be a take it/leave it opinion of the incarnation. Christ’s birth was every bit a part of God’s plan as any of it. Indeed the birth provides elements that are key to the resurrection.
But more so than Wright’s thoughts, it was the comments, particularly the detractors that stuck with me. Yes I find them irritating. In their smarmy attempts to sound intelligent they often show their galling lack of knowledge. But the more they blather, they reveal just how powerful Christ’s message is. If they were correct, that Jesus was just a fiery preacher, better than most perhaps but certainly not divine, then he would have been forgotten long ago – at best a footnote in Jewish history. But in their own bullyish attempts to show that Jesus is not God, they help us all to see His power and to hear His message.
So please, bluster on about His virgin birth, His resurrection and ascension. With each word and sentence you help me see Him more clearly.