Happy Birthday, Jesus

Mickey Z asks the following question in Happy Birthday, Jesus:

Here’s the best question of all: If an omnipotent god wanted to spread his message and save his people, why did he send his son to Bethlehem 2000 years ago? Call me crazy, but I’m thinking if he set up Jesus in a Times Square office with a laptop and a wireless connection, well…you get the idea.

Let’s face it, dumping the messiah into a manger in a small town in Palestine some 2000 years ago ain’t exactly the type of decision an omnipotent being would make. I mean, I’m reaching more people on-line in one day than Jesus met in his entire life. Hmmm...that gives me an idea.

This is essentially the same argument put forward in Superstar in the Jesus Christ, Superstar musical:

...
You'd have managed better
If you'd had it planned
Now why'd you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?

If you'd come today
You could have reached the whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication
...

Both of these quotes assume the history of the world and the technological development would have proceeded unchanged even if Jesus was born in the first century CE. Even if these developments would have occurred without the Incarnation happening then, there are theological reasons that the first century CE was the lastest time for the Incarnation:

• The destruction of the Second Temple occurred in 69 CE along with Jerusalem and the dispersal of the Jews from Palestine;
• The development of Jewish Apocalyptic thought was maturing in the first century CE;
• The elevation of the Roman Caesar to a living god; and
• The Roman occupation of Palestine.

The important point is that Jesus was born a Jew, taught as a Rabbi, and died a Jew. Up until 69 CE, the largest concentration of Jews was in Palestine. The Second Temple was there in Jerusalem. Along with the Temple, there was the theology of sacrifice for the remission of sins.

Jesus' teaching was Jewish. The subsequent development of theological understanding of Jesus' message was done in the reflection upon the Temple sacrifical rituals. The place for Jesus' teaching had to be around the Temple. This means that Jesus had to be born no latter than 35 CE in Palestine in order for him to teach. This late date would not allow for the development of a Jewish understanding of Jesus' teaching.

Another important point is that the Roman occupation accelerate the development of Jewish Apocalyptic thinking. This occupation sharpened the end-time development in Jewish thinking escpecially towards the Messiah (which was an important component of Jesus' teaching). With the assumption of a living godhead by Caligula, the crisis with Rome deepened.

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