Raised/Rose

By the time of Jesus, even if disputed, there was an expectation of resurrection in his community. One example comes from the account of Lazarus, where his mourning sister spoke with Jesus:
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[a] Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 
She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,[b] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11: 23-27, NRSV) I think Martha was flummoxed by Jesus' astounding claim. She had a belief in a "last day" resurrection (noun; anastaseos) and in the person of Jesus. Lazarus' sisters knew well enough that, had he but arrived in time, Jesus could have saved their brother from his death-causing illness. That Jesus would, then and there, be resurrection and life for Lazarus was an unimagined blessing. Clearly Jesus was saying he himself would raise (verb; anistemi) Lazarus, and in fact Jesus will raise all who believe in him. There is an overlap between this miracle and Martha's "resurrection on the last day." (The chapter describes Jesus calling Lazarus out of his tomb, struggling with his funerary wrappings.)

Risen - ? - !

Pre-Jesus Jerusalem multi-use tomb being modelled by excavators - roof collapsed

In John’s account following the execution of Jesus on the Roman cross we read:
Early on Sunday morning,[a] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Dead

Jesus “Was crucified, dead, and buried..” - old words, long used. An even older statement is found in Paul’s writings:
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NRSV).

The purpose of Jesus' coming was indicated from the outset. (See, for example, posts "Saviour"; "Lamb of God"). Jesus himself made it very plain well beforehand that his death was no tragic defeat or failure of strategy:
The reason my Father loves me is that I give up my life. But I will take it back again. No one takes it from me. I give it up myself. I have the authority to give it up. And I have the authority to take it back again. I received this command from my Father.”
The Jews who heard these words could not agree with one another. Many of them said, “He is controlled by a demon. He has gone crazy! Why should we listen to him?” (John 10: 17-20, NIRV) Too plain! What offended them so? Must have been that claim Jesus' made.

Lamb of God

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away (does away with, or removes) the "sin of the world".

Mercy

From Matthew’s record of Jesus’ teaching (chapter 18: 23-35) comes a confronting story which is about responding to mercy (although the context has Peter asking about the quantity of forgiveness for “brothers"):
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to collect all the money his servants owed him. As the king began to do it, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was brought to him. The man was not able to pay. So his master gave an order. The man, his wife, his children, and all he owned had to be sold to pay back what he owed.
“Then the servant fell on his knees in front of him. ‘Give me time,’ he begged. ‘I’ll pay everything back.’ His master felt sorry for him. He forgave him what he owed and let him go.

Light

Jesus and the Light

The word “light” is used in the description of Jesus himself, his message and his role. Light here conveys the senses of the source of inner enlightenment and, by rolling back the darkness, of making visible what would otherwise not be “seen”.

Nativity

Following are almost all of the (translated) original sources of the “Nativity Story” chapters, as related in Matthew and Luke (minus table of ancestors, headings and some punctuation). I have somewhat arbitrarily inserted the text from Matthew 2 in Luke. In some places today “Nativity Scenes” are popular; they also appear on some Christmas cards. Those scenes reflect ideas common in parts of the culture. (I have not tried to establish how these scenes and popular traditions came to be.) I will add notes to point out the common extraneous guesses or wishful thinking or errors. I am also repeating these notes of mine at the end in larger font. (The Bible text is available in these versions, and others, through biblegateway.com and through blueletterbible.org. )

Luke 1: 1-25 Many people have tried to tell the story of what God has done among us. They wrote what we had been told by the ones who were there in the beginning and saw what happened. So I made a careful study[a] of everything and then decided to write and tell you exactly what took place. Honorable Theophilus, I have done this to let you know the truth about what you have heard.

   When Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest by the name of Zechariah from the priestly group of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was from the family of Aaron.[b] Both of them were good people and pleased the Lord God by obeying all that he had commanded. But they did not have children.