For those of us who need 'rational' explanation of the phenomenon of Jesus (amongst many many other personifications of the Divinity introduced into our matter illusionary 'reality' - Buddha, Lao Tse, Krishna, Ramana Maharishi in South India, Ramakrishna in Bengal), I'll present a perfectly concrete model, though for myself I presume it was totally beyond our comprehension. 

In 'Childhood's End'  Sir Arthur C. Clarke suggests that there are scores of different beings in a hierarchy ascending to God.  Who or what they are is beyond our imagination - try to picture the concept of a human being in the 'mind' of a mosquito or microbe.  And this comparison is immeasurably closer, in my opinion, than the 'distance' between humans and the next higher type of beings - the first rank above us in the hierarchy of unknowable scores of beings between God and us. 

In Clarke's books, the Beings that are closest to us have some specific task of watching over us (as we do over endangered species, for example) and periodically interfere one way or another into our evolutionary process. God has given us Evolution (so much for the eternal dispute between evolutionists and creationists) in order to see the eventual improvement of the caveman (which we still are) into something more civilized and intelligent. (Clarke's tetrology starting with '2001: A Space Odyssey' and finished with '3001').

The last known to us major event was when They, for whatever incomprehensible to us reason of their own, needed to create a Being by combining their nature and ours. Their technology and their version of in-vitro fertilization had to be tested on an older woman before subjecting a young Miriam to the process.  It had been tested before, with Sarah and Abraham, which resulted in Isaac's birth and again on Zacharias' elderly wife, Elizabeth. So, when Elizabeth became pregnant and everything was evolving according to expectations, Miriam was impregnated and The Savior was begotten.  John The Baptist was born and soon after He arrived for His life on Earth.          http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19970730.htm

Why did They decide to have John precede Christ?

Why the script leading to Crucifixion?  First of all, it was a test: if the Israelites could have recognized the divine nature of The Messiah the events would have gone in a different direction.  They didn't.

And though They knew the odds of it in advance, They still chose to give us yet another chance. Unfortunately Evolution had not yet taken us to that point, so the sacrifice was necessary. Perhaps it was only for Them to be able to somehow experience through Him human emotions, such as pain, love, joy.... Who knows? Not us.

The proof of my hypothesis of the necessity of tests was the resurrection of Lazarus on the fourth day - exactly one week prior to the planned resurrection of The Christ.

John The Baptist's birth and resurrection of Lazarus - two, out of probably many others, events, that seem totally unnecessary by themselves, but clearly justified in the light of the importance of the following, apparently absolutely necessary ones. 

The very beginning and the very end of Christ's life on Earth in a human body - both were preceded by tests.

Š 1957 - 2010.

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