Joseph was a middle-aged Jewish widower, devout but poor. He met Mary, a teenage shepherd girl, whose skin tone was dark, but she was articulate, literate and a skilled musician. He wished she might tutor his children, but her parents refused - unless he married her. Joseph agreed.
Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem, where Mary's holy child was born, but they had to flee to Egypt, where Jesus was doted on as an only child.
Back in Nazareth, a torrent of troubles engulfed him. At home, Jesus was barely tolerated by Joseph's older children. In the synagogue, he was hounded for being born out-of-wedlock. In the village, he was racially vilified as the son of this foreign-looking shepherd woman.
. . . And so began Jesus' life: a 'man of sorrows', 'acquainted with every grief' known to humans. He was 'made perfect through suffering', so that he could 'help us in our time of need'.
