Jesus' birth was scandalous

We often think of Jesus' birth in terms of a beautiful, glowing nativity scene off of a Christmas card; however, Jesus' birth was actually quite scandalous. It took an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph for him to not divorce Mary when he found out that she was pregnant. If he had a hard time believing that Mary was pregnant through the Holy Spirit, surely this would have been doubly true of the small towns that Mary and Joseph lived.

There are several hints in the gospel of Jesus' questionable parantage--among other things, Jesus was called "son of Mary" (rather than son of Joseph). See the news article What Jesus Suffered at Christmas. In fact, it may well be that Jesus was excluded from worshipping in the synangogue or temple due to his questionable parentage.

Jesus really was born a lowly birth.

What does Jesus' lowly birth say about God?