Luke is one
of the writers who give us the Christmas story. He writes, “In those days
Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire
Roman world” (Luke 2:1). The story begins with the mention of Caesar Augustus.
He was the 19-year-old nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius was murdered, but he
named his nephew Gaius Octavius as his sole heir. Most paid little attention to
this teenager, but by the age of 32 he had become the first emperor of Rome. He
was ambitious and brutally cruel, a common trait of the emperors. The senate eventually
proclaimed him Caesar Augustus which meant they proclaimed him god. He accepted
worship, and those who refused to worship him were either beheaded or
crucified.[1]
Augustus was
the most important person in the world, or at least that is what he thought,
but in reality he was just a piece of lint on the page of biblical history. If
he had known who was about to enter the stage of human history, he would have
sent all 28 Roman legions to kill a baby about to be born in a very obscure
place. He had no idea that God was about to unsheathe his most important gift
to the world around this time we call Christmas. Isaiah calls Jesus a “Polished
Arrow”:
Isaiah
49:2-3 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the
shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me
into a polished arrow
and
concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to
me, "You are my servant,
Israel, in
whom I will display my splendor."
Mary and
Joseph, like all their fellow countrymen, lived under the heel of the Romans.
Caesar called for a census which meant he was numbering the men for his armies
and he wanted higher taxes. The Caesars always wanted more money. Caesar thought
the census was about his coffers and his high mighty plans for his kingdom, but
this was really about bringing a humble carpenter and his wife who was nine
pregnant to the place they needed to be at just the right time.
Micah 5:1-2
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you
are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you
will come for me
one who will
be ruler over Israel,
whose
origins are from of old, from ancient times."
The
difference between Christ our deliverer and conqueror and the world’s
greatest conquerors is like night and day. Christ does not come with physical
weapons of destruction and intimidation, but with his word that is like a
sharpened sword. Jesus had been hidden like an arrow until the precise moment;
then God sent his son into the world with divine accuracy. God’s chosen servant
displays the splendor of God.
Luke 2:1-9
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken
of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while
Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to
register.
4 So Joseph
also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the
town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went
there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was
expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be
born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths
and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
God’s
sovereignty brought Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. This
town was Joseph’s town. Both Joseph and Mary were Jewish. Both had most likely been
shunned by their neighbors and families; that is probably why none of their
families are ever mentioned in scripture. They now find themselves in a perplexing
situation, “Do we stay here or do we obey Caesar and go to Jerusalem?” They
went to Bethlehem so Joseph could register even though Mary was nine months
pregnant. When they arrived in the tiny town of Bethlehem, they were exhausted
after an almost eighty mile trip.
The only
place available was the place sheep were kept. What was it like?
The sheep corral was as fifthly as only an eastern
sheep corral can be. It reeked pungently with manure and urine accumulated
across the seasons. Joseph cleared a corner just large enough for Mary to lie
down on the ground. Birth pains had started. She writhed in agony on the
ground. Joseph in his inexperience and unknowing manly manner did his best to
reassure her—his own outer tunic would be her bed. Perhaps there was a
saddle-bag nearby for her pillow—hay, straw, animal fodder non-existent. Mary
moaned and groaned in the darkness of the sheep-shelter. Joseph swept away the
dust and the dirt from a small space in one of the hand-hewn mangers. It’s a
feeding trough. In a feeding trough carved from the soft limestone rock. It was
covered with cob-webs and debris fallen from the rock ceiling. There as best he
could he arranged a place where Mary could lay the new born babe all bundled up
in the swaddling clothes. There alone unaided without strangers or friends or
family to witness her ordeal in the darkness Mary delivered her son. A more
lowly or humble birth it is impossible to imagine.[2]
May God give
you a greater appreciation this Christmas season for Jesus—God’s Polished Arrow
that he sent to Bethlehem to save us from our sins.
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