Christmas
Eve
Lk
2:1-20
12/24/24
The
beginning of our Gospel lesson leaves little doubt about who was in
charge. It says, “In those days a
decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” Caesar Augustus ordered that a registration
be done for the purposes of taxation.
And when Caesar ordered … things happened. We learn, “And all went to be registered,
each to his own town.”
This
had not been the case four decades earlier.
From 133 B.C. to 31 B.C. the Roman world had been racked by civil
war. Large, highly skilled armies had
fought against each other in unceasing carnage. The movement of these armies
was a constant hardship for the locals because the soldiers forced people to
supply and move the army.
However,
Octavian – now known as Augustus – had made moves to play off leaders against
each other. He allied with leaders to
eliminate other leaders. And then he
turned against the leader with whom he had been allied. Finally, in 31 B.C. at the battle of Actium,
Augustus had defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
Augustus
became the sole ruler of the Roman world.
He claimed to be “restoring the Republic,” but in fact he was cleverly
reorganizing things so that he was the absolute ruler. He formed a professional army that would
carry out his will for conquest as he extended the borders of the Roman Empire.
Caesar
Augustus’ was in charge, and he had brought peace to the Empire. People were thankful. This genuine thankfulness was mixed with
flattery in a 9 B.C. inscription in Asia Minor.
It described how providence had sent Augustus as a savior. Augustus was called a god, and his birth was
described as “the beginning of the good tidings for the world,” where the Greek
word used is the plural form of the word we know in the New Testament as
“Gospel.”
It
was Caesar Augustus’ world into which Jesus was born. Prompted by Augustus’ order, Joseph and the
pregnant Mary had journeyed from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea
because Joseph was of the house and lineage of David. The timing could not have
been worse since Mary was almost due to give birth.
The
registration had brought many people to Bethlehem, and the couple was not able
to find lodging. Instead, they had to
settle for the place where animals were kept. When Mary gave birth in that
crude place, she wrapped her son in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.
She placed her child Jesus in an animal feeding trough. Caesar Augustus was in a palace in Rome. Jesus was in a feeding trough because of
Caesar’s order.
We
learn that in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them. The shepherds were terrified
by the sight. But the angel said to
them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be
for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
The
angel told the shepherds not to be fearful because he was bringing them good
news that would be the source of great joy.
He said a Savior had been born for them – a Savior born in the city of
David who was Christ the Lord. The angel
was announcing that the long hoped for Messiah – the descendant of King David –
had been born. He declared that the One
who would bring God’s end time salvation had come into the world.
Yet,
since this was the case, what he said next was very puzzling. He announced: “And this will be a sign
for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a
manger.” The angel gave the shepherds a
sign by which they would be able to identify this Savior – this Christ. He
would be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
Newborn
children were wrapped in swaddling clothes. But why would this Savior be lying
in an animal feeding trough – in a manger? Yet before the shepherds could ponder
this, there suddenly appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Prompted
by the angels, the shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” They went and found
Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus lying in a manger just as the angel
had told them. They made known to others what had been told to them about this
child, and returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard
and seen.
Caesar
Augustus was born into a family of equestrian status – a family of substantial
wealth. His father had been governor of
the province of Macedonia. His great
uncle was Julius Caesar, who in his will adopted Augustus as his son and named
him as his heir.
Jesus
Christ was born to a couple of no significance in Galilee. His father was a carpenter. The circumstances
of the place of his birth indicated the humble nature of his existence.
Yet
God was working in the midst of this humility to do something mighty and
powerful – something of cosmic significance.
The baby in the manger was far more than he appeared to be. He was a human being, born of his
mother. But he was also the Son of God.
His mother Mary, was a virgin, and yet she had become pregnant. The angel Gabriel had told her, “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of
God.” The helpless infant was Immanuel – God with us. He was true God and true man.
Joseph
and Mary had gone to Bethlehem because Joseph was from the house and lineage of
David. When Joseph took Jesus to be his
son, he made Jesus part of the house of David – he made him a son of David.
The angel had announced to the
shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will
be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The angel said that
Jesus was the Savior. He said that he
was the Christ – the promised descendant of David who brought God’s end time
salvation. He said that he was the Lord,
and he was indeed God present with us.
Jesus Christ was the Son of God –
the Savior who had come into the world.
He had come to save us from Satan, sin, and death. Since the Fall of Adam and Eve we have been
conceived and born as people ruled by Satan.
We have been trapped in sin. We
have been destined for death.
Jesus was present in the world to
free us from this. Yet he had come to do
so in a way that reflected the humility of his birth. Christ freed us by dying on the cross for our
sin. Here again, it looked like Caesar
was in charge – this time Tiberius, Augustus’ son. It was his prefect, Pontius Pilate who
condemned Jesus to death and had the crucifixion carried out.
As Jesus died on the cross it
appeared that Caesar was in charge. But it was God the Father who had sent the
Son to bear our sins upon the cross. It was Jesus who willingly submitted to
what he knew was going to happen. He
received the judgment and wrath of God against our sin to win forgiveness for
us.
Jesus’ body was buried. And then on
the third day, God vindicated Jesus as he raised him from the dead. By his crucifixion Jesus won the forgiveness
of sins. And in his resurrection he
defeated death. He began the
resurrection that will be ours on the Last Day.
The risen Lord has now ascended into
heaven and has been exalted at the right hand of God. His saving work continues as he creates faith
and delivers forgiveness. Yet like the
baby in the manger and the man on the cross the means by which he does so
appear humble and easily overlooked. He
uses the preached word and the water of baptism to create faith and wash away
sins. He speaks absolution through the
mouth of a pastor. He uses bread and
wine to give us his true body and blood, given and shed for you.
It is tempting to look around and
think that Caesar is still in charge.
Our government and culture promote every sexual perversion that violates
God’s will. They describe the murder of
unborn children as a matter of “reproductive rights.” The Church continues to diminish in social
standing as the culture becomes more and more secular.
But the Church is the creation of
the risen Lord. You are the creation of
the risen Lord through water and the word.
You are a new creation in Christ through the work of his Spirit. God has
called you out of the world and made you his own. You live as those redeemed by the Lord. You are justified. You already know the verdict of the Last
Day. This is the status you have now,
and the world cannot take this way from you.
And while the means through which
Christ works seem humble in the present, they point forward to the return of
Jesus Christ on the Last Day. Angels
announced the birth of Christ when he was born in Bethlehem. And angels will
accompany Jesus Christ as he returns in glory on the Last Day. Every knee will bow before him and will have
to confess that he is Lord. He will
raise the dead and transform creation so that it is very good once again. And
we will live with our God forever.
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