Hardly anyone is as weak as a newborn baby. They are totally dependent. Totally vulnerable. For a “new mother” it can be completely overwhelming. The lack of sleep-unbelievable. The demands –devastating. The time restraints – immense.
Humanly speaking, the baby Jesus was as weak as any other newborn. However, as far as heaven was concerned – this little tiny one – was the center of all power.
In a manger bed, he uprooted the entire Roman world. His birth caused angelic beings to flee to earth. His birth caused tough and rough shepherds to abandon their flocks and seek him out.
As the evangelist Luke tells the story things started happening and changing quickly.
And behind it all was the hand of God…not pulling strings…but his will being carried out slowly over time.
With God all things work together. Not in our time, but in His time. When the time is right. It is called a “kairos” moment…God’s time.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Everyone went to their own home town to register.
Caesar was thought to be one of the greatest men of the entire world. He commanded thousands and thousands of Roman legions. His empire stretched to the far corners of the earth. He was known as being the most powerful ruler on the face of the earth. People heeded his every command and followed his every whim, wish or desire.
Something like 94 million people are traveling this week, that’s less than 30% of the population. The decree of Caesar included every adult male in the empire. Young, old, sickly it did not matter. It included everyone. And they each went, as was required.
Caesar commanded and the then known world jumped. Including Joseph and Mary residing in Nazareth…
Luke’s gospel (the gospel for this entire year) has been called the gospel of “Salvation History.”
Well, it started out a long-long time ago that throughout the history of salvation – God was already slowly over time setting the stage…making his will known.
He promised that salvation would come. It was to come through a Jewish man. He would be of the tribe of Judah, he would be of the family of David. He would be a righteous branch. He would be born of a virgin and he would be born in Bethlehem. Prophets such as Isaiah and Micah had said so.
All of these things happened, just as the scriptures said that they would…and Caesar unknowingly played an important part.
If it wasn’t for his decree, Joseph and Mary would have stayed contently in Nazareth. No journey would have been taken. After all, Mary was in her ninth month of pregnancy….and about to give birth.
What mother in her right mind picks up and starts walking on a 7-10 day journey through the hill country? It was to be an eighty mile journey. (One way)
Every fourteen years or so Rome took a census both for military and for taxation purposes. Every male had to return to the city of his fathers to record his name, occupation, property and family. Caesar had issued a decree that it was census time again.
It was because of this decree that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem. Because of Caesar’s decree, the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem, just as God had announced centuries before.
Caesar Augustus may have been ruling the Roman World of his day and his time, but behind the scenes, God’s will was being acted out and it was God himself who was really in control. Not Caesar!
As God said, through his young prophet Jeremiah, “I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”
Did you catch the title used for the baby in the manger? What was he called? Wasn’t it “Christ the Lord.”
Caesar was the one with all the armies. Caesar had the palatial buildings and palaces. All the tax collectors and royal governors served at the bidding of Caesar…
Yet the baby in swaddling clothes – lying in a manger bed was referred to as being “Christ the Lord.”
Born in a stable, not in a palace. He was laid in a feeding trough, not in a bed. There was no cradle for him. His earthly parents were poor peasants. He had no servants, not even a midwife to aid in his birth. And still they called him, “Master.” He had no degree and was called teacher. He had no medicines – and yet was a known healer. He had no army – and kings feared him… he won no military battles and still managed to conquer the world. He not Caesar was the greatest man in history.
And it is on this holy night that we celebrate his coming.
It was God’s will…God’s plan…slowly…carefully…being played out…over time…God’s time! It was a kairos moment.