Luke’s Gospel provides us with one of our most favorite and most familiar passages of Scripture.  The birth of Jesus revealed to us in the 2^nd chapter of the Gospel of Luke comes as the great climax of our entire Advent season. 

  We build to this momentous moment as we journey through Advent.  We groan for his appearance as we hear the Old Testament prophecies.  As we hear Isaiah’s words, we yearn to recall these words of a child born in Bethlehem.  Of a Savior come into the world.  For they are the good news of great joy for all the people.  Unto us, a son is given!

  Perhaps though, in our familiarity with this particular passage from Luke’s Gospel, we overlook Luke’s larger point.  We rush to verses 6 and 7 because they provide for us those warm familiar images which accompany Christmas.  In our haste to hear of Christ’ humble birth, we may well rush past Luke’s emphasis.  Notice that the birth of Jesus Christ does take but two verses. 

  As Luke recounts the birth of Jesus, notice he spends far more words and energy letting us know about a Roman Emperor and his delegate to Judea and some shepherds in a field than he does about the birth of Christ.   

  We’re told of a registration of all people.  Emperor Augustus sends out word.  Register everyone.  And it isn’t so that this king can provide for everyone.  Roman Caesar Augustus wanted everyone counted so he would know HOW MUCH TAX MONEY he could wring out of his provinces.  This registration makes clear the Roman emperor sees people as nothing more than a commodity.

  Worse still is the method by which Augustus arranges the whole shebang.  Unwilling to trust local authorities, the Caesar requires everyone, even pregnant women, to travel to their home provinces.  Again, it isn’t because he wanted the Jews to enjoy a joyous homecoming on his behalf.  It was because he knew it would be the most efficient way to collect.  You see, he knew how well the Jews recorded their genealogies.  Caesar knew there would be far fewer “tax-cheats” doing it this way.

  So, Mary and Joseph begin their voyage from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  It’s hilly country between the two towns.  The distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem is about 70 miles as the crow flies, but the trails Joseph and Mary had to travel made it about 90 miles, the climb about 1300 feet. It would’ve taken them more than a week to cover that distance and height.  For a woman in her final weeks of pregnancy, this voyage, undertaken only at the behest of a greedy emperor, would have been a terrible burden. 

  It’s in these two images, one of a rich and powerful Roman King, the other, a young couple, humble in means, forced to make a difficult journey, that we begin to see Luke’s main emphasis.  On one hand we see the human epitome of power in Caesar.  On the other hand, we see human pawns in Mary and Joseph, forced to travel at a terrible time in order to comply with the will of Rome. 

  But in these two contrasting images, we see God’s WONDERFUL AND UNSHAKEABLE PROVIDENCE at work.

   Even though the emperor does what he thinks to be in his own best interest, we who stand 2000 years after the fact see the great irony of the moment for poor Augustus.  He’s done his best to provide for himself and his kingdom but God has used it all for God’s glory. 

  I hope we all hear traces of the Old Testament here…specifically the Old Testament Joseph, as he speaks to his brothers in the 50^th chapter of Genesis.   There, his brothers seek his mercy for selling him into slavery so many years ago.  Joseph simply replies “Even though you intended to do harm, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people.”

  Remember, Jesus Christ birth in Bethlehem is the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy which reads “ But you, O Bethlehem , who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.”