The Hidden Hope of Christmas
Luke 2:1-7 1In 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.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register. 4So 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. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and 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.
Titus 1:1-2 1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time
Luke sets the surface scene for the birth of Jesus by saying “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…” Immediately we know a lot about those days, even 2000 years later, because Caesar Augustus is one on the most famous personalities in history. His life and his time have been thoroughly studied and well documented. On the surface was the famed “Pax Romana”, the Roman peace. Caesar Augustus had established a world peace unparalleled in the history of humanity.
We also know that beneath the surface peace there was restlessness and emptiness among the people. Caesar Augustus had tried to calm the restlessness by restoring the glory of gladiatorial combat as a means of venting anger, allowing fertility cults to flourish…something to take the edge off their life.
That is what life was like “in those days when Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census be taken of all the inhabitants of the land.” Those inhabitants included the blind and the lame who had resigned themselves to a career of begging. It included tax collectors who had learned to play the game and get ahead even if it cost them their soul. It included the working class, many of whom assumed there was no higher purpose in life than trying to survive as best you could.
“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…” and in those days “the time came for the baby to be born.” The Scripture says it in many different ways, “the days were complete, in the fullness of time, at the appointed time, in his own good time,” but every time they were saying the same thing. They were saying that the time had come on God’s calendar of events to make visible that which had been hidden from human eyes.
When “the days were complete” we see beneath the surface scene of things. We see that it was not the decree of Caesar Augustus that sent Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem, but the decree of God, who overrules the powers that be to accomplish the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes for life.
When the days were complete, Christ was born, a new creation had begun, a new kingdom and a new kind of king entered our world. When the days were complete, possibilities erupted leaving even the cynics surprised. When the days were complete, the chains of the past were broken, and the hope for the future came alive.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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