In this large composition of writings that is commonly referred to as the Bible, there are only two narrative accounts of Jesus' birth that we call the Christmas story. One is a writing titled Matthew and the other is a writing titled Luke and essentially it is two authors attempting to give pictures of Jesus being born because they believed it had major implications for the way the world works.
What the authors were not trying to do was give us something to celebrate on December 25th. At no point in their composing this story of Jesus' life did they say, "Ya know, I think I should put the story of Jesus being born in there because it will really just complete the 'Christmas' season." There were no Christmas Eve services, no quaint little holiday that they were trying to capture. Rather, these authors were up to something bigger.
Currently, we have entered a very peculiar time of the year. It is a season marked by specific, and quite strange, decorations, a weird story about this mysterious figure that lives in a practically uninhabitable part of the world and does some equally mysterious, yet impressive, movement one night of every year, and where we engage in the warm and relaxing ritual of being together and giving gifts to the people closest to you.
And in the midst of the trees and the lights and the garland and the red and green and the same ten songs that have an infinite number of arrangements that we listen to year after year after year, we call this season Christmas.
Some call it the holiday season, others have different cultural and religious categories that they use to name it, but no matter what name is used, when talking about this particular time of the year, everyone is referring to the exact same thing.
And this thing is nothing new. All sorts of different cultures and civilizations have engaged in this and even though it may have been called something else or they may have used different rituals or traditions, they have been participating in the exact same thing.
It is the winter festival.
Almost every people group that has ever existed has had some sort of method of experiencing the winter season. For some, it centered around the progression of nature and the winter solstice. For others, it was centered around a cultural myth that shaped their lives and helped to explain the movement of their universe. Or in many places, winter was simply a very popular time to celebrate the birth of different gods and other national holidays. But all the same, it was a large group of people coming together for a common purpose and celebration and it was always seen as the winter festival.
And the same human experience going on then is exactly what our culture is experiencing today.
The "Christmas Season" or the "Holiday Season" is just another version of the festival.
Now, the word 'Christmas' technically means "the Mass of Christ" and was first used somewhere around the 4th century. Which means that for a few hundred years, no one was referring to Jesus being born as 'Christmas'.
And today, that word 'Christmas' has come to be used in all sorts of different ways.
For some it is still the "Mass of Christ" where there is a liturgical service that reflects on the birth of the Messiah for one day of the year. For others, it is a holiday that attempts to "Put Christ back in Christmas" and celebrate Jesus' birthday because he is the reason for the season [even though this winter festival season existed long before his human birth happened]. And still yet for others, it is just a cultural holiday as winter begins that involves unique and exciting traditions. There are hundreds of meanings people attribute to the word Christmas, but, essentially, all are just ways to participate in the festival.
And what we see a lot of today is people who try and take the festival and Christianize it and claim it as Christianity's own. They take what is apparently 'secular' and attempt to make it religious, but what they tend to forget is that this celebration, even with a religious paradigm, is still just one version of the same festival that has been celebrated for thousands and thousands of years.
And we have to acknowledge that.
There is nothing wrong with the different versions of the festival and you can find all sorts of different meaning infused into each version that can help us understand and navigate the world. But it is still just the winter festival.
Which means you can use it to help you celebrate Jesus' birth, but the festival itself is not what Jesus entering into the world is all about. You can take these different traditions and engage in them and be a part of them, but we have to understand that it is the festival and that it isn't what these authors of Matthew and Luke where referring to.
Because for the first Christians, Jesus the Messiah entering into the world had nothing to do with this magical season we today call 'Christmas' and I'm guessing that if the earliest church saw what our culture claims to be the celebration of the birth narratives, they would be a little confused. For them, Jesus' birth wasn't an event meant to become a holiday, it was just what started the story of what God is doing in the world. It wasn't necessarily the thing to focus on or the central part of Jesus' life and purpose, it was just what set everything else up. This is what is going on with the whole idea of Christmas.
It just so happens that it takes place at the same time of the festival.
But just because they happen at the same time doesn't mean they are the same thing. They can both be engaged in and enjoyed and celebrated, but they are, at their very core, different, and we have to be ok with that.
What we have done is we have taken this Christmas, holiday, winter festival celebration and imposed it on the narratives of Jesus being born. But for the earliest church communities, there was none of that. It had nothing to do with the winter traditions of the culture. Because those things may have some goodness to them in their own sort of way, but they are first and foremost two different things and we have to be able to separate them. We have to be able to see Jesus' birth as separate from the winter festival.
Jesus' birth had nothing to do with that.
So maybe what we need to do is leave the festival off to the side for the moment and just begin to understand Jesus' birth with the same implications that the first Christians would have understood it. We need to ask, "When the first readers read Matthew and Luke, what did they hear and how can we put our assumptions aside and begin to hear the story fresh again, just like those first readers heard it?"
Which begins by realizing that the authors of Matthew and Luke aren't trying to give us a nice story that will make for a moving Christmas Eve service. They are trying to tell us something bigger.
So I want to ask:
What was the story that these authors were trying to tell?
What was the picture that people in the first century would have heard and seen and how can we enter into that?
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So we have these two stories in the Bible where these authors are telling us about Jesus being born.
And the first thing you notice when you read them is that they are completely different.
Unfortunately, what tends to happen is that we try and combine them. We take each version and assume that the authors must not have been on the same page and so we fix their errors by taking the two different stories and smashing them together.
But these two stories weren't meant to be combined.
They are two different authors telling two different stories to two different groups of people and they are different on purpose.
Which means that by combining them, you lose the impact of why they are telling the story the way they do. Each author is trying to make very specific points. There was a reason they told the story the specific way they did. There was a reason they included certain details and left others out. There's a reason each author has a different focus and picture. So when you try to make it into one story, you are dissolving the author of the very thing they are trying to do.
Because it was more than just the authors doing their best to write down everything they could remember. Rather, the authors are trying to show us something and each and every detail, the way each is structured and portrayed, is done with very intentional reasons.
The two aren't meant to go together.
So you can't read these birth narratives with the purpose of understanding how Jesus was born. Instead, you have to read each version by itself and see how Matthew or how Luke wants you to see how Jesus was born. Each is a separate picture that the author is attempting to tell us and we have to approach it as such.
This is what we have to discover.
We have to enter into the world of these authors and their audience to see what they might be trying to show us that makes Jesus entering into the world such a big deal.
And when we see this, the pictures of Jesus being born no longer seem distant and detached, but they begin to come to life and feel like they were written exactly for our world today.
So we have to ask:
What was the world like when Jesus was born?
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The world at this time was ruled by the Roman Empire.
Literally...almost the entire known world.
They ruled everything.
And the Empire was ruled by a series of Caesars starting with a man named Julius Caesar.
Julius, if you can take a quick flashback to your high school English class and William Shakespeare, didn't rule a unified Empire. While Julius was in power, there was a parliament and a senate which eventually led to a bunch of different people all wanting the power and control. Naturally, this leads to civil war. Enter Mark Antony and the Ides of March and we know how the story goes from there.
This was the reign of Julius Casear and it lasted until 44 BCE.
The next Caesar to come to power was Julius' adopted son Octavian who would later have his name changed to Augustus [which is where we get the month 'August'].
After him was Tiberias, followed by Vespian, then Nero, then a man named Titus who was the Casear that destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and after him was a man named Domitian.
Something interesting about Domitian is that he declared himself a god [apparently it is that easy] and said that if you were going to be involved in business in the Empire, you had to first worship him as god. So if you wanted to buy and sell in the markets you had to first go and offer a sacrifice and in order to show that you officially did this, they would put a mark on your hand or on your forehead. Once this was done you would be able to be involved in the markets. The Jewish people were obviously highly opposed to this whole thing and began to refer to him as a beast. And when he traveled to the different epicenters of the Empire he would either come by land or by sea. So in different contexts they would refer to him as the Beast of the Land or the Beast of the Sea.
...whole other writing...
And so, by the time of 'Christmas' which despite the expectancy of happening in the year "0", was actually sometime around the year 4 BCE, the world was ruled by the adopted son of Julius Casear, Augustus, who ruled the world from 27 BCE to 14 CE.
Which means Augustus would be ruling during the time Jesus was born.
This has some pretty big implications.
Augustus, unlike his father, was able to unify the Empire and he was able to do so towards the beginning of his rule. So essentially, Augustus was able to harness all of the power. The entire known world was under one man.
Because of this, parliament immediately declared him as god incarnate on earth. So in order to proclaim Augustus as god incarnate they built temples all over the Empire where people would go and worship him and pray to him and even offer him sacrifices.
Around the year 17 BCE, people saw a strange star shooting in the skies and began saying, "This is Julius Casear going to the right hand of god the father, Jupiter [whom many of us know as Zeus]. In reply to this, Augustus began proclaiming, "My cosmic hour has come," because if his dad is a god then that must mean he is the son of a god. And so in 17 BCE Caesar Augustus was called the Son of God, God incarnate on Earth and it all went back to the whole "cosmic hour thing" because of a star that was seen in the sky.
Son of God, God incarnate and it all had to do with a star.
After the whole cosmic hour thing, Caesar Augustus inaugurated a 12 day celebration of his birth called the '12 Days of Advent'. This was a 12 day celebration of his birth, the birth of the Son of God.
And they called it the '12 Days of Advent'.
Sound familiar?
And it all happened before Jesus had even entered the world.
During this advent celebration there would be a group of priests that would go around and distribute incense to the people and you were to take this incense and use it to cleanse you of your past guilt. The Romans understood this thing we now call guilt and so during advent you would take this incense and offer it as a sacrifice to Casear Augustus because through him was found forgiveness.
Caesar Augustus, the Son of God Incarnate, removed the guilt from your past 'sins'.
And so people began calling him the high priest of humankind, the "Divine Mediator between heaven and earth." If you had a guilt problem, this was offensive to the gods, but Caesar Augustus, the high priest of humanity came on behalf of the gods and offered forgiveness to you.
There was also these advent coins.
The first is one that has actually been uncovered by archeologists and the second is what it would have looked like.
Coins were the Facebook and Twitter of the day. If you had a message you wanted everyone to know, you would mint coins and put the message on the coins and in no time it would begin getting passed around the entire Empire and everyone would see your message.
So at the Advent, Caesar Augustus had these coins circulated and they had the star of Caesar's cosmic hour on them and they said, "Caesar Augustus, the Son of God."
Also, one of the propaganda slogans that went with the whole coin thing was, "Salvation is found in none other but Caesar Augustus."
You want to be saved?
You want new life?
Augustus.
You want to be reconciled to the gods?
Then you have to trust in Augustus, god on earth, who has come to set you free through his Kingdom and Empire.
Another propaganda slogan was, "Caesar, the Savior who brings peace."
They had songs written about this [which they called hymns] where Caesar, the Son of God, the mediator of the gods brings forgiveness of sins and is the Savior of the world bringing peace.
I feel like I've heard similar songs before.
Now, there is an underlying question here: "How did Caesar get this kind of power? How was the Roman Empire able to keep this kind of thing going?
Well...they had a huge army.
And what would happen is that this army would common to your village and say, "Casear is Lord," and you and your entire village would have to respond back, "Yes. Caesar is Lord." If you did, then you would be spared from being slaughtered. But if you said, "No! Caesar isn't Lord! We don't believe that, " then they would kill you.
So if you were Jewish this would be a problem. Because they didn't believe Caesar was Lord or that Caesar was God. They didn't believe any of that stuff people said about Casear. This went against everything the Jews believed about there being one God and that you didn't have idols or images and that you certainly didn't confess other gods, especially if they were human.
There was this city called Sepphoris which is right next to Nazareth where Jesus grew up. The Roman military went there and did the whole "Caesar is Lord" thing and the city rebelled against it...they said, "no". And the entire city ended up being burnt to the ground, people included.
The Romans also had this form of torture and execution called crucifixion. It was said to be so painful that it was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen. It was so bad they wouldn't do it to their own people. And there is a story of the Roman military global superpower coming to a town in Galilee next to where Jesus was from and 2,000 people were crucified at one time and the only reason they stopped is because they ran out of wood...so they burnt the rest of the people.
This is what happened when you didn't respond, "Caesar is Lord."
Which is interesting because one of the first Christians, a man named Paul, is writing a letter to a community in Rome, right at the heart of the Empire and what do you think he tells them to do? He tells them to say that Jesus is Lord.
Do you realize how dangerous this is?
It wasn't just some cliche that you went around saying and put on bumper stickers and t-shirts because it marked you as a Christian. It wasn't just some random title to apply to Jesus.
They are right in the heart of the Roman Empire where Caesar lives and Casear is supposed to be Lord. Everyone was supposed to confess Caesar as Lord or else you would be killed.
And Paul says, "Nope. Confess Jesus as Lord. Not Caesar."
This would have been a big deal.
Now, if you said, "Yes, Caesar is Lord," then what happend is this giant army didn't slaughter you...they just took you as slaves.
There was a general named Cassius who is noted in history for taking 30,000 salves in one visit to a city.
And there was another general that many people recognize named Pompey. Archeologists have found a statue of Pompey boasting that he took over 12 million slaves doing the whole "Caesar is Lord" thing while he was a general of Rome.
This is how the Roman Empire worked. This is the 'peace' that Caesar brought.
Violent slaughters and slavery.
So if you are a Jew in the small corner of this huge Empire, this is what you are surrounded by. Because Rome had come and conquered Israel. The Jews had become subjects of Caesar's rule. They were under the rule and reign of this Caesar who was the Son of God Incarnate, the Savior of the world who brought peace and forgiveness and who supposedly was making the world better.
But for many people, things weren't better. There was no peace.
Yet this was the world during this time.
Caesar is Lord!
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Now, if you are ruling the entire world, what do you do when your Empire stretches from England to India? How do you maintain order and keep power when you have countries 3000 miles apart and it takes you 9 months to get there?
This was the challenge. How do you actually rule the entire world at one time?
The answer to this was to use kings.
So you conquer a territory and instead of trying to do all the work yourself, you go in and you find a pretty powerful guy and you say, "You rule this territory on our behalf. You get to be King, you get the power, but you do it our way."
And so in Israel, this was a man named Herod.
Who fittingly closely resembles Santa Claus.
And the way that Rome decided to choose Herod gives a pretty good idea of what the Empire was going for.
Herod was known for being a ruthless warrior. In 37 BCE he besieged Jerusalem with 11 battalions of soldiers and 6,000 calvary and there is an account of the scene that says this:
"When the troops poured in a scene of massacre ensued, for the Jews of Herod's army were determined to leave none of their opponents alive. Masses were butchered in the alleys and crowded together in the houses."
This is how Herod came to power. This is who he was. He later said, "I have become King by the will of God." Slight detail he left out was that he massacred thousands of people to do it.
But if you are the Romans looking for someone to keep a firm grip on this new territory you've acquired, someone that you won't have to worry about keeping the people in order...this would be the guy to do it.
So Herod became the King over Israel.
Herod was also a very busy man.
He had 11 wives and 43 kids.
At one point, he became suspicious of one of his wives while he was going away on a trip so he told his assistant, "If I die on this trip, execute my wife." While Herod was gone, the assistant told the wife what Herod had told him to do and when Herod returned, the wife was a little distant...I can't imagine why...so Herod killed her anyway.
One time, he became suspicious of one of his kids thinking he was plotting against him so he drowned him in the family pool.
Later, he believed that two of his other sons wanted his kingdom and that they were conniving behind his back. So he brought them before him and the court and said, "Go ahead and make a defense for yourselves," and the sons essentially kept saying, "We don't know what you are talking about, we've never plotted anything against you."
One historian recorded the speeches they gave and when you read them, they are the most gut wrenching thing. Two sons standing in front of their father pleading for their lives because they are about to be killed for their paranoid father's suspicions of something they didn't even do.
But he still had them killed because he didn't believe them.
Another time Herod was in a dispute with the governing body of the Jewish people, which was the most esteemed religious leaders of the day, and because they couldn't agree, he had them all executed.
When Herod was on his death bed, he ordered all of the most influential Jews to the Hippodrome in Jericho which was a stadium he built that archeologists have uncovered that would have sat 500,000 people. Our stadiums today have nothing on him. So he filled the stadium with the most influential Jews and told his officials to barricade the doors and said, "When I die, I want you to slaughter them all so I will be guaranteed that there will be weeping and mourning at my death."
Are you getting a feel for what kind of King this man named Herod was?
But beyond being a violent, paranoid, dehumanizing psycho he also controlled absolutely everything.
For example, the political system and the government. As soon as he was King he quickly established that if you disagreed with him, you died. He would just kill you. So ideas like freedom and peace and comfort...don't even think about trying to argue for those.
But the religious system worked the same way. There was a group of people called the Sadducees who were basically Herod's puppets in the religious system to make sure things were kept exactly how Herod wanted them. And again, you disagreed, he killed you. Which meant that Herod remained in control of everything.
Probably the biggest realm Herod did this was in the economic system. Take taxes. Herod would tax people and take about 30% of your income. And he didn't send paperwork, Herod would come and take it on the spot with people called tolonai, or tax collectors. So say you were a fisherman and you had just spent your entire night out on the lake catching your income. When you came in, waiting for you would be one of these collectors and he would just begin dividing, "One for Herod, one for you, one for Herod, one for me, one for you..." and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it.
But this wasn't the only tax. There was also the Roman tribute tax because Caesar was Lord and you had to give him some of what you had. Then there was the transient trade tax, the market exchange tax, the Temple tax, there were special offerings that the Temple authorities demanded at different festivals throughout the year. Some historians say that during Jesus' day, people were living on 80-90% taxation.
Once there was this high level delegation that saw Herod's rule in Judea and then went to Rome claiming Herod's tyranny that he had, "...reduced the entire people to helpless poverty." Even the oppressive leaders of Rome thought Herod was a little extreme.
But this also raises the question, "If he took all that money and resources, where did it go?"
Well, Herod had all sorts of projets like the the stadium in Jericho. There were hundreds of projects like this.
So for example look at this map:
Do you think you could point a couple of things out that might have been Herod's projects?
There were temples, palaces that he built on top of mountains, cities that he lined with marble. All of these different things that were only meant for himself and to benefit him. Or sometimes he would take your money, build something extravagant and send it to a king in some other distant country. Which ensured it wouldn't actually go to the people of Israel.
He reduces you to poverty in order to give luxury to himself and select others.
Meanwhile you and your family are starving.
Up in the left hand corner of the map, the Southwestern part of the city, a bottle of wine was recently uncovered. Which doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but the estimated cost of this bottle of wine was $20,000. You and your entire city have had to sell your land because you can't pay taxes and it just goes to Herod's extravagance and his $20,000 bottles of wine. The minority struggled in misery while the elite used your money to lavish themselves in luxury.
This was how Herod liked to do things.
This was the rule and reign of Herod, the King of the Jews.
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So with all of this mind, the power and reign of Caesar, the violence and control of King Herod, now we might be able to see the reality of what 'Christmas' is all about.
This man named Matthew is writing his version of the Jesus story and what is interesting is that Matthew's audience was primarily Jewish people...people living in Israel. So he decides to give us a picture of Jesus' birth and notice how the writing begins:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod...
Matthew wants you to know what the setting was like. It is clear that Matthew has an agenda. Because if you are reading this or hearing it read you would immediately find yourself saying, "Ah...I know about Herod...I know what thats like." There is a context here that the author is begging for us to recognize. Then the narrative continues:
...magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one
who has been born king of the Jews?”
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Which if you are Herod, how do you respond to this? These royal people [there were not 3. It was probably more like 300 and they were coming from what is roughly modern day Iraq...try putting all of that in a nativity scene] from an entirely different nation come to your kingdom and specifically ask you, "Hey where's the king of the Jews?" Yet, you are Herod. You are supposed to be the King of the Jews. But these guys show up asking for the real King and not only do they not mean you, they ask you to point them in the right direction. This would have been a huge slap in the face for Herod.
This group of Magi arrive on the scene from way outside Israel and they say, "Hey, we hear a king has been born?"
This means what for Herod and his Kingdom and his way of ruling?
If the true King has been born then what happens to this puppet king that the Roman Empire had set up in Israel?
If the true King has been born then what happens to this puppet king that the Roman Empire had set up in Israel?
The birth of this baby threatens the whole system.
There is this way the world works that has been established at the expense of everyone else and these guys come and say, "I hear the real King is on the scene and its not Herod."
And then we get Herod's reaction:
And then we get Herod's reaction:
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law,
he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out
from them the exact time the star had appeared.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child.
As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way,
and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them
until it stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary,
and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened
their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream
not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Because everyone knew that Herod didn't really want to worship him. Everyone knew who Herod really is.
And Matthew could have said all sorts of different things in order to tell this story, but Matthew chooses to paint his picture like this. He begins with this King whose name is Herod and we all know what this King is like, but then these people from way out East come and they go to Herod, the one who is technically supposed to be the King and they say, "We hear a new King, the real King of the Jews has been born."
Do you see what Matthew is trying to say about this Jesus?
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We find the same thing happening in Luke's version. Luke is writing to a different group of people. He is writing to the people scattered all throughout the Empire. Matthew was directly confronting the people who knew Herod, but Luke is writing to pretty much everyone else in the known world.
So what do you think Luke is going to say?
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census
should be taken of the entire Roman world.
(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee of Judea,
to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him
and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.
She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was
no guest room available for them.
Why do you think Luke mentions what he does?
In the corner of Caesar's Empire among this oppressed ethnic group there is going to be a baby born.
It is like Luke wants you to see something here. Because is the story of Jesus being born just about a teen pregnancy and two Jewish kids traveling around town for a census?
Or is there something bigger going on here?
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,
keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.
I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared
with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
A Messiah, a Savior is born and his name isn't Caesar.
But I thought Caesar was Lord? I thought Caesar was the Savior of the world who brought peace? But these angels show up and say, "There's a baby about to be born."
And they don't go tell the royal establishment or the elite of society, they don't go tell the people at the top.
They tell shepherds.
Shepherds stink.
Shepherds are the underside of society. They are the outcasts.
Yet they are the first to be told, "Hey, hey, hey...there is a baby about to be born and he is the Lord...not Caesar."
Can you imagine the astonishment these people would have felt?
"Wait a second...Caesar isn't Lord!?"
Do you see Luke's agenda here?
So you are reading this and you've been oppressed by this Empire. You identify with the shepherds. You've been on the other side of Caesar's brutality just like Mary and Joseph. You know exactly what that world is like.
But Luke tells you this baby is coming who is going to bring a different kind of Empire and a world that won't be like Caesar's world.
The slogan going around was, "Caesar is Lord," but this narrative about Jesus entering into the world is all about saying, "No, no. Jesus is Lord."
Do you see what Luke is doing?
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This completely turns the world upside down.
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Christmas, the birth of Jesus, has very little to do with winter and festivals and celebrating a season. It has very little to do with traditions and rituals and gifts and decorations.
The story these writers are telling is talking about what the world was actually like. These writers are entering into this and saying that there is a new King being born.
They are speaking to a world in suffering and oppression and captivity and proclaiming that Caesar isn't Lord.
Jesus is.
So we have to begin to see this bigger thing taking place. That it is more than shopping and lights and silver bells and reindeer and the cultural phenomenon of Christmas. And it is more than just some story we read at church in December to stop and say, "It's Jesus birthday!"
Rather, Christmas is saying, "They call Herod King and they call Caesar Lord, but there is a baby being born and he is going to turn this whole thing upside down."
There is a different Kingdom entering into the world. There is a different Lord bringing his peace to Earth.
Which means we can still do all the festival things...we just have to put them in their proper place and realize that they don't have a whole lot to do with Jesus being born.
Because Christmas isn't a holiday...it is a revolution.
It is entering into the oppression and injustice and pain and suffering and selfishness and greed and all the ways the world has gone wrong and saying that it doesn't have to be that way.
I know there is darkness and evil systems and brokenness all over this place.
I know Herod's kingdom is violent and ruthless and it has stripped you of everything you have.
I know Caesar and his Empire have dominated your world with their false peace and their messed up propaganda.
But they are being overthrown because a baby has been born.
This birth impacts the entire way the world works because the whole Caesar and Herod thing is going down. Their kingdom, their empire, it is over and God's is making its way into the world again.
It is no wonder they called this thing 'good news'.
And this is what we are celebrating. A child enters the world and is gonna turn this whole thing upside down.
It is a revolution of the entire world.
Christmas is just the invitation to get caught up in it.
For more on Christmas please see the writing:
http://tylerkleeberger.blogspot.com/2012/11/advent-lets-make-this-thing-good-again.html
