God Came for You

I know that you came to Christmas Eve worship to sit back with your family and enjoy this worship service but I’m going to ruin that right now because I am going to put your brain to work and make you think. I’m sorry but I’m also not sorry. So here’s my big question for you tonight: Have you ever given much thought as to why the gospel of Luke includes includes all of these details in the opening of our story today? Why all this boring stuff about tax lists and who the governor was and what cities they had to go to? Why do we need to know it was during the reign of Cesar Augustus and that they had to be enrolled so that the government could get more money out of their citizens?

I mean I get it. It gives us a timeline for when Jesus was born, but if it’s just about a timeline he could have been brief like Matthew was. Matthew just tells us that Jesus was born during the rule of King Herod. If we look at Mark and John they don’t even touch the story of Jesus’ birth; both of them jump straight to John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism. So half of the gospel writers talk about the birth and half don’t, so it clearly dating when Jesus was born wasn’t so important. But Luke included these details for a reason and if the reason wasn’t really for that timeline then we still have to stop relaxing and really figure out why Luke included all these details for us.

I believe we get a glimpse into our answer when we take a look at not just Caesar and Quirinius but at them in combination with all the other characters. We have Joseph who is a simple carpenter from a very small town called Nazareth and who just so happens to have his ancestry connected to the line of David from the tribe of Judah, and Mary who is related to Elizabeth and Zechariah who come from the priestly tribe of of the Levites. So even though there is no direct connection to the royal line we see that Jesus’ parents represent tribes or families that trace back to both the kingly line and the priestly line. And that should be something that perks our interest because Luke has set the context as all of this happening during the reign of Caesar Augustus who is both Lord and the son of the gods.

Luke isn’t just giving us context for the sake of a timeline, but he is showing that a very dangerous thing is happening in the Roman Empire. A priestly king has been born and it isn’t the child of Caesar Augustus, it is someone completely different. In fact it is someone who is born to a small remote part of the empire, and a rather insubordinate part of the empire at that. More than anything else then, Luke is setting the stage for us to understand that something important and outright incredible is happening, and he doesn’t stop there.

I say that because the very next thing Luke brings up is that the good news of this birth is brought to some shepherds. The news is brought to them by an angel and here it is confirmed that the birth of this child is both that of a priest and a king, or in the words of the angel: He is Christ the Lord. Here’s where we see even more of what Luke is doing by including all of these details about Rome. He is giving us this incredible contrast of what is happening to the world by this Roman Empire, this pax romana, and what is happening in a small town called Bethlehem where a simple baby is born to a mother and father surrounded by animals, shepherds and their family. Now I doubt that night was anything but peaceful, considering all the context of what is happening, but I believe despite the lack of peace, I believe the real message is that hope was born that night.

And that is why Luke tells us all of this: hope. In the chaos of a world that was being ruled by a king that was proclaimed a god, who brought peace through war and the sword, God sends God’s own self in the form of a baby so that God can contrast the way the world works with the way that God works. And this hope that is offered, this peace that doesn’t require the sword or brute force, isn’t from a man on a throne in the traditional sense, but offered in a very different way.

Not only is it offered in a different way but it is also offered to different people. While the pax romana was meant for the whole ‘world’ it really benefitted those who were in power. I mean the whole point of the census was to be able to make sure that people were paying their taxes which benefitted those who were in power more than it did the average person, like the shepherds. In fact the shepherds weren’t even the average person, they were lower than the average person. You could say that Mary and Joseph fit in those categories as well. So Luke continues to offer us this contrast and it is a contrast of hope, that in a world where the governments are designed to promote and protect themselves, God comes for everyone else. God is here for the average couple who struggles to bring their children up in a strange world. God comes to those who work tirelessly through the night so that they can bring food to the table for those they care for and love.

In other words, my dear friends, the birth of Jesus, for Luke, is a message that God is here for you. God cares about you. God came for you. Whether you are a new mother and father, someone who works strange hours, someone who is retired, someone who struggles with health, or whatever it is that you are going through, God came for you. God didn’t come to lift up the those who are already in power and reveling in all that they have, but God came for everyone else to remind them that this life is less about money and power and domination, and it’s more about knowing that you are now and always loved, noticed, and cared for by the God who created this universe and called it good, and wants that goodness to be in your life.

So whatever brought you here tonight, whether it was a star, an assembly of the heavenly forces, your parents, tradition, or a real desire to connect with God know that God sees you, for who you are and what you are. God sees you in your flaws and your perfections and God calls you to come and see God’s love, which we celebrate tonight in the form of one of the most vulnerable things of this life: a baby. And yet, this baby is the hope that we have been waiting for all Advent. He is the epicenter of what true hope, joy, peace, love and light truly are meant to be in this world. Not as we know it in this world, but as what it could be and what we glimpse when we live out God’s love with each other and live into what it means to be a part of the family of God. So right now, set everything else aside for just a moment and say to yourself without a doubt in your mind: God came for me, and for this world. Amen.