HG010-11 Luke 2:1-20 pt1

Luke 2:1–20 CSB

1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. 2 This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, 5 to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: 14 Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors! 15 When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. 17 After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.

1-5

Caesar has called a census, Luke has placed this historically just before the birth of Jesus. And he tells us as a result Joseph, and of course, everyone else, had to go back to their ancestral home, which for him is the City of David, Bethlehem. Not only is Luke placing these events historically he is also calling to mind the difference between the one who is King of the Roman Empire and the one who is about to be born a king.

Caesar was one of three former co-rulers but he gained sole control of the empire and reigned from 27BC to 14AD. He had restored peace after about 20 years of civil war. He brought in the Empire’s golden age known as Pax Romana, meaning Roman Peace, which lasted for about 250 years. Of course, we know that this peace was kept through the sheer brutality of its army on those who would even dare speak against Rome or its Emperor.

What we know from historical records is that Caesar Octavian was the first to be called Augustus, which means, revered one. Until then it had only been used of their gods. This was the beginning of the time when the Emperors were to be thought of as gods. And indeed we have an inscription found in Priene, which is in today’s Turkey, that says: “the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good news for the world that came through him”. Thus they called Augustus god and saviour of the world. Maybe now we see what is going on here. We have the fake and the real put before us. The true God and Saviour was about to be born into the world. The contrast could not be greater. Luke portrays Jesus as the true Savior of the world, the authentic bearer and proclaimer of good news. Unlike Augustus, Jesus can offer true salvation.

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26: Luke Miracle in Bethlehem

You might ask, “Who determines history—the Caesars, the kings, and the presidents?” In faith we believe that God is not only the Ruler of all things, but even the Ruler of human history and that many unwittingly serve Him.

And so it was that even in this remote place there was the call to be registered in the census for the purpose of taxation. There was no get out clause. The might of the Roman Empire would come heavily down upon any who would refuse the order. Until then Mary was going to give birth in her home at Nazareth and she was now forced to go on a trip which came at the most inconvenient of times. She was in her third trimester. Doctor’s today advise against such travel in the 7 to 9 months period. But Caesar overruled. Caesar’s decree denied her the support of family and friends, forcing her and Joseph to instead embark on an arduous 85-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Please do not take our lovely Christmas cards and carols as the fount of theological knowledge for much of them are but over-sentimentalised fantasy. The reality of the situation was dire. There is no donkey mentioned for their journey, no, they had to walk and at a minimum would have taken 5 days. It cannot have seemed to Mary that God’s hand was in all this such was the hardship. When they reached Bethlehem, a small town, it was teaming with hordes of people. But God was making sure the child was going to be born in this place rather than the one that had been planned. God was miraculously controlling the events of the world, working all things out for good so that He might fulfil His promise to send the Saviour into the world. And the name of the place itself had been prophesied about 700 years before:

Micah 5:2 CSB

2 Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.

The crowds were clogging all the available housing and eliminated the opportunity for even a traditional delivery for they found nowhere to lodge.

6-7

What do we think about when we think ‘inn’? I wish that tradition had not encroached on our translations of the English bible though all the more recent ones have updated them including the newest NIV. This was no hotel. Again we have a sentimental view and even have an angry inn-keeper in many nativity plays. But this was not how it was. There were inns in those days along the busiest of highways but they had a dreadful reputation that most law-abiding Jews would have avoided. One of those inns is found in story of the Good Samaritan. We know this from the Greek word used. There would not have been those kind of inns in a place as small as Bethlehem. But the Greek word used here is the same word we find later in Luke when Jesus is telling his disciples

Luke 22:11 NIV

11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

This takes on a different understanding of an innkeeper, servants, and the like. This was simply a room in a house. And most of the larger houses in Bethlehem had such a room which would have had nothing except four walls, and you were not guaranteed privacy. And such rooms, because of the hospitality in those days, were free of charge. But the census was on. There simply was no room - probably two or three families were already staying in each room.

And now we understand how it is they came to be staying in the part of a building for keeping animals. And so it was that Mary went into labour. With the animals and all alone with no family to help, Joseph became the midwife. They were anonymous, they were insignificant, they were peasants, they were poor. Some people have asked whether they were so poor. Well according to Scripture and to 2000 years of Tradition they were very poor. They say, Joseph was a carpenter with his own workshop. If so, why did they not return to Nazareth after the census? Instead we find them still in Bethlehem two years later. Why, just 66 days later, in the Temple did they not offer a lamb for the sacrifice of purification if they had money rather than the option given to the poor of two turtle doves? In reality Joseph and Mary had nothing and it is only after their return from Egypt, again no donkey is mentioned going to Egypt or on their return, that Joseph probably then set up shop in Nazareth, which, by then, Jesus was at least 6 or 8 years old based on the historical records of when Herod died. But then we have the Scriptural evidence where it says in

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

And here comes the baby, as with all babies we know that they have come into the world when it first cries. If there is no cry there is great concern. Joseph was now holding the baby, bloodied as He was, and helpless as He was.

Jesus was born in humiliation. He did not enter the world in a hospital, in a comfortable home, in the home of a friend or relative, under a doctor’s care, but in a smelly stable, the lowest imaginable place for a birth. Jesus had come from Heaven and was born in poverty.

This family appeared to have been helpless pawns caught in the movements of secular history but every move was under the hand of Almighty God in fulfilment of prophecy. The baby was not a Caesar, a man who would become a god, but a far greater wonder, the true God who had become a man!

This is scandalous! The smell of birth with the smell of the animals and their doings. This is God, right?

Preaching the Word: Luke, Vol. 1—That You May Know the Truth The Incarnation (vv. 6–7)

It was clearly a leap down—as if the Son of God rose from his splendor, stood poised at the rim of the universe irradiating light, and dove headlong, speeding through the stars over the Milky Way to earth’s galaxy, finally past Arcturus, where he plunged into a huddle of animals. Nothing could be lower.

The Son of God was born into the world not as a prince but as a pauper. We must never forget that this is where Christianity began, and where it always begins—with a sense of need, a graced sense of one’s insufficiency. Christ, himself setting the example, comes to the needy. He is born only in those who are “poor in spirit.” And it was Mary who wrapped the child up in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a feeding trough, for there was no one else to help.

Oh this paradox of the incarnation:

Augustine said of the baby Jesus:

Unspeakably wise

He is wisely speechless

And

Luci Shaw, in her poem called “Mary’s Song,” says:

Quiet he lies

whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps

whose eyelids have not closed before

The omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God had become a baby!

This is an important truth to grasp: The Son of God became a real human being not just the appearance of one.

When he was born, God the Son placed the exercise of his all-powerfulness and all-presence and all-knowingness under the direction of God the Father. He did not give up those attributes, but he submitted their exercise in his life to the Father’s discretion. Though he was sinless, he had a real human body, mind, and emotions—complete with their inherent human weaknesses.

As a real baby in the cradle he watched his tiny clenched fist in uncomprehending fascination, just like any other baby. He did not feign babyhood. He did not say to himself, “You all think I am a non-talking baby discovering I have a hand. Actually, I am God admiring my brilliant invention. I am your Creator, and I understand every word you are saying.” Not at all. He was not pretending. He was a baby!

Truly human, the Son subjected himself to his own creation and its physical laws, its ups and downs. He would experience the development of human reason and language. He would be taught things he did not know. He walked like a baby before he walked like a man. He thought and talked like a baby before he thought and talked like a man.

As Harold Best explains: “The only difference was that Jesus did his learning, growing, and maturing sinlessly and perfectly, but this does not mean he was an instant learner.”

He had to learn to be a carpenter from his earthly father, Joseph. Jesus Christ lived with a human body, mind, and soul with all their limitations, except for sin.

He really did it. It really did happen. Paul was right: “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body …” (1 Timothy 3:16).

[8-18, 20 Carol Service Sermon]

19

What an amazing 9 months it had been. Mary had been told that her baby was of God and truly God. And now she knew that He had now come into the world. She was still betrothed to Joseph, an unmarried teenager who had to endure the rumour mill, then the long trip to Bethlehem from Nazareth in her final months of pregnancy and then to top it all to be born in a place where animals were kept and have as a cot a feeding trough. Then there is the exhaustion of it all, then having the most unlikely of visitors, uncouth shepherds, strangers and their story of the angel of the Lord with his announcement of the birth of their Saviour and all of heaven’s armies appearing. The familiar faces of home with their congratulations was absent in a strange place. So much had happened. How to take it all in? And so it was she mulled over them and stored them up in her heart. In fact, the reason why we know the details of this story is that she must have been the one to tell Luke about it all in her later years.

So many people missed out on the first coming of Christ though He had been foretold in the Scriptures. John the Baptist, his cousin, who would later declare “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.

The marvel of Jesus’ birth, the fullness of God and the fullness of man, in a baby. A baby who would grow up to die on a cross, the whole reason for His coming into the world the first place. He then rose again overcoming the curse of sin, death itself. But whilst He is presently in Heaven, the second coming of Jesus will not be anonymous but will be with great fanfare and the armies of the Lord will suddenly appear and the One who is King of kings will come with great power. So many missed the first coming of Christ, and how many will not be ready for His Second Advent?

Later Luke records the warning of Jesus:

Luke 21:34 CSB

34 “Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly

Perhaps this is a word in season considering it is Christmas and we do go to town on our celebrations.

And Paul taught us

Titus 2:12–13 CSB

12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The humility of Christ coming to this world to seek and save the lost, the poor, the downtrodden, the sinner. The thought that He did this for us. This should be enough to worship Him. Indeed we are instructed to by the angels: give Glory to God in the highest. Will we meditate on this Christ who gave His all that we should receive all the blessings. Are we ready for the next time He arrives? Let us think on this marvellous story and store it up in our hearts.

Benediction

Romans 8:38–39 CSB

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bibliography

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Grigoni, M. R., Custis, M., Mangum, D., Whitehead, M. M., Brant, R., Barry, J. D., & Vince, E. (2012). Mary: Devoted to God’s Plan. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Hughes, R. K. (1998). Luke: that you may know the truth. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Larson, B., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1983). Luke (Vol. 26). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996). The Gospel according to Luke. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

Elwell, W. A. (1995). Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). St. Luke (Vol. 1). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 22:11 21 December 2018.