When I taught the book Eric Metaxas wrote on Bonhoeffer, I looked at it through the lens of the story of two men who collide without ever having met. Had there not been an Adolph Hitler we would have probably never heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Had there never been a Dietrich Bonhoeffer things might have turned out differently in Germany. Their lives were joined together.

This is the same kind of story – but it’s not two men exactly. It is a story of a man who becomes a god and God who becomes a child. It is a story of two people who shape the balance of history in different ways. They would never have met but became the two most influential people in Western Civilization. One creates the forms of Western Civilization – law, language, education, architecture, and science. The other fills those forms with his Spirit.

“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[a] 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 to 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.”

1. Who is Caesar Augustus and why did he demand a census and a tax?

Octavius Gaius was the grandnephew of Julius Caesar and his adopted grandson.  At the age of 12 he was recognized as an extraordinary child by his parents and teachers. Upon Julius Caesar’s death it was discovered he had left the young boy as his successor.

When he began to rule the Roman Republic was coming apart with civil wars, insurrections, attempted secessions and corruption. Over the course of his lifetime he turned the fractured and divisive Roman Republic into the Roman Empire – the Imperial Rome.

Caesar Augustus’s reign was marked by peace and security – the famous Pax Romana – as well as by lavish building projects throughout the empire. He reformed every institution in the Republic – from governance to finance. He built the Roman roads, aqueducts, and the whole infrastructure that made the Pax Romana possible. In a sense, his building the infrastructure made the rapid spread of the Gospel possible as Paul and the earliest Christians followed the trade routes around the Empire. He reformed the military and backed innovations in naval warfare and land campaigns. He eliminated the corruption so rampant in the Republic.

His reign came at the close of the 500 year Roman Republic but he did not claim to be Emperor – only Princeps or “first among equals”. He told the Senate, “I have no more power than the others” but he was the Wizard of Oz in controlling everything from behind the curtain. He was the master politician and consolidator of power. No one before and no one after him could touch his skills at accumulating and using power. He was not an insane and cruel despot like many of those who followed him. In fact, he was so interested in the reform of religion and the importance of religion in public life that some say had he not been so accomplished in so many other ways he might have been known primarily for his religious reforms. “Augustus … tried to revive the drooping interest in Rome’s state religion. By his day, the average Roman had abandoned his beliefs in the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon and philosophical skepticism was growing, while the more credulous joined the foreign eastern mystery cults. Feeling that this neglect of the gods was demoralizing Roman society, he set about his religious revival with enthusiasm bestowing temples and shrines on the Empire, restoring eighty-two temples in the city of Rome alone. He became “pontifex maximus” (highest priest) in the state cult and tried to spark a moral renewal in society.”   Confidence in man’s ability and reason was shaken. There was a widespread “loss of nerve.” Distrusting themselves and their reason, men looked for the answer in antiquity and in religions which could claim the sanctions of the ancients and of long generations of believers. They looked to the past and longed for it.

It was the turn to these mystery religions and foreign religions that concerned him the most. He was intent on reviving religion that supported the State and did not demand other loyalties. From a strictly pragmatic perspective, he understood the benefits of religion – but not too much of it. He appreciated the power of good morals, good values, obedience and structure but all under the supervision and control of the State. He wanted a patriotic religion.

Many Roman men and women of the time were indulging in a very easy morality to escape what they called “the tedium of marriage,” and soon marital and birth rates had dwindled alarmingly. Concerned at the dwindling of the Roman population Augustus passed legislation designed to reverse the tide by making promiscuity a crime, while conferring political advantages on a father of three children. Bachelors who shirked “the duty of marriage” were penalized in their right to inherit, and they could not even secure good seats at the games!

Because of his demonstrated concern about marriage and birth rate in his empire, it is likely that one of the reasons Augustus authorized the census was to see whether his legislation was working, or, at the very least, to see how birth rates were increasing. The birth of one more child in a small town in Judea would have pleased him.

He was in control of every institution and yet carried off the illusion of being merely first citizen until he was declared Augustus by the Senate. After that he was openly recognized as the supreme ruler of the Roman Empire. In fact, it was said of Augustus that he was equal to the Beginning of all things. “For when everything was falling into disorder, he restored once more and gave to the whole world a new aura..Whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence has brought life to the climax of perfection in giving us the emperor Augustus, whom Providence willed with power for the welfare of humankind and who, being sent to us and our descendants as our Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order..and whereas the birthday of the god Augustus has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel concerning him, therefore let a new era begin from his birth” Of course, after his death the month of August was named for him.

2. But there is another birth and another gospel in the story.

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 that will cause great joy 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.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

There is another good news announced other than the good news of the birth of Augustus and it is to all people – not just to those in the Roman Empire. It is to Jews and Gentiles alike. The birth of Jesus introduces a competing gospel to the gospel of the world order.

3. There is even a third birth of sorts at the same moment. At the announcement of the census and the tax the zealots are born.

The Zealots objected to Roman rule and violently sought to eradicate it by generally targeting Romans and Greeks. They were extreme patriots. Zealots who engaged in violence against other Jews were called the Sicarii. They raided Jewish houses and killed Jews they considered apostate and collaborators, while also urging Jews to fight Romans and other Jews for the cause. They were the Proud Boys of their time. Josephus paints a very bleak picture of their activities as they instituted what he characterized as a murderous “reign of terror” prior to the Jewish Temple’s destruction.

They saw the census and the taxation that followed as the end of freedom and the beginning of slavery. They wanted freedom at any cost…and the end result is the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss of a million lives 70 years later.

4. This conflict between the three continues for the rest of Jesus’ life. What is the nature of His kingdom? What is our relationship to Caesar? What does it mean to be free? What do we owe the world? All these themes reflect the time in which he was born and lived. They continue today, don’t they?

Caesar’s Latin title given him – Augustus – is another title for reverend. It makes him the supreme priest of the State religion. He is not just the Commander in Chief or the Chief Executive. He is the Head of the State church. It is a title of power and position. He is the anointed one.

What is the Latin word for the title Jesus used for himself? It is pastor – Latin for shepherd. It was shepherds who surrounded him that first night – and that is how he thought of himself for the rest of his life. He was the Good Shepherd. The one who laid down his life for the sheep. He was not Augustus for whom the sheep lay down their lives. Augustus is a title and pastor is a way of life. In fact, God’s announcement of the birth of Jesus is to pastors and not to those with great titles.

Caesar disguised himself as first among equals in order to be invisibly all powerful. He was a man treated as a god while claiming to be an equal. He was the god of law and order. He was the god who gave them what they most desired. His gospel was the good news of great joy for them – a return to order out of division and decline.

Jesus was God who became man and instead of disguising himself revealed to us who God is. He was a King who became a servant. He was the god who said, If you want to save your life you must lose it, and blessed are you when men revile and persecute you for my sake, and the one who desires to be great must become the servant of all.

Philippians 2: 6-11:  “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Or as David says in the Psalm 95:6-7: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”

There will always be a conflict between the three Kingdoms – the Kingdom of the Power of Man, the Kingdom of the Freedom of Man and the Kingdom of Christ. We will always wrestle with those three and never resolve the conflict. What we have this morning is a snapshot of that struggle but, fortunately, we know how it is resolved. It is in the prophecy of Isaiah and the final words of Handel’s Messiah.

Isaiah 9:6-7: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”

“Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”