Reading the Bible Badly. Karl Allen Kuhn

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      1 The God of Israel is Creator and Master of all

      2 The current state of the world violates God’s intentions for creation

      3 God is coming to fix this, to save the faithful, and to return creation to a state of blessing

Within Israel’s sacred traditions (including what Christians refer to as the Old Testament), the abuse of Israel by foreign leaders, and their own leaders, are manifestations of a world gone horribly wrong.19 In the century leading up to the birth of Jesus, many within Israel were proclaiming Kingdom Stories in response to Roman rule and what they perceived as the corruption of Israel’s own rulers, especially the temple elite and those allied with them.20 Some Kingdom Stories, including those found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, regarded Roman and Israelite elite, and their followers, as the spawn of Satan. A day was arriving soon when these reprobates would be destroyed. God would establish a new Temple, a new people of Israel, who would share in God’s abundance.21

      So, as we prepare to rejoin Luke’s infancy narrative, let’s quickly summarize the main points from our whirlwind tour of the realm of Rome.

      1 In the Roman world, religion and politics mix, all the time. Rulers claim a divine mandate to rule, appealing to and even creating sacred ritual and tradition to validate their control of the economic and political mechanisms of empire.

      2 Rome, like most ancient civilizations and many still today, cultivates a grossly unequal distribution of resources. This results in a very wealthy upper class who hoard most of that society’s resources.

      3 The vast majority of the population suffers, and many suffer horribly, under the inequity and brutality of Roman rule.

      4 Israelite elite are an extension of Roman rule. They are supposed to shepherd the people in ways of righteousness and be ministers of God’s blessings, but many use their positions to abuse and oppress.

      5 Most within Israel, well before and during the time of Jesus, know that the current state of affairs is not okay with God. They earnestly hope that God will do something about it, and soon, and tell Kingdom Stories to express that hope and encourage one another.

      This information about Jesus’ context is crucial for making sense of what Luke and the rest of the New Testament is trying to say about Jesus and the significance of his birth. And if you approach the passage with this information as part of your interpretive lens, then you can’t help but notice the significance of Caesar in this story. Allow me to repeat myself: most Israelites in the time of Jesus, knew that the current state of affairs was not okay with God, and earnestly hoped that God would do something about it, and soon. According to Luke and the other NT writers, that time has now come. Jesus is God’s answer to Caesar, the Israelite elite, and all that has gone desperately wrong with this world!

      Let’s return to the story (perhaps go back and reread it before moving on).

      Lord Caesar

      Recall that as the passage opens, we are not in Israel. We are in Rome, in the palace of the emperor. We are likely meant to picture Caesar, menacing, seated on his throne.

For it is the one known throughout the Mediterranean region and beyond as Lord who speaks and moves “all the world” to action (2:1). Caesar Augustus orders a census to be taken. Caesar wants to take stock of his subjects and possessions, the objects of his rule and sources of revenue (think taxation). His word is spoken, his underlings such as Quirinius, Governor of Syria, make it happen. The rest of the world has no choice but to comply with this “penetrating symbol of Roman overlordship.” 22 And “all went to their own towns to be registered” (v. 3). As the scene now shifts to the dusty roads of the Israelite countryside, we learn that the father of Jesus is no exception: “Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem” (v. 4).

Note these repeated references to Caesar’s census in vv. 2–5. Nearly all the activity that occurs in this part of the story revolves around the need for people, including Joseph, to be registered. The Roman Emperor dominates the opening of the story. Caesar’s command rules the cosmos, or so it seems.23

      Lowly Lord Jesus

But then Jesus is born. In simple, unadorned prose, we are told that Jesus is wrapped in bands of cloth, and laid in a feedbox “because there was no place for them in the inn” (2:7). Luke goes out of his way to emphasize the impoverished circumstances of Jesus and his parents. The “inn” (kataluma)—a sparse, hostel-like room for guests or travelers adjoining a house—is full. None move aside so that the very pregnant and eventually laboring Mary can give birth in the security of even these very meager quarters. So the young couple squeezes into a dirty, cramped, and likely ramshackle stable, delivers their child, employs a crap-encrusted feedbox for a crib, and wraps their child in scraps of spare cloth.24

      The repeated references to the bands of cloth and manger and their function as the “sign” that identifies Jesus (2:7, 12, 16–17) keep these lowly elements in view even as he is exalted by the heavenly host and found by the shepherds. Luke’s recipients are confronted with an image of Israel’s Messiah that could not be more incongruous with the pomp and might of Emperor Augustus on his throne, commanding the world at will. Caesar and Jesus. Roman Emperor and Israelite peasant infant. One at the very top of the political and economic hierarchy of Rome, and the other among those at the bottom struggling to survive.

      To be sure, the claim that the birth of this Israelite, peasant infant, and his manifestation in this desperate setting so far removed from the center of elite power, poses any sort of meaningful challenge to Caesar’s rule would be regarded by nearly all in first-century Rome as simply ludicrous. It is important that we appreciate this reality.

Yet, as the scene shifts again—from dark, dank stable to darkened field—it is this very claim that explodes into the night! The glory of God Most High engulfs a band of shepherds and a heavenly messenger stands among them to proclaim: “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Then, adding a massive exclamation point to this startling message and most unexpected scene, as if to affirm that this really is taking place (as the shepherds rub their eyes in disbelief), an angelic host suddenly appears to announce: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” Here too we encounter another setting far removed from the domains of elite power. Shepherds, along with other agricultural workers, were among the large peasant class whose servitude fueled the economy of empire and hegemony of Roman rule. Yet is to these favored ones—and not to the Israelite priestly elite in Jerusalem—that glory of God appears. “God’s glory, normally associated with the temple, is now manifest on a farm!”25

      Jesus, not Caesar, is Sovereign

      The angelic proclamation about Jesus amplifies (in tandem with Luke 1:26–38) Jesus’ divine identity. The use of the titles “Savior” and “Lord” for Jesus is striking, for they are the same titles Israelites use for God. At the same time, these titles and other elements of the angles’ pronouncement compose a repudiation of Caesar and his reign. Luke shapes the angels’ testimony so that many of the things celebrated about Caesar and his birth by those allied with Rome are now attributed to this infant lying in a feedbox. In their decision to honor Augustus by beginning the new year on his birthday, the Roman provincial assembly announced,

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