The Gospel of Luke was written sometime in the seventh decade of the first century during the reign of the cruel Caesar Nero. More than thirty-five years had passed since the Lord’s resurrection and ascension into Heaven. In those years, the Church had grown dramatically from its beginnings in Jerusalem, and a strong believing community had emerged in the capital city of Rome.
Nero felt threatened by these followers of Christ who refused to call anyone Lord except Jesus Christ. He severely persecuted believers, blaming them for the fire of Rome in A.D. 64, impelling them on sticks or nailing them to crosses with pitch poured over them and fire set to their bodies to illuminate his gardens at night.
Do you think these early Christians ever wondered where God was in the middle of their suffering?
We are in the most blessed nation of human history and yet people in our community are in need of some of the basics of life. People are estranged from family; others are idly wasting away in nursing homes; and still others have people all around them and feel the isolation of loneliness. People in this area are wondering where God is in the middle of their pain.
The Christmas story provides the answer, for it shows both the power and vulnerability of the Creator.
As to power, think of what it was that brought Mary and Joseph 100 miles out of the small Army town of Nazareth in the hills of Galilee on an arduous trek in the last month of her pregnancy to Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem in the Judean hills.
Mary and Joseph did not know the Old Testament prophecy of the Bethlehem birth. They were not on a journey to fulfill God’s plan. It was because of the decree of Caesar Augustus that everyone must go to the town of his birth to be registered for taxation. This is not a pleasure trip, but a forced donkey ride.
During the persecution under Nero, the Christians seemed to know the “inside story”. The Creator had slipped past Caesar’s appointments secretary, secret service, and all his counselors to put an idea in his head: take a census of the whole Roman world. God manifested His power by having Caesar move the whole world because God wanted to move one family out of Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfill what had been written in Scripture.
So, the believers in Nero’s time knew for a certainty that there was a Power greater than Caesar, a Power Who controlled human history. But those same believers also knew vulnerability – that God’s powerful hand was gloved by love, that God would not use His power to coerce people to believe in Him.
We have all seen the pictures of hungry children on television, where we are asked to help. Now, we have the plea to help people living in the Holy Land. We have people representing rehab groups asking for our help outside WalMart and the invitation from projects like “Angel Tree” to make life easier for those around us. We are asked to help, but there is no one who is told they must help, or else! We must decide if we are able and willing to go outside our family settings to give to make life better for others.
The late Harry Reasoner said in one of his Christmas messages on “60 Minutes: “Everyone has seen babies, and most people like them. If God wanted to be loved as well as feared, He moved correctly here,…for a baby growing up learns all about people. If God wanted to be intimately a part of man, He moved correctly, for the experiences of birth and familyhood are our most intimate and precious experiences. …It is either all falsehood or it is the truest thing in the world. It is the story of the great innocence of God the Baby – God in the form of man – and has such a dramatic shot toward the heart that if it is not true, for Christians, nothing is true.”
Yes! God was present in both Caesar’s palace and a cave in Bethlehem where the Baby was born in a manger. Christmas tells us He is the God both of power and of love. He chooses Caesar to issue an edict, dispatches angels to sing, and directs shepherds to observe; but He leaves the choice of worship to us.
You decide! Will this be another Christmas where we serve only those of our families, or will it be a time to spread God’s power and love to those outside that circle? I have already given – join me!
