Commentary on Luke 2:1-14 [15-20]

On Christmas Eve, we are invited once again into the wonder of Jesus’ nativity. Yet in a time when many are experiencing fear and uncertainty and we witness the gospel co-opted by white Christian nationalism, it can feel challenging to preach the good news of Jesus’ birth. In the Magnificat, Mary invited us to ponder what it means to proclaim the birth of the Son of the Most High who “brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” and “filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52–53). Now the baby has arrived, but violence, economic disparity, and division continue to plague our societies. It leaves us asking, What is the good news of the nativity for our present world?

The gospel writer of Luke asks a similar question, for Luke was not an eyewitness to Jesus’ life. Instead, he seeks to retell the good news “in a well-ordered account” for his particular community of primarily gentile Jesus-followers (Luke 1:3). This invites us to pay attention to the unique way Luke constructs the story of Jesus’ nativity, rather than embracing a “Christmas pageant” retelling in which all the gospel accounts are mixed together. By focusing on Luke’s account, we can learn about the concerns of his community. Similarly, we are invited to carefully consider our own sacred process of retelling the good news for our communities today.

The nativity under empire

Luke’s contextualization of Jesus’ birth highlights that its importance within the tradition of the people of Israel cannot be separated from its challenge to the Roman Empire. Jesus’ birth is prophetic and political. Luke moves from the prophecy around Jesus’ birth in the opening chapter to contextualizing Jesus’ birth within the Roman Empire. Unlike Matthew, which mentions King Herod, the Jewish Roman client-king of Judea, to contextualize the nativity, Luke names two non-Jewish Roman officials, Caesar Augustus and the governor of Syria, Quirinius. Because of our familiarity with the text, we may overlook the way this contextualization calls us to examine the political nature of the nativity.

In the opening verse of the pericope, we learn that Caesar Augustus has called for a registration. The province of Judea was placed under the jurisdiction of Quirinius for the registration. The registration was akin to a census. This census provided population information that was particularly important for determining taxation. Taxation was part of the lifeblood of the empire, providing resources to fund military campaigns, infrastructure projects, and other aspects of the Pax Romana. Peace built on a foundation of conquest and the exploitation of human and natural resources was expensive.

Luke 2:1 tells us that Augustus’s census decree required “all the world to be registered.” While this typically is read as referring to all the subjects of the Roman Empire, the universal nature of the decree gestures toward the Roman ideology that all the world was destined to come under Rome’s control.

This empire-building project would not make exceptions for a young couple expecting a child. Thus, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. Their journey represents the power of empire to dictate the movements of populations, especially the most vulnerable. Without the empire, Jesus’ birth story could have been much different. Mary would have been able to deliver him in a familiar space without the fatigue or danger of travel. Instead, Jesus’ birth is shaped by the exploitation of empire.

The message of the nativity is political

The first people to receive news of Jesus’ birth are not those in power or even magi, as in Matthew’s account. It is a group of shepherds living in the fields. While we have normalized this event in our Christmas pageants and nativity scenes, it is important to pause here. The first people to learn of Jesus’ birth are working people who are also under the power of the empire. They are acutely aware of the census and its impacts on their lives as they receive word of a life-giving counternarrative to empire in the form of an announcement of a baby’s birth.

Thus, the message the shepherds receive from the angel of the Lord should be read in the context of empire. The angel’s proclamation contains three particular challenges or counternarratives to empire:

• “I bring you good news of great joy for all people”

Jesus is not the only person associated with the good news (the Greek term from which we derive the word “gospel”). Augustus was also viewed as proclaiming good news for all people and all creation. For example, the Priene Inscription, a 9 BCE calendar reform in honor of Caesar Augustus, declares that his birth was the beginning of the good news.¹ Jesus’ birth ushers in a counterform of the good news. This good news is also not limited to the people of Israel but is for all people. It employs the same universal message that the empire used in the census decree. But instead of a call to submit to exploitation, the angel brings news of great joy and new life.

• “To you is born this day in the city of David”

In a text that pays particular attention to context, it is important that the site of Jesus’ birth not be referred to in relation to imperial geographic markers or rulers. Instead, Jesus is born in the city of David, situating him in the context of the people of Israel.

• “A savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord”

Augustus was referred to as the savior of the world in Roman propaganda, including the Priene Inscription. But here we receive news of a very different savior. It is a child, one of the most vulnerable members of society. In using this title, Luke signals a challenge to Roman understandings of salvation and the type of leadership needed to provide salvation.

As we once again witness Jesus’ nativity, we are invited to ponder the disruptive, life-giving counternarrative to empire that Luke offers. Jesus’ birth ushers in a new way of understanding power, salvation, and hope. It challenges us to consider how we can embody the good news in ways that offer a different vision of power and salvation than that built on prosperity and hierarchy. In this vision, we find hope.

Notes

1. Wilhelm Dittenberger, ed. Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae (S. Hirzel: 1903–5), 2.48–60.