It’s a classic power play. The emperor, Augustus, the Lord, the Savior of all people, has declared that everyone, EVERY BODY, in fact, “all the world” will be counted. A census will be taken, so new taxes can be levied and new soldiers recruited for the army. And just so everyone will recognize the immensity of this emperor’s power, the entire population must stop its daily activity, pack up their bags, and travel. They will be registered and counted, not where they are presently living, but in the city or town of their birth.
It was an obnoxious order, but nobody questioned its validity. They just hit the road. Mary was nine months pregnant and due any day, but did the emperor care? Nope! Not at all! And can’t you see our little couple when they hit the security checkpoint? The X-ray technician insists that Mary must pry her shoes off pregnancy-swollen feet. Joseph is forced to throw out the hand lotion and baby oil he so thoughtfully packed. No liquids beyond this point. No exceptions.
And at the end of their journey, there was no room in the inn. It wasn’t their poverty so much as it was the emperor’s desire to count his subjects. There just weren’t any empty rooms. Sometimes you just get stuck spending the night at the airport.
Mary and Joseph are not so different from the rest of us. They’re stuck between rising taxes and family demands. They are tired, weary of struggling. They yearn for rest and for someone, anyone, to acknowledge them as human beings who are precious in God’s sight.
But there was not time for rest and there was no one around to care. “All the world” was rushing about to comply with the emperor’s orders – all, that is, except the shepherds. “Living in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night” the shepherds are like the migrant farm workers, or the homeless family that sleeps in their car. They don’t show up on anybody’s radar screen, not even the emperor’s. The shepherds are, quite literally, not worth counting. Their daily life is peaceful, quiet, and still. Even after the extraordinary visit of the angels, the shepherds are neither frantic nor hysterical. They take counsel together, and decide to “go now…and see this thing that has taken place.” They visit the baby and his family, and return to their fields, offering prayers of thanksgiving.
The Son of God had arrived, and was now resting quietly in a manger.
Mary and Joseph really were not sure what to make of it all.
It was the shepherds who got it. Those folks who did not count, the people who were not being counted, who were not part of the power structure – the shepherds were the ones who knew immediately that this child was more than special. This child was the key to the future. And because the shepherds were outside the system, they were free to tell, they were free to praise God at the top of their voices, because no one would pay them any mind at all.
So with no more fanfare than a chorus of angels and shepherds, history made a major turn. Everything that happened before the baby was born happened “in those days” in ancient times, in times shaped by earthly powers and authorities. But immediately after the birth, the story moves to “this day.” The angels said: “to you is born THIS DAY….and THIS will be a sign to you.”
In the quiet moments in the stable, a new time has entered the world. A new age has come. This day will be a challenge to the imperial world of “those days.” There is a new Savior, a new Lord, and he is not the emperor. He is Mary’s little baby, lying in a manger.
New times bring new ways of being. The angels told it to the shepherds, and now it echoes through the ages to our own ears: “Do not be afraid.”
Do not be afraid. The reign of fear is over. The most powerful freedom of all has been unleashed – the freedom from fear. Nothing can harm us now – not war or peace, not emperors or kings, not the stock market, “not hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword…for nothing, neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come nor heights nor depths nor anything else in all creation” will be able to separate us from the Lord of Love who was born THIS night, and who lives in us and with us, from this day forward, forevermore.
It is the greatest Christmas gift of all time. It is the Christmas Present.