Monday, December 6

Luke 2:1-7

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 Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his 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 room for them in the inn.

What’s your personal “gift-giving strategy? Do you start early? Do you brave the hordes on “Black Friday?” Do you like to wait until around the third week of December – when your “Christmas spirit” really gets pumping?

And how do you decide what to give your loved ones? Do you ask them what they want? That’s a fail-safe method – but it does take some of the fun out of the hunt! Do you give them something you would like to receive - like the husband who gives his wife a new gas grill? “Hey honey, this thing has six burners, don’t you just love it!?” Or, do you go the practical route – and give them what they need – socks, underwear, sweaters?

We all have a strategy- and we all have a certain distance we are willing to travel – and a certain cost we are willing to pay – to find the right gifts for the ones we love. In this very familiar passage, Luke tells us something about the gift giving strategy of God!

Notice how far God is willing to “travel” to deliver his gift!

Luke begins with Caesar Augustus, who as the Emperor of Rome was the ruler of the known world, and would have been considered as a “divine” being by his subjects.

Then he mentions a fellow named “Quirinius,” who was the Governor of Syria at the time. Historians now know that Quirinius was a relatively minor political administrator – a man whose role was completely insignificant to the story Luke is telling – except that the mention of his name helps Luke anchor the story of Jesus in real time and real history.

Next comes Joseph, who, as a Jewish man, held few rights in a world ruled by Rome. And yet, Luke reminds us, Joseph did come from the lineage of the great King David – which would have provided at least some status in his own culture.

Then comes Mary, a young (most likely a teenager) Jewish woman, without many rights even in her own culture, and who was already expecting a child even though she was not yet officially married. Today we would refer to Mary as “an unwed teenage mother.”

Then Luke mentions the baby born to Mary and Joseph. No creature is as vulnerable and defenseless as a newborn human being. And finally, Luke adds the somewhat astonishing detail that the child was wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger – which was nothing more than a feeding trough for animals!

In one short paragraph, Luke has taken us from the Roman Emperor to a red-faced newborn lying in an animal feeding trough – and we have to ask, “Why?” Why would God go to such great lengths, such great trouble, to give this gift to the world?

The answer, of course, is love. Just as ever gift we give and receive at Christmas time is, in one way or another, motivated by love – so also God’s great gift of Jesus is a gift given in love. May that love be the center of your personal and family celebration this Advent season!

Brian Coffey