By JOANNE SADLER BUTLER
By this time next year, we Americans will be recovering from two years of non-stop presidential politics. As we enter 2016 and the presidential contests become more heated, Christmas 2015 is an excellent time to step back and reflect on how our Savior was not a political person. Could He have been? Yes, but He chose another route — that of a human of low status in a nation conquered by pagans.
As St. Matthew carefully tells us (Matt. 1:1-17), Jesus in His human nature was a direct descendent of King David by 24 generations. However, the Gospels record that He never referred to Himself in this way. He never commanded attention in the synagogues or in the Temple in Jerusalem by saying: Listen to me, I am of royal blood — descended from King David!
Jesus adopted a much humbler approach, despite what the Angel Gabriel said during the Annunciation: “The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Luke 1:32-33).
Although Mary and Joseph were obedient to the will of God, they must have felt confused when they were ordered by the pagan Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus (and his local Roman governor, Quirinius) to be “enrolled” (Luke 2:1-2). “Enrolled” is often referred to as a census, but probably was not like the one we have to fill out every ten years. More likely it was about compiling names for taxation, perhaps to be paid on the spot. (The Protestant King James version of the Bible uses the word “taxed” instead of “enrolled.”)
Imagine Joseph scraping what little money he had for the journey plus what he expected to pay for taxes.
According to biblical scholars, the 60-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the north (Luke tells us they went “up from Galilee,” Luke 2:4) took at least three days. Those days must have been uncomfortable for the very pregnant Mary.
But Mary also was carrying a royal baby, decreed so by God.
To me, it would have been simple human nature to wonder why God was subjecting Joseph, and Mary in particular, to such hardship — hardship that flowed from the orders of a pagan. God could have certainly stayed the hand of Quirinius, or made the Holy Family’s journey easier. But He did not.
Worse yet, when they arrived in Bethlehem, they had to stay in a stable, not an inn (Luke 2:7). In the popular imagination, Bethlehem is crowded with people who had traveled there to be enrolled, so there were no rooms available.
Being an economist, however, I wonder if Joseph lacked money for a room at an inn because his tax payment to the Romans was more than he had expected. This would add yet more insult to the Son of God — being born in a stable because of Roman taxation.
Interestingly, when Jesus later went about His ministry, He told the Jews who had believed in Him that if they continued in their belief and followed His Word, they would be His true disciples, and “you will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). But the Jews questioned how this could make them free, as they were not slaves to anyone (John 8:33).
The reality, as shown by the circumstances of Jesus’ birth and everyday life under Roman rule, proved otherwise. Jesus’ contemporaries were indeed slaves, subject to Roman order. Pagan shrines dotted the landscape. A seaside city built by Herod the Great (the Romans’ local flunky) was named Caesarea after Caesar Augustus (the one who ordered the enrollment/taxation).
Pontius Pilate lived there when Caesarea replaced Jerusalem as the Roman administrative center — he traveled to Jerusalem when necessary. And despite being surrounded by signs of pagan power, there was nothing the Jews could do about it.
Back in Bethlehem, St. Luke tells us how shepherds were the first to hear of the birth of Jesus — and how the angels called Jesus “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:8-11) The choice of shepherds as the first hearers is worth our attention, as they held no rank in Jewish society. In Genesis chapter 46, Joseph the prophet has to warn his people who are seeking pastures in Egypt’s Goshen territory that “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Gen. 46:34).
By the time of Jesus’ birth, shepherds may not have been an “abomination” to their fellow Jews, but as a social group they did not count for much.
Perhaps this is why, during Jesus’ ministry, when He calls Himself the Good Shepherd (John 10:14), some of Jews who heard this thought He was a demon or mad (John 10:19-20). Who wanted to be a shepherd, good or not?
Although the shepherds proclaimed the glorious appearance of the angels and of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:20), news in that age spread slowly. If the news had gone from Bethlehem to Jerusalem in the usual way (person to person), it may have taken years, and evolved into a mythical story, not to be taken seriously. That did not happen due to the courtesy of the three wise men of the East.
Not being from Judea, the wise men followed protocol (2 Kings 5:5) and presented themselves to Herod first. Their audience with Herod is the first occasion when humans call Jesus the “king of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2). St. Matthew tells us how Herod and all of Jerusalem were troubled by this announcement (Matt. 2:3).
When Herod consulted his chief priests and scribes, they said how a prophet (Micah) had announced that Bethlehem would bring forth “one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2, Matt. 2:5-6).
Herod must have been badly frightened. The Romans had put him in power to control the Jews. One might say the Romans had contracted out the day-to-day management of the province to a local elite.
A “king of the Jews” — recognized by foreigners no less — was a threat to the status quo. Herod and his array of retainers could foresee many fights springing up until there was a mass rebellion to be put down by Roman troops.
This was exactly what the Romans had paid Herod to prevent. With failure not being an option (a failed puppet ruler was a dead one, with the same fate meted out to his family and friends), Herod had to scramble to prove to the Romans he had things under control.
First, Herod asked the wise men to go to Bethlehem and then return to him with Jesus’ exact location (Matt. 2:7-8) However, an angel warned the wise men not to return to Herod; they obeyed, which Herod viewed as a trick (Matt. 2:12, 16).
By now Herod’s fear and fury were intense. I can imagine Quirinius angrily asking Herod why he did not bother to send a spy to follow the wise men to Bethlehem. Herod’s next step had to be drastic and brutal: the slaughter of the innocent baby boys in and around Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16-18).
Joseph, being warned by an angel, took Jesus and Mary to Egypt, where they remained until Herod died (Matt. 2:13-15). But the Holy Family’s troubles continued, as Joseph feared Herod’s successor was no better than his father, and so they returned to their home village in Galilee instead of Judea (Matt. 2:22-23).
Again, human nature indicates that Joseph, if not Mary too, must have wondered when they were going to find some peace. First, they are ordered to travel to Bethlehem by a faraway pagan emperor; then they must live in a stable. Shepherds and wise men come to visit, but then follows news that Herod seeks to kill the Christ Child, and so they travel to Egypt, leaving by night.
If they heard news of Herod’s slaughter of the Bethlehem baby boys, it must have terrified them. What if one of Herod’s spies found them on their way to Egypt? Would they survive?
Finally, even after Herod’s death, they can leave Egypt, but Judea remains unsafe, and the Holy Family has to return to the obscurity (and safety) of Galilee and the village of Nazareth.
Indeed, God had granted Mary and Joseph the most precious gift of all — Himself — but not the gift of foresight. Thus, like all of us, they must have wondered about God’s plan for them.
Then came the Holy Family’s years in Nazareth — an interesting choice of a hometown for a future king. When Jesus embarked on His ministry and was seeking disciples, one, Philip, asked Nathanael to join them. Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Apparently Nazareth was a byword for backwardness. When Jesus returned from His travels to preach in His home synagogue, the men jeered at Him for being a mere carpenter, and Jesus left, marveling at their unbelief (Mark 6:2-6).
Does this sound like the actions of a man seeking to claim an earthly kingship?
What Is Truth?
Indeed, on the day of His crucifixion, Jesus and Pilate discuss whether or not Jesus is the king of the Jews. When Pilate first asks Jesus about this, Jesus asks in return if Pilate is querying on his own or from what others have told him. Pilate admits the chief priests have handed Jesus over to him, and asks, “What have you done?”
Jesus gives the definitive reply: “My kingship is not of this world” (John 18:33-36). This gives Pilate an opening as tries to find a reason to execute Jesus; he asks, “So you are a king?” Jesus replies without answering the question: “You say that I am a king.” He continues, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”
You can almost hear the shrug in Pilate’s voice as he replies, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38).
Finally, at Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate posted a sign above His head stating, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” St. John tells us the sign was in three languages, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so everyone could read it (John 19:19-20). The chief priests asked Pilate to change the sign to “This man said I am King of the Jews” but Pilate refused (John 19:21-22).
Ironically it took a human, and a pagan at that, to lift Jesus from the earth and proclaim to the Jews and Gentiles that He was a king. But as with so many others since Jesus’ birth, Pilate got it wrong. Earlier that same day, Jesus had told Pilate He was not a political person; His Kingdom was not of this world. Specifically, He was not the earthly king of the Jews who would end Roman rule in Judea.
As we enter 2016 and its politics, we must ask ourselves if we are seeking an earthly redeemer to wipe away the ugly pagan quotidian challenges we must face as practicing Catholics. Will we get it wrong, as Herod, Pilate, and the chief priests did?
It takes courage to follow a king who was born in a stable, hunted as an infant enemy of the state, mocked in his hometown, and hung on a cross. Christ’s Kingdom has no departments, secretaries, functionaries, or bureaus. His is the Kingdom of Easter and our redemption.
Like Mary and Joseph, we walk a confusing and sometimes fearful path to Bethlehem and beyond. Like Mary and Joseph we also must trust in God’s guidance to lead us to the truth, the Logos, the foundation of His Kingdom within our souls and beyond this world.
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