In lowliness and weakness
Luke 2:1-7
2 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Luke tells us who in those days looked like they had the power -- Emperor Augustus and his henchman Quirinius. They have the power to make people travel back to their hometowns to be counted, and to pay their taxes as they were counted. Ordinary people like Joseph and Mary were required to do what the emperor wanted done, they were pawns in his hands. The emperor did not know who they were, nor did he care that his orders disrupted their lives. For Augustus’ order is a major inconvenience for Mary, in particular, travelling about 100 miles when 9 months pregnant.
Luke would be upset if he knew we had spent that much time thinking about the emperor, because the emperor is not the important figure in the story Luke is telling. The important figure is the baby in the manger. A baby born to family so poor that the best they could do for his first bed was a manger in a crowded stable. A baby born to a family so alone, that no one in Joseph’s hometown would open their doors to the couple clearly expecting a baby. A baby born to a family in a little town that did not really matter. This one Luke says is the person who matters in this story. Because this baby is the Son of God.
God came to us in lowliness and humility, in poverty and as an outsider. God came among us not with power and might. For as Paul reminds us, the weakness of God is greater than human strength and the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom (I Corinthians 1:25). God came to us in Jesus Christ, in the lowliness of our humanity. In that lowliness, because of that lowliness, he is worthy of our praise and worship.
PRAYER:
God of majesty and wonder, we fall in worship before you that you would come in lowliness and humility to live among us. We worship and adore you, for you came to us in poverty and weakness, taking on our reality in your Son Jesus Christ. To you we offer praise and honour, holy are you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.