Prefatory remark 1: The three kings of our nativity plays
have their origin in the Gospel of Matthew where they are wise men and not necessarily three.
Prefatory remark 2: Luke’s first nativity story is that
of John the Baptist.
The first king to be mentioned looks more than just a
king – he is in fact an emperor. He was born as Gaius Octavius on 23 September
63 BC and came to power after a period of political unrest following the murder
of his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar who in his testament designated Octavian
as his heir. Soon after his death, Julius Caesar was officially deified and
Octavian began to style himself “son of the divine”.
“Celebrated as a hero after the strife of civil war,
Augustus was considered the great source of peace for Rome. After defeating the
enemies of Rome, he was celebrated as a great “saviour” to the people who would
have likely been hopeless had victory not been achieved. The themes of freedom,
justice, peace and salvation permeated his reign. Whenever the great deeds of
Augustus were proclaimed, they were presented with the Greek term euangelion, which
is translated, “good news” or, “gospel”.”[1]
He looks like the one in charge because it is desire for a
census that gets our story going. And, indeed, is it not one of the marks of a
king or any comparable ruler that they determine the movements of little people
even at great distance? There he is in Rome, a long way away from the
backwaters of his empire here in Syria, Galilee and Judea but his decree impacts
directly on the daily life of Mary and Jospeh and countless others.
The second king is easily overlooked because he has long
ceased to be on the throne by the time our story begins. But David is in fact
mentioned three times in the story. Bethlehem is said to be the “city of David”
(twice) with regard to his origins (Jerusalem also holds a claim to being city
of David, as the place from which he ruled over all of Israel) and Joseph is introduced
as being of the family of David. No longer being on his throne, David’s impact
on the story is more indirect but no less significant for it. In fact, the
divine promises made to David got all this going to a more significant extent
than a mere Roman decree. The Roman decree was the starting pistol but David,
his life and the words he said, the words that were given to him, and the words
attributed to him were the training over many years that preceded the race.
But who runs the race? It is of course the third king;
“a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” When his birth had been announced to
Mary he was introduced as Jesus (Saviour), the one who “will be great, and will
be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne
of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of
his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33). Jesus is of course not yet enthroned
as king within the nativity story but he is born to be king and the only one of
the three who is still on the throne.
How does kingship work? I think we can say that all
kingship is mediated through words. The King of the universe created the world
through his word (Genesis 1) and upholds it through his word day by day (cf.
Hebrews 1:3). We and everything else exist because of his command. He put what
we call “natural laws” in place and he created humanity in his image to rule
over the earth (Genesis 1:28). If God’s kind of rule is mediated through words,
it is maybe no surprise that one of the key differences between humans and
other animals seems to be our quantitatively and qualitatively different use of
language but that’s for another day.
Augustus is introduced to us as an emperor who rules by his
word. His decree is the starting pistol, as we have observed. The other
two kings in the story are very closely related with words as well, even if not
in the nativity story itself. Kind David is most famous for his psalms.
They remind us that proper rule is exercised relationally, and especially in
relation to God. Those are the best rulers who know themselves servants of God
and are in a genuine relationship with him. (Religion, knowing oneself bound to
God, like every good thing, has been put to wicked purposes. Not everyone who is
or claims to be religious is in a genuine relationship with the living God. But,
again, that’s for another day.)
David’s kingship is superior to the rule of someone who does
not know himself accountable to God. True kingship does not rest on brute force
to back up commands people have to obey but with words inspires others to
follow.
Augustus is counting people so as to get the most out of
them – both in terms of taxes, it seems, and in terms of propaganda. (Augustus seems
to have been keen to show that during his rule the population decline was
reversed.[2])
David governed God’s people by inspiring them to follow in God’s ways. His
exercise of authority was not flawless but in many ways exemplary nevertheless.
So what about baby Jesus? He is of course, as John’s Gospel
tells us, the Word of God that came to tabernacle among us.Words can be powerful, especially when backed up with force.
It seems that God’s Word cannot but be powerful, given the unlimited resources
at his disposal. But what seems impossible to us has been made possible in
Christ. God takes on human flesh, becomes vulnerable, mortal.
To be sure, there is a great deal of power at work in
Christ. Not for him meek acquiescence to demonic forces or gentle tolerance of
illness and disease. He has taken on flesh to allow himself to be victimised but
he decides when and how. (He was not going to die falling down a cliff in
Nazareth.) Yes, there is power at work in Jesus and never more so than
in his resurrection (and ascension) which is the moment at which he became king
(e.g., Acts 13:33; Romans 1:4; Ephesians 1:20). If his word were not powerful,
we would have no hope of resurrection life being spoken into us.
But the power is creative rather than coercive. If, put
simplistically, Augustus ruled by counting people and David ruled by inspiring
people, Jesus rules by drawing people to himself, the source of life. David prefigures Jesus in his vulnerability (especially during
the significant period between anointing and enthronement) and in using words
to inspire as much as command. But Jesus inspires by drawing people to himself,
promising eternal life. While Augustus used the threat of death to secure obedience
and David’s rule was limited by death (cf. Acts 2:29), the rule of Christ
gathers his people in resurrection life.
As we stand again before the crib, we may reflect on our own
use of words. Do we use words mostly to get what we want? Do we encourage and inspire
others? Do we make room for the voice of others by our vulnerability?
Even more importantly, we may reflect on what it is that governs
our lives: the demands out upon us by other forces, the inspiration offered to
us, or the promise held out by the one born to be king? Where for us the
emphasis lies will shape our experience of 2015 and beyond.
[1]
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/articles/unpublished-papers/behind-lukes-gospel-the-roman-empire-during-the-time-of-jesus/.
One spelling mistake corrected (“Augustus”) and one instance of US spelling
changed to UK spelling (“saviour”).
[2]
Augustus counts his censuses among his great achievements, see http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html.
