He has lifted up the lowly

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.

- Luke 2:1-7

Octavian was called Caesar Augustus as emperor. He ruled the Roman Empire at the height of its expansion and power (31 BC - AD 14). This census is for the purpose of taxation. All must be registered in order to be taxed. It is for this reason that Mary and Joseph must travel to Bethlehem, because Joseph had to return to the town of his family in order to register. My study bible notes that this census probably took place about 6-5 BC.

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. The baby's time comes at the time of the census, when they are in Bethlehem, the city of David. But in this town there is no room for the child. There is no room for them in the inn. The baby is wrapped in swaddling cloths, and placed in a manger, because this is the only place for the child. How mysteriously does a prophecy become fulfilled in this holy book, in these scriptures, and this story of Jesus? He is called King of Kings and yet there was no place for him in a home when he was born. He wasn't even born in a home - but at a time of census, his family had to travel to the home of the father's lineage, and yet there was no room for them, and no room for the child that is born on the day we celebrate as Christmas.

Thomas Merton wrote a tremendous essay which I've quoted on this blog before. It's called "The Time of the End is the Time of No Room." It's from his book titled Raids on the Unspeakable, and you can read the essay in an excerpt from the book, here. It's a great commentary on the significance of this event as an apocalyptic sign. But let us ponder the idea that there was no room at the inn for this child of prophecy.

Nothing comes easily in this fulfillment of prophecy. From the beginning, his parents are struggling: his mother is pregnant, having known no man. She is engaged to Joseph, who is kind and compassionate. He has a dream in which an angel reveals to him the holiness of the child who is to be born. When Mary was given the good news of her pregnancy by Gabriel, she prayed in what we know as the Magnificat, that God "has lifted up the lowly." Certainly in this story, we can read of how God has lifted up the lowly. Could there be a lowlier family than this one, with nowhere to stay, and no place to put the child but a manger? At the time of this great census, he is to be counted among the animals, and not in a home or even an inn.

The time of the census is a great time of being counted, registered, in order to be taxed. The powers and the powerful of the world are asserting their power to claim what they wish from the lands they have conquered and the peoples over which they rule. The Empire is asserting its authority, in the name of the Emperor. But this child has come into the world via a different authority, and under a different Name. He is born even outside the statistics boundaries, the places marked for those to be counted. He is among those who are not counted, outside of the established understanding of the population that counts as significant, in a manger.

Most importantly of all, this One to whom so many of us will turn in prayer for help has no one on whom he can rely, save his two parents. This child, upon whom so much turns in all of history, is born at a time when empires of great power are established in the awareness of the world and of all of history. There will be perhaps no empire so emulated or so often cited as the archetype of empire as the Roman Empire, at this time of Jesus' birth at its zenith of power and expansion. And yet, by contrast, this Lord of Lords is outside of its scope - too small, too insignificant, to count. "He has lifted up the lowly" indeed.

This is a time of the year when we celebrate. There are many festivals and way to express our gladness for the good news. But I think we'd best not forget for whom this good news has come into the world. He has come to lift up the lowly by being born as one of the lowly, placed in a manger because there is no room for him. And it is to this Person that we call when no one else can relate nor hear our trouble, when we are counted among the most insignificant, as he was. We turn to him in prayer when there is no room for us in any number or statistic or pattern, when we need someone to whom to reach who is able to reach all the way to those left outside of all counting. When there is no hope to be found elsewhere, and where there is no mercy nor help to be found, we call to this child left out of every other place. Remember this child outside the world of the counted, placed in a manger by a mother who has only her betrothed to care for her and her child. Remember this family, and how much may ride upon even the least of us. In this case, it is the least among all of us - the one left outside the rest of the human society and laid in a manger - upon whom so much has counted and upon whom so many continue to rely.