We Three Kings: Caesar Augustus Midweek Advent December 12, 2012 Welcome back. In our studio this morning we have Caesar Augustus. Caesar, introduce yourself to our audience and tell them what you do. I rule the Roman Empire. From 31 B.C to 14 A.D. I was the ruler not just of Rome, but of everything that was controlled by Rome really, I ruled pretty much the entire Mediterranean world. Including the land of Israel. Right. Why are so many of you guys named Caesar? I suppose you re thinking of people like Julius Caesar or the man who succeeded me, Tiberius Caesar. It s not really that we were named Caesar. It s more of a title. Caesar was sort of like King or Pharaoh or President. Except you had more power than a president, of course. Right. For instance, what president would dare to or even be able to command that everyone in the country return to their hometowns actually, the hometown of their ancestors so they could be counted? In those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. So everyone returned to their hometowns Right. They went, they got in line, and we counted them up. 1, 2, 3, 8001, 8002, 8003 Pardon me, but phrases like got in line and counted them up make it sound a bit like these people were nothing more than a number to you. Oh no they weren t just numbers they were tax money! Besides, which do you think your government uses most to identify you your name and address or your Social Security number? That may be, but I don t think any president would be so foolish as to publicly refer to anyone by their Social Security number. It wouldn t sit real well with the voters. Voters? That was one thing I didn t have to worry about. I didn t need to worry about knowing my constituents individually after all, I wasn t going to need their votes for re-election a few years down the line. And besides all that, it just wasn t practical or even possible for me know everyone by name. The more powerful you become and the more people you rule, the less personal contact you have and the more removed you become from the individuals over whom you rule.
I noticed that you said over whom you rule. Wouldn t it be better to say for whom you rule? [Puzzled look] I mean, a king isn t supposed to rule merely to increase his power but he s supposed to rule for the good of his people. What? Never mind. Moving on You know, your command ended up inconveniencing a lot of people. For instance, think of all the people who had to go to little Bethlehem because they were of the house and line of David. Bethlehem wasn t set up to handle that sort of traffic. There weren t Holiday Inns at every off-ramp on the Nazareth-Bethlehem Highway. So not only did a young girl named Mary have to ride a donkey to Bethlehem while she was 9 months pregnant, but when she got there she had to stay in a stable with some animals. Them s the breaks. Them s the breaks? Somehow I m thinking that if you had shown up in a town and all the hotels had been full, you wouldn t have been satisfied staying in a stable. Well, of course not. That s no place for a king! And yet it was. How do you mean? The Bible says that 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 laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. "She" who? Mary! Do you have her tax ID number? And what about the kid? I hope they registered him right away. The "kid" s name was Jesus, and whether you know it or not, you were working for his father when you issued the decree that a census be taken. His father? Let s see [rummages through records] OK, here s Mary, Jesus ah, the father was Joseph a carpenter? I hardly think I was working for a Jewish carpenter, and I certainly don't think having a Jewish carpenter for a father qualifies one as a king. No, Joseph wasn t his father. Mary was still a virgin.
A virgin who was pregnant? Look, maybe we weren t as technologically advanced back then as you are now, but I think we had a pretty good understanding of human biology as it dealt with reproduction. Come on, who was the father? Joseph you know, the carpenter had a similar question, and an angel told him, What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:20) God was the father of this child. So you re telling me that I was working for God when I issued the decree that this census be taken? Sure. Many years before your temporary, limited reign [Augustus flinches], God had promised to send this Jesus into the world as a king. But he was going to be quite a different king than you. Although he was indeed going to as you say rule over his people, he was also going to rule FOR them. In fact, he would fight for them. His people who are his people? Really, everyone including everyone here today yes, including you. Because we all needed him to be our king, to fight our enemies. We were held captive by our sins. I'm talking about your sins--like the sin of treating other people like numbers rather than human beings. But I'm talking about my sins and [looks at the audience] your sins too. Caesar Augustus here isn't a whole lot different than you and me--who treat people like things to be used, maneuvered and manipulated and who view themselves as just a little bit better than certain people. We were all held captive by those sorts of sins and the guilt that they brought us. Now I m not just talking about a guilty feeling that we might have been able to ignore long enough until it went away. I m talking about an actual guilt that required an actual payment. Like a tax?!?! I suppose so only this tax was a higher, more crippling tax than any the world has ever seen. You know, in our country we sometimes hear talk about a "death tax." This tax was worse. This tax WAS death. It resulted in death eternal death. That s why they named him Jesus Savior. The angel told Joseph, You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21) OK, but I still don t get how you can say that I was working for God when I decreed that everyone had to return to their hometowns. Oh, right You see, over 500 years beforehand, God had told the Jews that this Savior would be born in Bethlehem. But Mary and Joseph lived about 100 miles away in Nazareth in the region of Galilee. So before Jesus was born, if he was going to be born according to the words of God, Mary and Joseph had to get to Bethlehem.
So you re telling me that this great act of mine an act that forced the temporary disruption of literally thousands of lives was part of God s plan to have a baby be born in Bethlehem? Right. That s how God works. He even controls the acts of those who are seemingly powerful so that his plans might be carried out. And he does it all exactly at the time he wants. The Bible also says, But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son (Galatians 4:4,5). So like they say, history is actually his-story--god's story. And I was just a part of God's plan. Right--and that wouldn't be the last time God would use the action of a Roman ruler to accomplish his purposes. 33 years later a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate would put aside the rules of a fair trial and would ignore everything he sensed to be true. He would sacrifice all that in the name of the political expediency and would sentence that same Jesus--perfect and innocent though he was--to death on a cross where he would pay for the sins of the world. He paid God's "death tax." Right. And then, having worked through the plans of Roman rulers in the past, he worked in spite of the plans of Roman rulers. Pilate ordered that a guard be posted at the tomb to guard the body of Jesus and make sure that it didn't disappear. But Jesus rose from the dead, left the tomb, and eventually ascended into heaven. You know, I want to go back to this "when the time had fully come" thing. Because now that you mention it, I think I may have played a role in making the time right for some of God s other plans. Or I guess that I should say that God used me to make the time right How so? Well, say what you will about the Roman Empire and its overwhelming authority, but it brought about some things which were certainly beneficial for the spread of the news about Jesus. You mean the Pax Romana, that time of relative peace and safety in the Roman Empire? Among other things, yes. Certainly the general peace that existed throughout the Roman Empire made traveling safer and the good system of roads which we had installed for the easy transport of troops also made for the easy travel of missionaries. And then there was the fact that most everyone spoke the Greek language. Missionaries were able to go to what previously had been foreign countries with a foreign language and speak to them in Greek. Undoubtedly true. The Bible indicates that God is in control of all things and that he uses them so that he might carry out his plans for his people.
Why? Well, he doesn t do it, he doesn t rule things with the same sort of motivation as you ruled things. You ruled things and managed people solely because of what you could get from them. Or you acted on their behalf only after they had first served you. In other words, you ruled selfishly. But Like the psalmwriter said, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." (Psalm 118:1) God does this because he is good and merciful--and not because we have earned or deserved it. You know, I'm getting the idea that Jesus' rule as king was quite different from mine--not just because he had far more power than I ever did, but because he is such a personal ruler. You make it sound as though he knows--and even cares--about each of his people personally. He doesn't seem to have the attitude I had toward my subjects--pay and obey- -and he doesn't even have the attitude that some churches sometimes seem to project towards their members--pray, pay, and obey. He wasn't too proud to be born in a stable, and he was so unselfish that he gave up his life for his subjects. You know, with a ruler like that, I'd gladly give up my power to become a subject and to serve him. Me too. That's all the time we have today. Thank you, Caesar for being with us today, and thanks to all of you for listening. Amen.