POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHRISTMAS

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHRISTMAS

The narratives in Scripture from which the Christmas story is based, depict a political milieu where a powerful and despotic Ruler of an Empire lord it over  their poor and pitiful subjects.

Matthew’s version begins with the genealogy of our Lord  which identifies His lineage from the Jewish line of the Shepherd King David comprising 14 generation  from Abraham to David and another 14 generations from David to the Christ. There is something innately political in this ancestry since the infant Jesus traces His ancestry to the Hebrew royalty and the prophecy tells of his coming to take the throne of his father David.

Herod  was the king of Judea a Roman Satellite ruler, during the birth of Christ. A mad man,  incurably paranoid, he was a cruel king and his acts of merciless brutality even extended to the execution of his own family members whom he perceived to be a threat to his crown. It was not surprising that the news of the birth of the King of the Jews, robbed him of sleep, as he raged, ranted and raved to find out where this King is for he believed that he was the only acknowledged ruler of the Jews.

It is pathetic that from the time of birth of our Savior, He had become a refugee, a political exile seeking refuge in a foreign land. When Joseph and Mary took the Child to Egypt slipping away from the clutches of this murderous king, one of the most cruel massacres of innocent children, was committed by this raving lunatic, an act which would have been considered today as a crime against humanity.

The politics of  Christmas is neither joyful nor festive. It is  a sad narrative of persecution, death and grief. In this setting God is not on the side of the powerful in palaces. Cesar Augustus the Roman emperor and patron of Herod, was widely known also as “savior” as he was famous for his pacification campaign leading his vast and fearsome army. The juxtaposition of the birth of Christ during the reign of this Roman savior  is replete with political implication. God moves not among the rulers, but is on the side of the weak and the powerless.

Mary’s Magnificat contains a political statement:

 "[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty"…

As one observer sharply commented,   “The gospel writers repeatedly emphasize the political implications of the birth of Jesus, but we fail to hear them through the clamor of jingle bells.” (Elizabeth Hunter)