The Child and the Emperor.
I. "It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." In the original meaning of these words, they express the fact that it is by the vast network, so to speak, of the Imperial Government at Rome, reaching to every corner of the Empire, that the humble family at Nazareth were drawn from their home in the Galilean hills to the birthplace, or city, of David at Bethlehem. But there are a solemn march and swell in the words, that give them a fuller and ampler scope. It was not without reason, that in the earlier ages this portion of Scripture was read publicly in the churches on Christmas Day, by kings and emperors. It was felt truly that the words awakened the sense of the great historical personages and events in the midst of which Christianity was born. They gave us a thread, slight indeed in itself, but forming part of a vast tissue which bound the cradle of Bethlehem the birth, the growth of Christianity, round the throne of the imperial Cæsar.
II. Born under the empire, there was in Jesus Christ nothing imperial, except the greatness of His birth. Born under the Roman sway, there was nothing in Him Roman, except the world-wide dominion of His Spirit. Born in the first century, He belongs more to the full development of the nineteenth century than He does to the imperfections of the first. This, then, is the double principle of which the event of Christmas Day is the most striking example; external circumstances are something, but they are not everything. The inward life is the essential thing; but for its successful growth it needs external circumstance. The main element in the foundation the main pledge for the future progress of Christianity was the character, the personal character, of its Founder. Had Christ been other than He was, had He been a mere spectre or phantasm, however Divine, such as He is represented in some well-known systems, without human affection, or persuasive words, or energetic actions, or constraining will, the course of the empire would have rolled on its way, and His place in history and in the hearts of men would have been unknown. But being what He was the impersonation of goodness and truth, containing within Himself all those elements of character which win, convince, stimulate mankind His religion, so far as it was derived from Himself, became all-pervading and all-embracing.
A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 401.
References: Luke 2:1. W. Leask, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xix., p. 283.Luke 2:1-20. W. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth,p. 10. Luke 2:5-8. A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,p. 55.Luke 2:6; Luke 2:7. G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 410.