The Company Jesus Keeps--December 28, 2023

The Company Jesus Keeps--December 28, 2023

"In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger'." [Luke 2:1-12]

I know you know the story, but consider something about these well-worn verses of the Nativity story with me: who gets the engraved invitations to the birthday celebration for the Messiah... and what does it tell us about who Jesus is?

Follow me for a minute.  We've all heard the old saw plenty of times that you can learn quite a bit about someone from the company they keep.  If you're the one trying to be seen associating with the popular kids in high school, it says you're either already one of the popular crowd yourself... or you're angling for a spot in their clique.  If your only friends are mixed up in suspicious dealings, well, people are going to suspect you of the same.  If you are hob-knobbing with the country-club set, it suggests you're trying to get an invitation to join the club, too.  You get the drift.

Similarly, I think it's fair to take as a given that Luke our narrator doesn't just give us random details or irrelevant historical facts without a purpose: he is a careful storyteller, compiler, and editor, who arranges his material with intention. For every name Luke drops and every detail he offers, it is fair to say, "This was a choice that Luke made in giving us this part of the story, rather than skipping over it or not bothering to mention it."  With me so far?

So then, what does it say about Jesus, even from his first hours of life, that on the occasion of his birth, God skips right over the powerful people in the imperial capital of Rome or the local governor's mansion, and instead makes a point of sending angelic messengers to invite a bunch of night-shift shepherds?  Luke has seemingly rubbed our noses in the fact that Caesar Augustus is the current emperor of Rome and Quirinius is the imperially-installed governor of Syria... and yet nobody goes to announce to them that the Lord of creation is now granting audiences in a borrowed food trough.  The puppet king Herod, allowed to be in power as long as he toed the line with Rome's wishes, doesn't hear about it at all, either, at least as Luke tells it.  But instead, the ones who are invited--by angelic herald, no less--are a bunch of anybodies with no power, influence, prestige, or status.  

There's some conjecture that shepherds in a first-century Judean context were seen in an even less flattering light--as shifty, untrustworthy, frequently at risk of being ceremonially unclean if they were constantly dealing with animals giving birth or dying (you have to figure this is a time before veterinarians come to deal with medical issues, so every shepherd has to be able to deal with healing wounds, birthing lambs, and cleaning up assorted unpleasant messes, too).  Without needing to pin down for certain how much of that possible baggage was true, at the very least, Luke's own contrast between the named Big Deals of the day (Augustus and Quirinius) and the ranch-hands who drew the short straw to be keeping an eye on the flocks during the graveyard shift is an obvious one.  The world focuses in on the big names in positions of power, and the God we meet in Jesus looks for the ones dismissed by the world as nobodies and sets up a home office among them.  That's the Incarnation for you.

Before the child in the manger is old enough to say any words of his own or do anything beyond eating, sleeping, and soiling his messianic diapers, we are already getting to know something important about Jesus from the company he keeps.  In Jesus God bypasses the so-called "great" ones and overturns our expectations, leaving Caesar August in the dark and Governor Quirinius oblivious to the birth, and instead welcoming the lowly and powerless who are just trying to make ends meet to see the Messiah with their own eyes.  This is not simply a random assortment of facts, but an editorial choice that Luke has made in crafting the story the way he has for us.  He wants us to know something about the one in the manger--Jesus shows us God's choice to meet us in our ordinariness, messiness, and utter humanity, rather than only rubbing elbows with the elite, the well-heeled, or the powerful.

For whatever else is in store for us in the year ahead as we get to meet Jesus all over again, this is where the story begins: a Savior who shows up among the anybodies, who doesn't blush at all over the company he keeps.  It is a comfort, too, to know that such a Savior chooses to keep company with us, as well.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to meet you among the anybodies around us, including in the mirror.