Printer Friendly VersionAnd His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace.
There will be no end
to the increase of His government
or of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Text: “Now it came about in those days that a decree went
out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth”
(Luke 2:1)
History is full of ironies, but none greater than the one we
find here, where Luke puts Caesar Augustus and Jesus Christ in juxtaposition.
This little verse, buried so deeply in the Christmas story that nobody pays
the slightest attention to it, stirred my curiosity recently. Since Luke fixes
the date of Christ’s birth as occurring during the reign of Roman Emperor
Caesar Augustus, I surmised that Caesar must have been an important personage,
someone who stood out sufficiently in history to serve as a reference point.
So I decided to check it out.
I knew virtually nothing about Caesar Augustus. I was either
absent or sound asleep the day Caesar Augustus was covered in my Western Civilization
class. Much to my surprise, I discovered that a great deal is known about
him. His story fills page after page in encyclopedias. Whole books have been
written about him. He was more than the Man of the Year, more than Man of
the Decade; He was Man of the Century immediately prior to, and carrying over
into, the Christian era. Caesar Augustus ruled Rome with a rod of iron for
over half a century and is judged as the greatest of all Roman Emperors—indeed,
one of the most powerful and influential rulers of antiquity.
In another strange irony of history, the one and only time Jesus
ever directly confronted the imperial power of Rome was when He stood on trial
before the Roman Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, whose wife was none other
than the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus. Therefore, it is appropriate to
use Caesar as a standard against which to evaluate the significance of Jesus,
in terms of the ideologies which governed human social and political institutions,
both then and now.
As I buried myself in research about this remarkable man, I
discovered that
I. Caesar Augustus was the best, the brightest, the ablest the
world had to offer.
Gaius Octavius, his given and surnames, was born on September 23, 63 BC, into
a rich and powerful family. His father was a Roman Senator, his mother the
niece of Emperor Julius Caesar. He caught Julius Caesar’s eye at 12 years
of age when he delivered an eloquent eulogy at his grandmother’s funeral.
So impressed was the emperor with his brilliant nephew that he took him under
wing. Not having a son of his own, he adopted Octavius as his own son, and
began to groom him as his heir to the throne. The boy did not disappoint.
His talent was apparent in everything he did.
When Octavius was 18, Julius Caesar was murdered, unleashing
a power struggle for control of the Roman Empire that would embroil it in
bloody civil wars for 13 years. Young Octavius threw himself into the struggle.
By the exercise of deft political savvy, military genius, flattery, deceit,
and enormous personal charisma, he was able to overcome all competitors except
Mark Anthony, with whom he made an uneasy truce. Yet he continued to undermine
Anthony’s strength while Anthony was preoccupied with his lover Cleopatra.
He met and defeated Anthony’s forces in a pitched battle, after which
Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide, thus delivering the empire into his
sole control.
The story of Gaius Octavius’ rise to power is the stuff
of legends. It contains enough passion, intrigue, and adventure to provide
numerous plots for novels, plays, and movies. In that he emerged the victor
in every conflict, he was praised, adored, and even worshipped by the populace
who, then as now, loves a winner. They were quick to forgive him of such indiscretions
as murdering over 300 Senators and 2,000 noblemen whom he perceived to be
less than absolutely loyal to him. The people gave him the royal title of
Caesar. Later he added Augustus which meant “superior to the rest of
humanity.”
Once enthroned as “maximum leader,” it did not take
him long to bring law and order to the entire empire. The pax Romana (Peace
of Rome) was enforced by a great army and navy, and administered by a republican
form of government. He extended the borders of the empire as never before,
and gained the compliance of the subjugated populations through his fair and
just governance according to the rule of law.
Caesar Augustus set in motion one of the greatest construction splurges of
antiquity, erecting great coliseums for games and religious festivals, lacing
the empire with a network of highways, building temples and shrines. He was
a poet, philosopher, musician, patron of the arts, and author of more than
a dozen books. He had scores of statues showing off his handsome, Greco-Roman
face sculpted and exhibited in public places throughout the empire, some surviving
to the present day. He unscrambled the hopelessly complicated monetary systems
and instituted a universal coinage which boosted trade, encouraged commerce,
and lifted the standard of living empire-wide. He made sweeping social reforms,
was a great believer in and promoter of what we today call “family values,”
increased penalties for adultery, and breathed new moral and intellectual
life into a decaying republic. He himself was a homespun family man, devoted
to his wife. Yet, like most Roman patricians of his time, he also had a string
of mistresses.
At about the time of Christ’s birth, Caesar Augustus had
himself appointed the Chief Priest of Roman religion. Since Julius Caesar,
following his assassination, had been proclaimed a god by the Senate, that
automatically made Augustus the “Son of God”—an appellation
he ordered engraved upon every Roman Coin underneath his own image. When the
Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with the loaded question of whether it was lawful
to pay taxes, Jesus responded, “Show me a denarius.” The image on
that coin was that of Caesar. Jesus’ respect for Caesar can be seen in
the saying that follows: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,
and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:13-17).
Since Caesar was not only the supreme political but religious
leader as well, it was only natural that the adoring populace would begin
to worship him as a god. He did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm. The Roman
poet Virgil rhapsodized that the birth of Caesar Augustus signaled “a
new order of the ages.” He prophesied that in Caesar “a new human
race is descending from the heights of heaven, the birth of a child, with
whom the iron age of humanity will end and the golden age begin.” Caesar,
Virgil confessed, is the “present deity, the restorer of the world”
who has managed to reunite the empire after the civil war sparked by Julius
Caesar’s assassination. One inscription dating around 7 B.C. says, “Caesar’s
birth was the beginning of all things . . . he set the world right and gave
it another appearance . . . The birthday of the god was the beginning of the
good news to the world on his account.” (George Arthur Buttrick, ed.,
Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962) p.
319 (paraphrased).
Caesar Augustus was the embodiment of all that is celebrated
and highly praised in our world today. He was a man of driving ambition, innate
skills, inbred genius, and macho leadership. He was exhibiting a fine mixture
of shrewd ruthlessness and kindly generosity. His wrath was terrifying but
his love was boundless. He put the stamp of his personality upon his world
as no other. He powerfully shaped the political and cultural history of the
West for another thousand years. All democratic forms of constitutional government,
supported by the rule of law, owe everything to Caesar Augustus. The values
he personified are those that drive the mighty engines which have made our
country the military, commercial, and cultural super-power it is today. His
use of violence on behalf of defending the peace and maintaining social order
is admired by all. His ability to manipulate the populace and governmental
process, to bring about exemplary social and moral reform, is highly coveted
by today’s Christian activists on all sides of the political spectrum.
He was more than the Man of the Year; he was the Man of the Millennium.
Now let’s set in contrast to Caesar Augustus, the best
and brightest and ablest that this world had to offer,
B. Jesus of Nazareth was the best that God had to offer.
Who is this Jesus of whom Luke speaks? Even though He was born
in the reign of Caesar Augustus, it is certain that neither Caesar nor any
of the lords or ladies of the empire ever heard of Him. Most of the important
people of the Empire had no idea where Judea was, much less Bethlehem. The
Roman Senate did not pause in their proceedings to applaud His birth.
When was He born? Nobody knows. Not even Luke, who only approximates
the time of His birth. The best scholarly guess is that He was born sometime
during the year 4 B.C.—ironic since our calendar’s threshold is
marked from the time of His birth.
While Caesar Augustus’ birth was front-page news across
the Roman Empire, Jesus’ birth was marked by only a few smelly shepherds,
nondescript peasants, astrologers from the East, and a paranoid Galilean puppet
king named Herod, who in an abortive attempt to destroy the newly born king
ordered up the slaughter of all the babies in Bethlehem. Jesus’ birth
was so unremarkable that an account wasn’t committed to writing until
decades after His death.
Caesar’s father was a senator. Jesus’ earthly father
was a carpenter.
Caesar’s mother was of royalty. Jesus’ mother was
a nondescript, unremarkable, humble, Jewish maiden, and an unwed teenage mother
at that.
Caesar’s birth was honorable and celebrated. The circumstances
surrounding Jesus’ birth were highly questionable, placing him under
a cloud of illegitimacy that followed Him into adulthood.
Caesar’s boyhood and teen years were chronicled in great
detail and became the stuff of legends. Jesus’ early years are shrouded
in mystery except for the temple incident when He was twelve.
Caesar was raised in Rome, the center of the universe, at the
intersection of East and West, North and South, where all highways began and
ended, where all the reigns of power were concentrated, and where all the
people who were somebody resided.
Where was Jesus born? Bethlehem of Judea, which even the Hebrew
Scriptures describe as the least of all the villages formerly in the territory
of Benjamin, the littlest and least important of all the tribes. Where was
Jesus raised? In Nazareth, a village so obscure that it does not make the
list of 63 Galilean towns mentioned in the massive Jewish Talmud. A village
so backward that Nathaniel asks in one of the common put-downs of his time,
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Caesar was powerful of build and handsome of face. His solid
features were sculpted in stone, painted on canvas and walls, woven into frescoes,
and etched upon hundreds of thousands coins.
There are no sculpted images of Jesus and not one extant description
of what Jesus looked like, except that of Isaiah penned prophetically hundreds
of years before Jesus’ birth:
He had no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him,
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face,
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (53:2-3).
Caesar knew the value of well-placed friends and surrounded himself with gifted,
wealthy, influential, and powerful people. Jesus companied with fishermen,
peasants, farmers, women, misfits, prostitutes, outcasts, losers, lepers—the
weak, vulnerable, and powerless of His society.
To court favor with the Romans, Caesar often distributed free
bread to all citizens. Jesus could have turned stones into bread and in like
manner bought popularity and favor with the people, but He didn’t. On
one of the two occasions when Jesus did supernaturally turn a few loaves into
bread for the multitudes, the people rushed to make Him king by acclamation,
but He fled from them to the hills and prayed all night to be delivered from
temptation. He offered not the bread of higher wages and lower taxes but himself:
“I am the bread of life. He who eats of me shall never hunger; he who
drinks of me shall never thirst.”
Caesar traveled the length and breadth of his empire. Jesus
never journeyed more than a hundred miles from the place of His birth.
When Caesar ventured forth, he moved with a regiment of soldiers
who served as his armed guard, a retinue of hundreds to take care of his every
need; he often rode in a specially built Imperial Carriage, fitted with long
poles, that was carried on the shoulders of strong slaves. He was accompanied
by marching bands, flags unfurled, with his arrival in a town or city announced
by the blowing of trumpets and shouts, “Caesar is coming! Caesar is coming!”
To get an idea of the pomp and circumstance that attended not only Caesar’s
every move but virtually all the Caesars, Kings, Presidents and Premiers since,
when Queen Elizabeth paid a state visit to the United States several years
ago, she brought with her 4,000 pounds of luggage, including two outfits for
every occasion, a mourning outfit in case someone died, 40 pints of plasma,
and white kid leather toilet seat covers. Among her retinue were her own hairdresser,
two valets, and a host of other attendants. A brief visit of royalty to a
foreign country can easily cost $20,000,000. Such it was for Caesar.
When Jesus traveled, He walked. No personal attendants waited
on Him hand and foot. No news reporters shoved microphones in His face. Only
once did He ride a beast of burden and that was a lowly donkey, during His
final and fateful triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which proved to be anything
but triumphant, in that He walked straight into the jaws of His enemies who
abused, humiliated, vilified, mocked, bloodied, spat on, and crucified Him.
Caesar became the wealthiest man of his century, one of the
richest in world history, and had royal palaces strung out all over the empire.
Jesus had no money, no real estate, no change of clothes, no job, no source
of income, and wandered about homeless. “Foxes have holes and birds have
nests,” He confessed, “but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
head” (Matthew 8:20).
Caesar wrote over a dozen books of poetry and philosophy. Jesus
wrote nothing. Caesar became a priest and was elevated to the position of
the High Priest of the Roman Empire. Jesus was neither a priest nor the son
of a priest but was instead rejected, harassed, and abused by a religious
establishment that finally engineered His untimely death.
Caesar sought, gained, and maintained power through the use
of persuasion, intrigue, and violence. Jesus emptied himself of His divine
power, took upon himself the role of a servant, and renounced all forms of
coercion.
Caesar conquered the world and ruled it with a rod of iron.
Jesus ministered to a few with gentleness and mercy.
Caesar competed against, vanquished, and destroyed rivals. Jesus
was harassed, betrayed, and crucified by rivals.
Caesar gained a loyal following of millions across the empire.
Jesus could attract only a dozen or so close followers: one who turned out
to be a betrayer, another a denier, and the rest abandoning Him in the darkest
hour of His life to walk the last mile all alone.
Caesar raised and led the most powerful, feared, and successful
armies of antiquity. Jesus’ followers could count in their possession
only two swords, and they didn’t know how to use either of them. When
Peter took things in his own hands in the garden of Gethsemane and tried to
cut off the head of a guard who had come to arrest Jesus, he managed only
to slice off an ear. For his small act of courage, Peter earned Jesus’
rebuke: “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up
the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
Caesar counseled, “Subdue, crush, and kill your enemies.”
Jesus admonished, “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.”
Caesar lived by the rule, “get all you can.” Jesus
lived by the rule, “give all you can.” Caesar exemplified the principle
that, “He who would be great among you must be first and best of all.”
Jesus taught that, “He who would be great among you must be least and
last of all.”
Caesar’s career exhibited the rule of the jungle, “The
mighty shall inherit the earth.” Jesus dared to proclaim that, “The
meek shall inherit the earth.”
Caesar modeled, “Blessed are the war-makers, for theirs are the kingdoms
of the world.” Jesus taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.”
Caesar exemplified, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
after power, possessions, and pleasure, for they shall be filled.” Jesus
responded, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled.”
Caesar personified, “Blessed are the ruthless, for they shall rule with
a rod of iron.” Jesus incarnated, “Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy.”
Caesar boasted, “Blessed are the strong of heart, for they shall win.”
Jesus promised, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Caesar reacted, “When someone strikes you on the cheek,
cut off his head.” Jesus commanded, “When someone strikes you on
the cheek, turn to him the other cheek as well.”
Caesar’s economic policy dictated, “If someone wants
to borrow your coat, charge him as much interest as the market will bear.”
Jesus’ radical counsel was, “Give him not only your coat but your
shirt as well.” If someone borrows from you but does not return it, Caesar’s
reaction would have been, “Sue him!” Jesus said, “Forget it!”
Caesar pursued power with a single-minded passion, rising to the top on the
broken, bleeding, and bashed bodies of his sacrificial armies and vanquished
foes. Jesus would not step on a bruised reed nor quench a smoldering wick.
Caesar would rather wound, cripple, and kill than be killed.
Jesus would rather die than damage, destroy, or damn, and He did!
Caesar was the darling of the adoring masses. Jesus came unto
His own, and His own received Him not.
Caesar lived a long and illustrious life. Jesus lived a short
and traumatic life. Caesar died a peaceful and honorable death, his passing
attended by all the pomp and circumstance the world’s most powerful empire
could muster, mourned by millions across the realm. Jesus died a dishonorable
and torturous death, convicted as a religious heretic and a political subversive,
cast out of the Holy City, Zion, the city of God, like refuse, like garbage,
executed as a common criminal, hanging upon an ugly Roman cross stark naked,
in the company of two thieves, His shameful execution noted by only a few
women and mockers.
Caesar died, was buried, and stayed dead. Jesus died, was buried,
but did not stay dead. For
Death could not hold its prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bonds away, Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign;
He arose, He arose, Hallelujah, Christ arose!
Two thousand years have come and gone. The Roman Empire that
Caesar seized and ruled with such passion has long since perished, but the
Kingdom of God which Jesus served is alive and well. Only a few crumbling
remnants of Caesar’s great buildings, coliseums, and construction projects
still stand. Buildings erected in honor of Jesus of Nazareth grace every city,
town, village and hamlet in the Western world and in much of the rest as well.
None of Caesar Augustus’ books or poems survive. The New
Testament, which chronicles the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has
been the run-away best seller for two-thousand years and continues to out-sell
all books sacred and secular. Whole libraries can scarcely contain the works,
treatises, studies, poems, dramas, art, hymns, and anthems composed in the
honor of that lowly Galilean peasant named Jesus of Nazareth. There is no
sign that this fascination with Jesus has yet peaked. The Harvard Divinity
School librarian recently noted that more books on or about Jesus have been
written in the last 20 years than in all the years previous. Last April, just
prior to Easter week, the face that graced the covers of the three leading
news magazines, Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News Report, featured portraits not
of Caesar Augustus but Jesus of Nazareth.
Today scarcely anybody notices the name of Caesar Augustus and
fewer speak it. Yet every day—especially every Lord ’s Day—millions
upon millions of knees bow and tongues confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory
of God the father.
Caesar’s birth was hailed as the beginning of all things.
Yet every time a person writes a check or dates a letter today, the reference
point is not the birth of Caesar Augustus but Jesus of Nazareth.
The birth of Jesus was a tiny, obscure, insignificant footnote
in the reign of Caesar Augustus. Now the reign of Caesar Augustus is a tiny,
obscure, insignificant footnote in the story of Jesus, whose birthday is celebrated
by literally billions of people in our greatest, longest, and most joyous
holiday season of the year, known not as “Caesarmas” but “Christmas.”
Oh, what a difference a few years makes! And a mighty resurrection from the dead.
