Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed
I love the Christmas story in Luke 2, and when you look at the story from beginning to end, the first verse to the very last verse, there is a distinct context that you find throughout the story. What is that context? What is the governing ethic of the story of the birth of Christ? Let’s look at it briefly.
Luke 2:1 says, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” Now you may well be familiar with the story, but the question is, “Why were Joseph and Mary where they were at this time?” The answer is, apart from the providence of God, they were being taxed by someone who governed them. The fact of the matter is, God the Son is just that, the Creator. He is the ultimate authority, yet He was governed as a child and he was taxed as a child, which probably gives some context to Jesus’ words, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Notice another example of the context of the story of Christmas. In Luke 2:22 says, “And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord.” They performed all things according to the law of the Lord. Here is an amazing thing. Why did they do it? They did it to follow the law of Moses, the law of God, to present Jesus to the Lord. This will make your brain do a flip flop here. They were told prior to this, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” And this child, this Lord, was being brought to the temple to be presented to the Lord. They were literally presenting the Lord to the Lord. So, what is that? That is humility and submission.
Look at Luke 2:51. Mary was worried because Jesus had come up missing. She finds him again, and verse 51 says, “And he [Jesus] went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.” Do you realize that God the Son submitted Himself to Joseph and Mary? This is incredible. The God that was present on the day of Creation was taxed, presented before the Lord at the temple, and obeyed His mother and earthly guardian. How incredible that the infinite God would fix Himself in time and in place, in Bethlehem at a specific time.
So, the context of the entire Christmas story, and actually some time beyond that if you go into the early childhood of Christ, is humility and submission. What Jesus did, Jesus did not have to do, at least in a sense. Jesus is God, yet what He did is foreign to our way of thinking. Who am I? I am nobody, yet I can feel entitled, rebellious, that people should obey me in certain contexts, but I don’t really owe allegiance to anybody. That is just wrong. In short, we follow Jesus Christ when we live His example. That example is an example of humility and submission.