SWEET LITTLE JESUS BOY
... WE DIDNT KNOW WHO YOU WERE"
by Milo Thornberry
AS THE WORLD USUALLY COUNTS SIGNIFICANCE, the birth of Jesus just didn't have it. The networks wouldn't have bothered to send a film crew. It wasn't important enough to have caught Phil Donahue's eye. Even the Bethlehem Post would have put it on the last page of section two with something like this:
A woman in town of Nazareth to register to pay the new Roman tax gives birth to baby in the stable behind the Bethlehem Holiday Inn. The late night event attracted the attention of local shepherds.
The frontpage story might have read like this:
While hundreds arrive daily to register to pay Caesar's tax, many are reported to be fleeing to the countryside, refusing to register. Zealot spokespersons have denounced the tax, saying that to pay it is to support Roman domination and to violate their faith. Since last month when the decree was received in Jerusalem, guerrilla bands have attacked several small outlying registration centers.
The frontpage story in the Rome Times might have read:
Caesar plans campaign north to begin subjection of the barbarians north of the Pyrenees. In order to secure adequate funding for the campaign, new tax revenues are being levied in the regions east of the Mediterranean, including the land of Palestine. Reports are being received of armed resistance to the new tax programs there, but officials here are not concerned and say that local garrisons will be able to maintain order.
"Ah," we are tempted to sigh, with the writer of that old spiritual, "Sweet little Jesus boy, we didn't know who you were." He sure gets a lot more press now on his birthday than at his birth. But we are not too sure we know who he is, especially when all of that publicity somehow winds up justifying a massive orgy of spending and self-indulgence.
Peace on Earth?
It is easy to be romantic and sentimental at Christmas. Perhaps that's why we don't see some things about the meaning of this birth that we might see. Even as the airwaves are filled on Christmas Eve with news commentators reverentially intoning hope for "peace on earth," we divert our eyes from the harsh reality which provided the setting for Jesus' birth. Viewing his birth in that setting may help us to know something more about who he was, and thus how we might honor him on his birthday.
Behind the pastoral scene of a stable and shepherds, the birth of Jesus occurs at the inauguration of a tumultuous and bloody period of Jewish history. "The decree from Caesar Augustus," which marks the date of the birth of Christ, also marked the first time in their occupation of Palestine that the Romans attempted to tax the Jews. Jewish resistance was immediate, and was to continue sporadically throughout Jesus' life until the final revolt in 66 A.D., which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D.
The Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth, life and death, for the most part, pass over these events in silence. Since, at the times the Gospels were written, Christians were suspect by the Roman authorities throughout the empire and suffering persecution, it is not surprising that the accounts of Jesus play down the socio-political context in which he lived. There are reminders in the gospels, however, which indicate that Jesus lived much closer to those events than we often suppose.A Christmas Collection Jesus was crucified by the Romans for insurrection. He was executed in a manner usually reserved for those guilty of insurrection. He was convicted by a Roman tribunal, not a religious court. The key charges against him were that he advocated the nonpayment of the tax and that he claimed to be king. (Luke 23:2)
It would be a mistake to assume that Jesus' life was unrelated to the events swirling around him in first century Palestine. This is the same Jesus who: proclaimed the coming of a kingdom "not of this world," while at the same time teaching his disciples that their most important prayer was for thatkingdom to come on earth, and aligned himself with the prophetic tradition at the beginning of his ministry not only to proclaim good news to the poor and the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, but also "to set at liberty those who are oppressed." (Luke 4:18)
There seems to be little question that the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed and embodied was far more than simply a restored nation, free from suffering and oppression at the hands of Rome. Jesus was concerned about bondage to sin, as well as bondage to oppressors.
Working in Unexpected Ways
It is strange, we might muse, that his life and ministry were not deemed more newsworthy at the time. There is only passing reference to Jesus in the most detailed chronicle of the period, and the authenticity of the reference is widely debated. Jesus wasn't a revolutionary, at least in first or twentieth century terms, and he proved a disappointment to the revolutionaries of his day. But neither was he a bona fide religious leader, in first or twentieth century terms. He also proved a disappointment to his family and the others who expected this Rabbi to he something very different from what he was. The fact that he did not meet society's expectations of him, in either the political or religious realm, should not bother us, however. The ways God works in the world are not ever likely to correspond to society's expectations. With that in mind, the fact that he was not more newsworthy may suggest something very important about who he was, and about the way God works in today's world.
First, for his ministry, preaching, teaching, healing, other acts of compassion, and confronting the authorities, Jesus did not choose the wealthy or well connected. The men and women he chose as disciples, followers and friends were rather ordinary people. That they were so would have been as dismaying to the news media as the circumstances of his birth. Not only was it ordinary people he chose for his work, but he also refused to let the importance of his work take precedence over the needs of the individual people he encountered along the way.
Second, in a life and ministry which did not seek the limelight, neither did Jesus avoid confrontations with the authorities which his ministry made inevitable. He freely associated with the "wrong kind of people," a serious breach of conduct for a religious teacher. He ignored the laws that forbade healing on the Sabbath. He did not renounce his ministry when charged with sedition. Although it is generally assumed that Jesus advocated paying tax to the Romans, it isby no means clear that he did.
The incident with the Roman coins, as recorded in the gospels (Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17, and Luke 20:19-26), is usually cited to support the notion that Jesus advocated paying the tax. When asked whether or not Jews should pay tribute to Caesar, Jesus' answer was, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." People often use this passage to make the deductions about the separation of church and state. But before making this deduction, it is worth pausing to consider two little-realized circumstances: first, to first century Jews in Palestine what was being demanded of them was not a legitimate tax, but tribute for overlords who sought to impose their rule and their gods over the land; second, for those Jews, what was due Caesar from their land was absolutely nothing. That is what they had been fighting about since Augustus' decree. Thus, when Jesus says to render to Caesar what is Caesar's, his answer could quite correctly have been understood by those who heard to mean "nothing."
If these are the ways of God's anointed one in the world, then how can we honor him in the celebration of his birth?
We can recall the birth of one who chose to live and minister on a truly human scale. We can also celebrate all of those, most of whom are unknown, who continue to live and serve in the anonymity of his spirit.
We can recall the birth of one who, while not seeking it, did not avoid confrontation with the powers that be" when those powers hurt people. We can also celebrate those who, in his spirit, confront the powers in our day over taxes for arms and unjust economic policies.
If our celebrations of Jesus' birth can be informed both by the way he dealt with the people around him and the way he faced the authorities, perhaps we won't need to sing, "We didn't know who you were."
Milo Thornberry is the former Director of Alternatives.
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