Preparing For The King (part 4 of 5)

Moving along from Zechariah’s declarations concerning his son and the King, we meet up with the “shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8b).  Here, Theophilus is presented with what, for him, is going to be a familiar refrain.  However, that refrain is going to be directed at a different person than the one to whom it generally directed.  Ultimately, this is less about the shepherds themselves, and more about what it is that the shepherds are going to hear, when “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were filled with fear” (2:9).  In the midst of this amazing sight, what did the shepherds hear?  They heard the angel say “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (2:10). 

There are those words “good news” again.  By now, we are able to quickly make the connection and draw the analogy related to that connection.  Theophilus will understand that the “good news” is another reference to a King, and there is little reason to doubt that even a group of simple shepherds would have understood what it was that being said.  Going further, the angel says that this good news, this Gospel (the birth of the King!), is going to serve as the source of joy for all the people.  All the people?  Is this meant to convey the idea that even though Caesar ruled an extraordinarily large empire, that it is nothing compared to the coming kingdom, and that the new-born King of which they are about to hear, is going to be a King over the entire world?  Is this a king to whom every knee will bow?

Continuing on, we find that familiar refrain used when we read  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord” (2:11).  Following quickly on the heels of the “good news,” the shepherds hear this amazing statement.  More importantly, Theophilus and all who would read this “narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us” (1:1b), have stumbled upon an incredible proclamation.  Once again, and this would not be lost on anybody, we have a challenge to Caesar.  Once again, we have testimony being presented about a King.  How so?  Well, as we have already discussed and expounded upon, the word “Lord,” or “Kurios” here in the Greek, was a title held by Caesar.  Not only that, but in that day, it was not uncommon to hear Caesar also referred to as “savior,” with the Greek word “soter,” serving this purpose.  This first announcement concerning the birth of Jesus had all of the elements of a royal proclamation. 

When seeking to understand the story of Jesus, and particularly the birth narrative, it cannot be repeated enough that these honorific titles, reserved for the Caesar when used in the context of “good news” (evangelion), are being foisted upon another that, by all appearances, had no legitimate claim to them.  The Caesar (specifically Augustus) is the one hailed as the “savior of the world”.  For the world under the heel of Rome in that day, it is Augustus that is the lord of all.  It is he, truly, that is the anointed one (a christ, a messiah) for the whole world and all the peoples of the world, as well as the one responsible for bringing joy to all peoples, with peace and good will towards men. 

These words being penned by Luke and heard by Theophilus (and eventually all peoples) were not then new in the least.  They were quite familiar, but were (and because of the Resurrection, are) being co-opted and applied, quite unexpectedly and retroactively (as Luke writes his narrative well after the events of the life of the Christ, though he undoubtedly shares the oral traditions concerning Jesus that had sprung up and taken shape quite early), to a man that had been crucified by the order of Rome.  We can never lose sight of the fact that the things that are now being said about Jesus, first to shepherds (according to Luke) but now to a member of the Roman aristocracy, along with the titles that are on offer, were routinely declared about and applied to the one then recognized and widely worshiped as the king of the world and the son of god.