Caesar: An Unlikely Guest In The Christmas Story Shows Us God Can Use Anyone


I love the Christmas story. Without exaggeration I can say I read Matthew and Luke's account several dozen times every December. I just hang out on it for a while. Each year before we open gifts I read one of the two records of our Savior's birth. When my boys were young they would come running to shove a Bible into my hands. "Read! Read!" You've never seen children so hungry for the Word of God. (I'm sure that's what it was.)

There are a lot of key players in the story. Angels, shepherds, Joseph & Mary, an innkeeper, wise men show up a little late, and of course an ungodly, pagan, heathen.

What's this? You don't have the last individual in your manger scene or Christmas cantata? Oh, he's there.
"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them." Luke 2:1-7

Caesar is the Roman Emperor. Joseph and Mary don't travel to Bethlehem and end up where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there because God told them to go there. There's no dream revealing the need to go to Bethlehem. There's no angelic visitation declaring, "Go to Bethlehem!" There's no visit from a prophet with a word from the Lord. Rather, it's a census. The decree, "Go get counted and pay your taxes," is what brings the virgin mother to her prophecy fulfilling destination.

How does that sit with you? I don't like it. I'd rather have an angel show up and make me some pancakes one morning and give me my next move like he did with Elijah (I Kings 19:5-8). The Christmas story has angels. Why couldn't God use one of them to tell Joseph and Mary where to go?

There's a truth in here that can't be missed. God will use ungodly people to fulfill his plan and his purpose. When you're a child of God you stand on the truth that Father is directing your path. You lost the job; didn't get the apartment; weren't accepted; got transferred? The list could go on. All of us have had decisions made that directed the course of our lives made by sometimes ungodly people. We're often quick to say things like, "the devil is busy," in those moments. Surely we don't believe the devil is able to usurp the power of God in our lives though. 

The "corrupt generation," Peter spoke of in Acts has to be guarded against. That doesn't mean God can't use them in our lives though. So the next time someone makes a decision you don't understand slow down and ask, "God, what are you doing in my life?" Then don't be surprised if you're being directed to right where you need to be.

Following the Son,

James A Williams

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