(Preacher’s Magazine 1996-97)

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (Isa. 9:6-7, emphases added).

Text: "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world" (Luke2:1).

Luke mentions, almost in passing, that Jesus was born during the reign of the Roman emperor Caesar Augus­tus (2:1-7). History is full of ironies, but none greater than when Luke puts Caesar Augustus and Jesus Christ in juxtaposition: the one, the epitome of beneficent violence in the service of law, order, and empire building; the other, the incarnation of nonvio­lence in the service of compassionate service and self-giving love.

This lone reference to Caesar Au­gustus, buried so deeply in the Christ­mas story as to be totally overlooked, opens a tiny but significant window through which we can look out on a vast universe of a larger-than-life mili­tary-political genius. Caesar Augustus personified those militant qualities of superior strength and dominant pow­er that the Jews of Jesus' day looked for in their Messiah.

Though the story of Caesar Augus­tus has been largely lost to our histori­cal memory, he was, by every stan­dard of measurement, the most powerful, beloved, influential, and successful ruler in the history of the Roman Empire, or any nation of antiq­uity for that matter. His story fills mul­tiple pages in encyclopedias. Scores of scholarly books have been written about him. The long shadow of his in­fluence extended across the Western world for a thousand years. In that he ruled Rome with a rod of iron for half a century, it is appropriate to use him as a standard against which to evalu­ate the significance of Jesus' life and ministry from the perspective of sec­ular history.

There are many striking parallels between the two. Caesar and Christ were both proclaimed to be the Son of God. Both gained, exercised, and wielded unprecedented power over men and nations, albeit in radically different ways. Both came to establish vast kingdoms and exercise sovereign roles, though in entirely different realms. Both live on in the value sys­tems, ideals, and options before us to­day.

I.CAESAR AUGUSTUS IS THE BEST THAT THE WORLD HAS TO OFFER

Gaius Octavius was born on Sep­tember 23, 63 B.C., into a rich and powerful family. His father was a Ro­man senator, his mother the niece of Julius Caesar, Roman ruler. He caught Caesar's eye at 12 years of age when he delivered an eloquent eulogy at his grandmother's funeral. So impressed was the dictator with his brilliant nephew that he took him underwing. Not having a son of his own, he adopted Octavius and began to groom him as heir to the throne. And 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 Antony, with whom he made an uneasy truce.Yet he contin­ued to undermine Antony's strength While Antony was preoccupied with his lover, Cleopatra. He met and de­feated Antony's forces in a pitched battle, after which Antony and Cle­opatra committed suicide, thus deliv­ering the empire into his sole control.

The story of Gaius Octavius's 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 worshiped by the populace who, then as now, love 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. Hundreds of statues showing off his handsome Greco-Roman face were sculpted and exhibited in public places throughout the empire, some surviving to this day. He unscrambled the hopelessly complicated monetary systems and instituted a universal coinage, which boosted trade, en­couraged commerce, and lifted the standard of living empirewide. He made sweeping social reforms, en­couraged marriage and family life, 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 had a string of mistresses.

At about the time of Christ's birth, Caesar Augustus had himself appoint­ed 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 a loaded question of whether it was lawful to pay taxes, Jesus responded, "Bring me a denar­ius." The image onthat coin was that of Caesar Augustus. Jesus' respect for Caesar can be seen in the saying that follows: "Give to Caesar what is Cae­sar's and to God what is God's" (Mark 12:13-17).

Since Caesar was not only the supreme political leader but supreme 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. 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."

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 exhibited 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 that have made our country the military, commercial, and cultural superpower that 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 reform is highly coveted by contempo­rary Christian activists on all sides of the political spectrum. He was more than the Man of the Year, more than the Man of the Decade, more than the Man of the Century: he was the Man of the Millennium.

Now, let's set that in contrast to . . .

II. JESUS CHRIST, WHO IS THE BEST THAT GOD HAS 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 his 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 Christ's birth.

When was He born? Nobody knows. Not even Luke, who only ap­proximates the time of His birth. The best scholarly guess is that Jesus 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's 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 the paranoid Galilean pup­pet King Herod. His 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 commoner, a humble Jewish maiden. Caesar's birth was honorable and celebrated. The cir­cumstances surrounding Jesus' birth were 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 12. 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 of coins. There are no sculpted images of Jesus and not one extant description of what He looked like, except that of Isaiah, penned prophetically hundreds of years be­fore Jesus' birth:

He had no beauty or majesty to at­tract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we es­teemed him not (53:2-3).

Caesar knew the value of well-placed friend sand 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.

Caesar traveled the length and breadth of his empire. Jesus never journeyed more than a hundred miles from the place of His birth.

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," Jesus confessed, "but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Matt. 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 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 of His life all alone.

Caesar raised and led the most powerful, feared, and successful armies of his time. 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" (Matt. 26:52, NASB).

Caesar counseled, "Subdue, crush, and kill your enemies." Jesus admon­ished, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44).

Caesar lived by the rule of "Get 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 said, "The meek . . . shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5, KJV).

Caesar modeled, "Blessed are the warmakers, for theirs are the king­doms of the world." Jesus taught, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

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 for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matt. 5:6, NKJV).

Caesar personified, "Blessed are the ruthless, for they shall demolish the competition and rule the world." Je­sus incarnated, "Blessed are the mer­ciful: for they shall obtain mercy"(Matt. 5:7, KJV).

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" (Matt. 5:8, KJV).

Caesar reacted, "When someone strikes you on the cheek, cut off his head." Jesus commanded, "If some­one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matt. 5:39).

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, "If someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well" (Luke 6:29, TEV).

Caesar said, "If someone borrows from you but does not return it, sue him!" Jesus said, "Forget it!"

Caesar was the darling of the ador­ing masses. Jesus "came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John1:11, KJV). Caesar lived a long and illustrious life. Jesus lived a short and traumatic life.

Caesar died an honorable death, his passing mourned by millions. Jesus died a dishonorable death, convicted as a religious heretic and a political subversive. He was executed as a common criminal. His final agonies were noted by mockers and a few de­voted women.

Caesar pursued power with a sin­gle-minded passion, rising to the top over the broken, bleeding, and bashed bodies of his sacrificial armies and vanquished foes. Jesus would not step on "a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick" (Matt. 12:20, RSV).

Caesar would rather wound, crip­ple, and kill than be killed, and he did. Jesus would rather die than dam­age, destroy, or damn, and He did.

Caesar died and stayed dead. Jesus died but did not stay dead.

Two thousand years have come and gone. The Roman Empire, which 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's books or poems survive. The New Testa­ment, which chronicles the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, has been the runaway best-seller for two thousand years and continues to out­sell all books sacred and secular. Whole libraries can scarcely contain the works, treatises, studies, poems, dramas, art, hymns, and anthems that have been composed in the honor of that lowly Galilean peasant named Je­sus ofNazareth.

Scarcely anybody notices the name of Caesar Augustus, and fewer speak it. Yet every day-especially every Lord's day-millions of knees bow and tongues "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Fa­ther"(Phil 2:11).

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 referent 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 billions of people in the greatest, longest, and most joyous holiday season of the year, known not as "Caesarmas" but"Christmas."

Oh, what a difference a few years makes!