The Big News of the Day

It was Jesus’ birthday, but the big news of the day was the big new tax Rome was imposing on everyone. It had the whole empire in a tizzy. If there had been newspapers back then, the headlines in The Jerusalem Times might have read something like “New Nationwide Plan: Higher Roman Fees” or “Great Caesar A Great Seizer!”

As if Rome was the only place where anything newsworthy ever happened: emperor this, senate that; Caesar this, Brutus that.

What about Jerusalem? What about Herod and the Sanhedrin?

For that matter, what about Bethlehem? Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Bethlehem – until the new tax law was enacted, that is; and suddenly everyone was looking for a place to stay there.

Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet Micah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had come to understand the importance of this quaint village called Bethlehem. God showed him that this little “house of bread,” as its name means, was more than just a backwater burg basking in the glorious memories of the days of yore, that golden age when folks still recalled that David – yes, King David, THE King – had been born and raised right there in her streets. Micah knew that one day the biggest news of any day would happen right there in good old Bethlehem. Micah knew because God had told him so.

And Micah had shared the big news. He put it in writing even – almost like a headline! – in a book God told him write. “But you, Bethlehem in Ephratah,” Micah had written on God’s behalf, “though you are so small among the towns of Judah, yet from you will come the One Who will be the Ruler of My people. His origin is from ancient days, even from eternity.”

But now folks seemed to have dismissed this ancient prophecy. For time out of mind, they seem to have neglected reading God’s Word, and so the promise was forgotten. Taxes were on everyone’s mind.

All Roman citizens were under orders – from Caesar himself! – to pack up the whole family and go back to their home towns and get counted. All for what? All for Caesar and his coffers. Time to cough up a bit more for the Romans. It was good for business, to be sure, especially for the people who ran the inns and fed the animals. But it was awfully distracting.

So it was that nobody seemed to notice that, in an out-of-the-way spot with a manger for a crib and a few shepherds as midnight guests, a couple who weren’t even received in their own home town had just welcomed The Child destined to be their Savior.

Times haven’t changed much, apparently. Jesus’ birthday, it seems, is still all about the money. The biggest, Good-est News ever to hit heaven’s headline, and most folks aren’t talking about anything except how much money it’s costing them.

How about you?