![Luke 2:1-14 [15-20], The Birth of Jesus](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/91847d13-4f99-45dd-85fb-eb199f4bd0b8/24-12-24.jpg)
Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, December 24, 2024
by Vicar Wing Yin Li, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: The birth of Jesus is a Kairos moment that God has initiated to break the oppressive cycle that subjugates all God’s beloved children in the world.
What his passage reveals is the oppressive reality that many Jewish people were living in under the rule of the Roman Empire. The decree issued by Emperor Augustus was not a benign population census, but a way to systemically perform economic exploitation over the subjugated by registering them for the purpose of tax collection. As political exiles, Jewish people like Joseph and Mary were required to pay taxes to the Roman empire, usually in the form of crops, to feed the Roman military and cities. The irony is stark: the subjugated were forced to pay to sustain the army and system that subjugated them. And as their economic power was weakened, their ability to overturn the empire was also blunted. As a result, they continued to suffer in the cycle of subjugation.
The birth of Jesus is set within this context. While it appears to be nothing unusual for a poor family of the subjugated to not get a proper place for childbirth, Jesus’ birth is nothing but extra-ordinary. It is a Kairos moment that God has initiated to break the oppressive cycle that subjugates all God’s beloved children. That the birth of this eternal king took place in a manger and was first announced to those who were deemed lowly in society (the shepherds) signifies a subversion of the existing hegemonic hierarchy. Today, as the church celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, are we heeding and proclaiming the subversive nature of the coming of our Messiah? This Christmas, let us reflect on how we should live out our faith by participating in the transformative work that God has initiated through Jesus, challenging and overturning the oppressive system in society that continues to subjugate and marginalize the poor, the refugees, the colonized, the queer, and the racialized.
