whenever i read about julius caesar or caesar augustus, the line from "bill and ted's excellent adventure" comes to mind: "so what you're telling me, is that caesar was the 'salad dressing dude'". by now, you've probably figured out who the next character is. most already know this part of the story. this is how the most commonly known portion of the CHRISTmas story begins: "in those days, a decree went out from caesar augustus that all the world should be taxed (registered), each to his own city." this is the census that the caesar implemented that forced mary and joseph to make the journey to bethlehem, with mary being in her last months of pregnancy. so who was this "caesar augustus" guy?
history tells us that he was born gaius octavius thurinus, the great nephew of julius caesar. he was part of the ruling party of rome, along with mark antony and marcus lepidus. however, unlike his great uncle, octavius was far more ambitious, and a conflict grew with the other members of the triumverate over who held power, and octavius self-assumed the name "caesar" from his great uncle and like the rock star "sting" changed his name to augustus, thereby becoming known as caesar augustus, the first emperor of rome. augustus seized power from mark antony, which led to cleopatra's and subsequently mark antony's suicides that have now become infamous. augustus was a very ambitious emperor, choosing to focus heavily on religion and reestabilshed the pantheon of gods that had been all but forgotten in the empire and also declared himself a god in the process. he expanded the roman empire to include much of europe and the near east, which leads us up to the passage in the CHRISTmas story. augustus grew increasingly frustrated with the decline in numbers in his empire, so he enacted laws to benefit the married and specifically the married with children. he lambasted the single men for the "murder" of the empire for their refusal to marry and have children. some years after the laws were in place, he ordered a census be taken of the entire roman world. there were three done under his rule, each around 20 years apart. the first one was around 28 b.c., the second around 8 b.c., and the final one around 14 a.d. the census involving mary and joseph would have been the one around 8 b.c., but it would have taken a couple of years for news of the census to reach palestine, so that is where we get our approximate birth date of 6 b.c. for CHRIST.
so how does this translate to today? what parallels can we see of caesar augustus in today's society? well, first, we know that augustus saw himself as god, and was completely oblivious to the birth of the CHRIST in bethlehem. many today are what i call "functioning atheists", choosing to see themselves as god of their own lives and destinies. they are religious relativists, saying that it is ok for you to believe in whatever god you want to believe in, as long as it is personal and not forced on others. many professing CHRISTians (notice i said "professing") actually fall under this category as well. the ones who only choose to acknowledge the lordship of CHRIST on two days a year, are in essence acting as their own gods. many people today are actually oblivious to the true meaning of CHRISTmas. sure, most know the story, but the actual implications of the story are unknown to them. you may doubt me on that, considering that we live in a nation where churches are very much in abundance, but i can assure you, this sadly is the case. it is because churches today have become so stagnant and internal, that there is very little new growth or evangelism, and the church has become sick with inbreeding. most new members are transfers from another church, and very few new converts. this has led to an ignorance of the gospel in society as a whole. it is because of this disobedience that society has shunned CHRISTianity as just another of many world religions.
this leads us to the second parallel. augustus was in a sense a pluralist. he chose not to force one particular god on the people, but instead, set up a whole pantheon of gods for them to choose from. with america being already an extremely diverse society, most today that have the attitude of caesar choose to stay neutral on the topic of religious belief, stating that you can believe whatever you want as long as it works for you. there are even professing CHRISTians who have fallen into this mindset. there are those in our churches today, of every denomination and background, that say that CHRIST is not the only way to heaven. they have fallen prey to the "false prophets" who "tickle their ears" and have adopted a moralistic gospel and a form of deism rather than biblical CHRISTianity. they have stopped seeing God as the supreme, righteous, holy, and jealous Deity that He is, and have instead taken the view of "grandfather God", who loves everyone and won't send anyone to hell, because that's not politically correct and causes division and hurt feelings. so when it comes to CHRISTmas, they choose to focus on everything but CHRIST. they have their pantheon of gods in the form of material goods, nostalgia, santa claus, trees, etc. these are not bad things in and of themselves, but when they become the focus, they in essence become gods.
finally, you can see a parallel in caesar's ambition. he was a narcissist, who wanted absolute control of his life and everyone around him, regardless of how much it inconvenienced them. there are people just like that everywhere at CHRISTmas! they are the ones who stress out every year at CHRISTmas and become the CHRISTmas nazis. everything around them has to be perfect, from the tree (they usually have the designer tree with a set theme every year), to the dinner, to the family coming over, etc. they are the clark w. griswolds trying have that "good old fashioned family CHRISTmas", much to the chagrin of those around them. i had a friend in seminary that used to tell me that he hated CHRISTmas because of the memories he had associated with it. his memories consisted of stressed out parents, arguments, and general high tension around the house. for him, he echoed the sentiment of clark's wife in CHRISTmas vacation when she said, "it's CHRISTmas, and we are all in misery!"
so this year, don't be a caesar. keep your name. realize that you are not God. there are no vacancies in the trinity. no need for you to apply. and keep CHRIST the focus, and if you can do that, then peace on earth and good will can be yours. "seek first the kingdom of God, and all these other things will be given to you!"
And so we pull
10 years ago
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