Luke 2:1 - Meaning and Application

The fullness of time had now come, when God would send his Son, born of a woman and born under the law. It had also been foretold that he would be born in Bethlehem. Here we are given the time, place, and manner of his birth.

The time of our Lord Jesus’s birth was exactly right. He was born when the fourth great kingdom was at its height, when it had become more than the others a world empire. This was in the days of Augustus Caesar, when the Roman Empire reached farther than ever before or after, from Parthia in one direction to Britain in another. It was then called the empire of the whole earth, and Luke speaks of it as “all the world” (Luke 2:1), because almost every civilized land depended on it. This matched Daniel’s prophecy that in the days of those kings, the kings of the fourth kingdom, God would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44).

He was born when Judea had become a Roman province and paid tribute to the empire. We see this plainly because when the Roman world was taxed, the Jews were taxed too. Pompey, a Roman general, had taken Jerusalem about sixty years earlier. He left Hyrcanus in charge of the temple and church matters, but not the government of the state. Over time, Judea was brought lower and lower, until it was fully subdued, and now Cyrenius, the Roman governor of Syria, ruled over it (Luke 2:2). Roman writers call him Sulpitius Quirinus. This was exactly the time foretold in Jacob’s dying prophecy, that Shiloh would come when the scepter had departed from Judah and the ruler’s staff had gone from between his feet (Genesis 49:10). This was the first taxing in Judea, the first visible sign of their servitude, and so Shiloh must now come to set up his kingdom.

There was also another sign that this was the right time. The empire was at peace. The temple of Janus, which was only shut when there was no war, was shut then. It was fitting that the Prince of Peace should be born when peace ruled, the one in whose days swords would be beaten into plowshares.

The place of our Lord’s birth is also very important. He was born in Bethlehem, just as was foretold (Micah 5:2). The scribes understood this to mean Bethlehem (Matthew 2:5-6), and so did the common people (John 7:42). Even the name of the town matters. Bethlehem means “house of bread,” a fitting place for him to be born who is the Bread of life, the Bread that came down from heaven.

Bethlehem was also the city of David, where David himself was born. So it was fitting that the Son of David should be born there. Zion was also called the city of David (2 Samuel 5:7), but Christ was not born there. He chose Bethlehem, the city where David was born in lowly circumstances, as a shepherd. When our Savior humbled himself, he chose that place for his birth, not Zion, the place of power and honor. Zion was to be a picture of Christ’s church, the hill of Zion.

When the virgin Mary was near her time, God arranged that an order came from the emperor for all his subjects to be enrolled. This meant they were to give their names to the proper officers and be registered according to their families, which is the main sense of the word here. The taxing was only part of it. They likely had to openly show their submission to Roman rule, perhaps by a set statement or by paying a small tribute, like a token of allegiance. So they became subjects on record, and they could not complain, since they had placed themselves in that position.

The Jews, who were careful about keeping track of their tribes and families, made sure that these enrollments preserved that memory. Yet they were foolishly trying to save the shadow after they had lost the substance. Augustus may have wanted this for pride, to know the number of his people and make it known to the world. Or he may have done it in policy, to strengthen his power and make his rule seem more impressive. But Providence had a deeper purpose.

The whole world was troubled with this enrollment, but only Joseph and Mary were especially affected by it. It brought them from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, because they belonged to David’s family line (Luke 2:4-5). Since they were poor and lowly, they may have seen their royal ancestry more as a burden and expense than a reason for pride. It is hard to think that every Jew, women as well as men, had to go to the town of their ancestors to be enrolled, especially since the tribes were no longer kept as carefully as before. So it may be that this strict order was mainly applied to David’s family, since it was the royal line and still known as such, and the emperor may have given special instructions about it so he could know its number and strength.

Several purposes of Providence were served by this. First, the virgin Mary was brought great with child to Bethlehem, where she would give birth as foretold, even though she had planned to have her child in Nazareth. This shows how man plans, but God directs. Providence arranges everything to fulfill Scripture and uses people’s own plans, even when they do not mean to serve him, to carry out his will.

Second, this showed that Jesus Christ was from David’s line. What brought his mother to Bethlehem except the fact that she was of the stock and line of David? This was an important point to prove, and it needed a reliable proof like this. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, two early defenders of the Christian faith, appealed to these Roman records as proof that Christ was born from David’s house.

Third, it showed that he was made under the law. He became a subject of the Roman empire as soon as he was born, a servant of rulers (Isaiah 49:7). Many think that, because he was born during this taxing, he was enrolled along with Joseph and Mary, so it would be clear how he made himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant. Instead of kings paying tribute to him, he himself came into the world as one who paid tribute.

The circumstances of his birth were very humble, marked by all possible signs of lowliness and contempt. He was indeed a firstborn son, but it was poor honor to be the firstborn of such a poor woman as Mary, who had no inheritance for him to claim as firstborn, except what belonged to him by birth.

He shared some lowly conditions with other children. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, as newborns are, as if he could be tied up or needed to be held straight. The One who makes darkness a swaddling band for the sea (Job 38:9) was himself wrapped in bands. The everlasting Father became a child in time, and people said about him, whose coming was from long ago and from eternity, “We know this man, where he comes from” (John 7:27). The Ancient of Days became an infant only a span long.

He also experienced abasements that were unique to him. First, he was born at an inn. The Son of David, the glory of his father’s house, had no home he could claim, not even in the city of David. He had no friend who would give his mother a room to give birth in her distress. Christ was born in an inn to show that he came into this world to stay here only for a little while, as a traveler stays in an inn. It also teaches us to live the same way. An inn receives all who come, and so does Christ. He offers the sign of love, and whoever comes to him, he will never turn away. Unlike other inns, he welcomes those who come without money and without price. Everything is given freely.

Second, he was born in a stable, if that is what the word means that we translate as manger, a place where cattle stand and feed. Because there was no room in the inn, and because there were no comforts, and even no necessities, he was laid in a manger instead of a cradle. Some say the word we translate “swaddling clothes” comes from a word meaning to tear, and they think his baby clothes were rough and torn, not fine linen.

His being born in a stable and laid in a manger shows three things. It shows the poverty of his parents. If they had been wealthy, room would have been made for them, but since they were poor, they had to manage as best they could. It shows the corruption and decay of that time, because a woman known for virtue and honor was treated so harshly. If they had shown even ordinary kindness, they would not have turned a woman in labor into a stable. It also shows the deep humiliation of our Lord Jesus. By sin, we had become like a forsaken infant, helpless and abandoned, and Christ became such a one for us. In this way he matched the pattern of Moses, the great prophet and lawgiver of the Old Testament, who in infancy was cast out in a basket of bulrushes, as Christ was laid in a manger. Christ also meant to put worldly greatness in its place and teach us to value it less. Since his own people did not receive him, we should not think it strange if they do not receive us either.