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| December 2007 |
| Billie Silvey |
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| The World Jesus Was Born Into |
| Jesus was born into a world newly united. The Roman Empire had consolidated the entire Mediterranean area, and the Pax Romana, or Peace of Rome, extended across it, either through the proud participation of its citizens or through garrisons of soldiers at strategic places who enforced it. |
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| “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.” --Luke 2:1 |
| This world had a single language, Greek. It was stitched together by a network of Roman roads, the engineering marvel of the time. This made it possible for goods and ideas to spread more rapidly than ever before--and for a long time after. These roads were supplemented by regular sea routes along the coasts and even out into the open sea, which meant a speed and ease of commerce unknown in earlier times. That was how the good news was able to be spread so rapidly. |
| The Emperor Augustus Caesar ruled this empire at the time of Jesus’ birth. We know him as the paterfamilias of the large and brutal family in "I, Claudius," a family that seemed bent on killing off one another to gain power. He was also the ruler who ordered the census that took Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, where the Baby Jesus was born--in keeping with prophecy and the purpose of God. |
| Despite the fact that the birth of Jesus was a single, world-changing event of history, Jesus comes again and again into our world. He can come in Los Angeles, a place where people from all over the world have come together. The good news of his presence can spread using all the new technology--as well as all the old. And he can live in lives of VIPs and ordinary people--like you and me. May Jesus live in our lives--today and every day of our lives. |