Every morning as I drive to work, I pass the same pickup truck. Emblazoned in ornate letters across the back window are these words: “JESUS: NOT OF THIS WORLD.” I mean, I guess it’s technically correct. John 1 tells us how Jesus was there at the moment of creation, active with the other Persons of the Trinity in molding the universe into existence. He came into this world to redeem it even if we didn’t recognize him. So yeah, you could say Jesus is “not of this world,” but I’m not sure this expression really gives us the best picture of who Jesus is. It undermines the idea Jesus came into this world and dwelt among us; the creator lived as part of creation for a time. But why was Jesus born when he was? What was it about that time?

Rome loomed as the dominant superpower over the Mediterranean, with many of the surrounding regions under Roman occupation or governance. The Empire expanded under Caesar Augustus’s “Pax Romana,” a dubiously-named period of stability within Rome which facilitated the conquest and oppression of its neighbors. The Galilee and Judea were such areas, but rather than being directly under Roman rule (which would have guaranteed certain religious and cultural freedoms), the ancestral Jewish lands were territories under the Roman-endorsed puppet-king Herod. Herod reigned as a notorious despot, raising taxes, erecting temples to Caesar, and carrying out an infamous slaughter of young boys who might have grown to challenge his rule. With the terrors of Rome and Herod, it was a dangerous and shameful time to be a Galilean Jew —arguably one of Jewish culture’s lowest points outside the Holocaust and the Spanish Inquisition—, and yet, Jesus arrived in this era.

Sit with this for a moment:
Jesus arrived not at Israel’s height, but in an era of cultural desolation for his people.
What must that have been like for Jesus and his earliest followers?

As Americans (especially American Christians), we live in a time and place of great privilege, so it’s easy to forget Jesus grew up under the thumb of an empire. Given the reach and resources of our country, we have much more in common with Rome than we do with Israel. American culture and the Christian religion are two of the largest dominant cultural forces in the world right now, and yet, we worship someone born to an oppressed people at one of the lowest points in their history. Jesus brought hope to a people who didn’t have much hope left.
What message would he bring to us?

This series is heavily influenced by Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited. For a deeper dive into the life of Jesus and what it means for people who are suffering, outcast, and downtrodden (not to mention a thoughtful exploration of racism and authoritarianism in the U.S.), I cannot recommend this book enough.