Historical accounts of this year’s Christmas will always contain an expanded footnote. The news of Christmas is the birth of Jesus. The rest of the story is Christmas during a pandemic due to a rapidly spreading and deadly virus. The empty chairs that will be at many tables and the precautions we will take to keep ourselves and others safe will cancel or alter Christmas celebrations for many of us this year. I find it difficult to type these words, but the pressing question is “Will there even be a Christmas in 2020?”

The story of Jesus’ birth does not begin with “Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger.” Rather, “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered… All went to their own towns to be registered.” The news of the day was the Imperial census forced upon the inhabitants of Roman ruled lands for tax purposes. Great advancements would be made during the reign of Augustus. Aqueducts and roads connecting population centers were built, which improved health and expanded commerce. Caesar funded the building of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. The cost of these advances was a tax burden on the poor.

The rest of the story behind that news unfolds when Joseph takes Mary to Bethlehem to register for the tax. Jesus was born. Angels announce his birth to shepherds. The shepherds visit Mary, Joseph, and the baby. They tell them what the angels declared: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Mary “treasures their words and ponders them in her heart.” The birth of a baby to a poor Galilean maiden in Bethlehem would not have made a footnote in the Imperial record of the great acts of Caesar Augustus. And yet, as Luke tells the story, the birth of Jesus relegates Caesar to an incidental footnote in the story of the Incarnation of God in Jesus.

The news of 2020 is without question the devastating virus that has done so much harm and taken so many lives. Those battling against the virus are making headway, but the casualties are mounting as the medical profession moves forward with more effective treatments and vaccines that are coming. In this environment, we cannot let down our guard to return to “normal life” without multiplying the casualties and overburdening medical facilities and staff. The question this year is not, “How will our celebration of Christmas be altered due to the virus?” The question is whether there can be a Christmas at all in 2020. The answer depends on how you define Christmas.

If Christmas is the birthday of Jesus, nothing in all of creation will be able to stop it. Neither Caesar, Herod, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, nor the Devil could stop Jesus from completing the saving work the Father gave him to do. His birth is essential to His saving work. Jesus was born in a time and place where people lived under the rule of a tyrant who had no concern that the burden which he imposed on his subjects made their lives unbearable. In contrast, Jesus invites the weary and those carrying heavy burdens to come to him for rest (Matthew 11:28), and he gives it. In his saving death, Jesus has “borne our infirmities and carried our diseases” (Isaiah 53:4). COVID-19 is the news of 2020, but the rest of the story is that Christmas has never been needed more and will never be appreciated more than now. Christmas will not be stopped. You are welcome here, Lord Jesus.

Hughey