Chistmas as Critique of Complicity with Empire
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Chistmas as Critique of Complicity with Empire
Herb Montgomery | December 24, 2025
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Matthew:
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25)
The birth narratives of Jesus found in Matthew and Luke emerge in a world saturated with Roman imperial propaganda. We can read them as intentional counter-stories that rivaled prevailing narratives surrounding the birth of Caesar Augustus. In the early Roman Empire, Augustus’ rise was framed as a divinely orchestrated event. Imperial poets and historians portrayed him as born under auspicious signs, heralded by prophecies, and destined to bring a golden age of peace. They said his birth would fulfill cosmic expectations. Inscriptions such as the Priene Calendar Decree called him a “savior” whose arrival marked the beginning of “good news” (or gospel) for the world. These themes formed a powerful ideological backdrop that shaped public imagination.
In this context, early Christians crafted their own contrary birth narratives. These stories don’t simply tell of Jesus’ origins but also deliberately challenge Rome’s theological claims. Luke’s narrative in particular mirrors and subverts imperial motifs. While Augustus issues a decree that sets the story in motion, the real focus is on a child born not in a palace but among the poor. Angels proclaim “good news” of “peace on earth,” echoing Roman language but redirecting it toward a different kind of rule. Instead of imperial conquest, this peace is grounded in human compassion and justice. Matthew’s story likewise positions Jesus in a prophetic lineage superior to Rome and presents him as the true king threatened by unjust power.
By adopting forms familiar from imperial birth legends and filling them with radically different content, the gospel writers offer a theological critique of empire. They portray Jesus as the genuine bringer of salvation, who saves society not through domination and imperial violence but through love of neighbor and solidarity with the marginalized. The birth narratives that we celebrate at this time of year originally functioned as political statements. They offer an alternative vision of power, challenge Rome’s claims to divine favor, and invite readers to imagine a world ordered not by imperial might but by the values of justice, compassion, and liberation.
Supernatural as these narratives are, I would like us to try and step back from the supernatural elements of the narratives about Jesus’ birth. These claims were made for Caesar as well. So what are these supernatural narratives saying politically, and can they inform our justice work today as we, too, seek to follow that 1st Century Jewish prophet of the poor from Galilee.
The central passage the Matthew chooses to adopt in his birth narrative about Jesus is from a completely different ancient Jewish story. And if we are to understand Isaiah’s story in a life-giving way, we need to start with the history of the original claim in Isaiah 7 that “a virgin would conceive”. Isaiah is a book about prophetic justice. Bear with me as we briefly summarize its history. It will be worth it in the end.
Isaiah 7 is set during the Syro-Ephraimite War (735–732 BCE). This was a major geopolitical crisis where the northern kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) and Aram (Syria) formed an alliance against Assyria and then threatened to invade the southern kingdom of Judah. Their goal was to depose Judah’s king, Ahaz, and force his kingdom to join their anti-Assyrian alliance. Ahaz and his people were terrified of this impending war.
King Rezin of Aram (Syria) and King Pekah of Israel (Ephraim) marched to besiege Jerusalem. They planned to overthrow the Davidic monarchy (Ahaz) and install a puppet ruler, the son of Tabeal. Ahaz and his people “trembled with fear, like the trees of the forest shake with the wind” (Isaiah 7:2). Rather than seeking help from God, however, Ahaz began making secret overtures to Tiglath-Pileser III, the powerful king of Assyria, to become his vassal and gain his military protection.
In Isaiah 7, God sent Isaiah to meet Ahaz and urged him to stay calm and trust in the Lord instead of in a foreign alliance. Isaiah assured the king that the invasion would fail, and he referred to the two enemy kings as “smoldering stubs of firewood” who would soon be extinguished.
Within a few years, Assyria conquered both Syria and Israel, the two nations threatening Judah. Isaiah’s prophecy indicated that before the child Immanuel was old enough to know right from wrong, the threat from Rezin and Pekah would be over.
Because Ahaz chose to rely on Assyria rather than God, Judah became an Assyrian vassal state. Heavy tributes and the introduction of pagan practices set the stage for future conflict and exile.
This is the connection between Isaiah and Matthew’s birth narrative for Jesus and Isaiah. Our culture’s naturalistic worldview means that what catches our attention is the scientific impossibility of a virgin birth, and this has distracted us from the political point that the author of Matthew’s gospel is making.
Let me explain. Just as Ahaz submitted to the powerful king of Assyria, the Temple state elites of Jesus’ society had submitted to being a vassal of Imperial Rome. Their complicity in Rome’s exploitation of the region had brought them both power and wealth, but it was privilege for the few at the expense of the masses.
In Jesus’ world, the Jerusalem Temple was not only a religious center but also the administrative heart of a Temple-State, a political institution deeply entangled with Roman imperial power. After Rome appointed Herod the Great as client king and installed Roman prefects to govern Judea, the Temple leadership—particularly the high-priestly aristocracy—found itself operating within a system designed to maintain stability for Rome and to secure its own privileged status. The high priest was no longer chosen by internal Jewish processes but appointed and removed at the will of Roman authorities. This arrangement created a class of leaders whose power, wealth, and security depended on cooperation with the empire.
The Temple system collected tithes, offerings, and taxes from the people, on top of Rome’s own heavy taxation. Many scholars note that this dual burden intensified economic strain on ordinary people, especially peasants already living close to subsistence. Temple elites, benefiting from control of offerings, land, and commerce, were seen as aligning themselves with Roman economic extraction rather than resisting it. Their collaboration helped stabilize Rome’s rule and reinforced their own authority.
This complicity is a central backdrop to Jesus’ confrontations in the gospels. His overturning tables in the Temple didn’t challenge Jewish worship; it challenged a system that exploited the poor and legitimized imperial violence. By critiquing both economic injustice and elite collaboration with Rome, Jesus exposed how the Temple-State had drifted far from its vocation as a place of liberation and had instead become a partner in imperial domination.
This leads us to parallels in our time. In the United States today, certain sectors of Christianity have become closely aligned with nationalism, blending religious identity with political power and national loyalty. This alignment often frames a nation as uniquely chosen or divinely favored, and so transforms faith into a marker of cultural belonging rather than a call to ethical discipleship that follows the values and teachings actually found in the Jesus story, values such as nonviolence, inclusion of the marginalized, welcoming the migrant, and taking care of the poor. Christian symbols and language are sometimes used to legitimize policies that prioritize dominance, exclusion, or fear of the “other,” especially immigrants, religious minorities, and dissenters. In this framework, loyalty to the nation can eclipse core Christian commitments to peace, justice, and love of neighbor. National success is interpreted as divine blessing, while critique of the state is portrayed as unfaithful. This fusion risks turning Christianity into a tool for preserving power rather than a prophetic voice that challenges injustice. When faith is subordinated to nationalist goals, it loses its capacity to speak truth to power and to stand in solidarity with the vulnerable.
In the light of Isaiah’s critique of a union with Assyria and the gospels’ critique of a union with Rome, today’s Jesus followers are called to put their faith in the way of peace and justice. This holiday season, the birth narratives of Jesus give us cause to pause and assess whether our own faith practices are still in harmony with the stories we hold so dear.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How are the Christmas narratives in the gospels informing your own justice work this year? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
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I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 2 Episode 51: Christmas as Critique of Complicity with Empire
Matthew 1:18-25
“Our culture’s naturalistic worldview means that what catches our attention is the scientific impossibility of a virgin birth, and this has distracted us from the political point that the author of Matthew’s gospel is making. That political point has parallels in our time. In the United States today, certain sectors of Christianity have become closely aligned with nationalism, blending religious identity with political power and national loyalty. This alignment often frames a nation as uniquely chosen or divinely favored, and so transforms faith into a marker of cultural belonging rather than a call to ethical discipleship that follows the values and teachings actually found in the Jesus story, values such as nonviolence, inclusion of the marginalized, welcoming the migrant, and taking care of the poor. Christian symbols and language are sometimes used to legitimize policies that prioritize dominance, exclusion, or fear of the ‘other,’ especially immigrants, religious minorities, and dissenters. In this framework, loyalty to the nation can eclipse core Christian commitments to peace, justice, and love of neighbor. National success is interpreted as divine blessing, while critique of the state is portrayed as unfaithful. This fusion risks turning Christianity into a tool for preserving power rather than a prophetic voice that challenges injustice. When faith is subordinated to nationalist goals, it loses its capacity to speak truth to power and to stand in solidarity with the vulnerable.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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