Big bad government

December 1, 2021 (Wednesday)

 

Humans have a natural love-hate relationship with government. Government is how we organize ourselves into large units to achieve more than smaller units can achieve. Depending on your perspective, you may love, like, ignore, dislike, or even hate those in government.

 

In America, it we tend attach our “wagon” to political figures, parties, and policies. I suspect this is one way we think we will not bear responsibility. Governments rule, in theory, for the common good. As Christians we seldom think good comes from government.

 

Let me take you back two thousand years to a government that was heavy handed and brutal. Imagine the upheaval, “In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists.” [Luke 2:1 CEB] In the west, we sometimes think wistfully at Caesar as a kind uncle. However, Rome was brutal in squashing its opponents. Consider, when Rome put down the Jewish rebellion in 70 A.D, they literally tore the temple down to the point where not one stone was on top of another.

 

The iron fist of the government declared everyone was to relocate, “Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled.” [Luke 2:3 CEB] This meant, “Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea.” [Luke 2:4 CEB] This meant a hike down a mountain, across the flat Jordan valley, up a very treacherous mountain road through Jerusalem to get to Bethlehem. This trip of around 100 miles would have taken a couple of weeks.

 

Add to the complication of just traveling that far, “He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant.” [Luke 2:5 CEB] The impression we often have is that Mary’s was due at any time. We read, “She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.” [Luke 2:7 CEB] Things must have been bad in Bethlehem for someone to turn away an expectant mother.  

 

Imagine this: big bad government forcing events to happen according to prophecy. “As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, though you are the least significant of Judah’s forces, one who is to be a ruler in Israel on my behalf will come out from you. His origin is from remote times, from ancient days.” [Micah 5:2 CEB] Try not to think about placing your new born child in an animal’s feeding trough. Oh right, this child is the King of Kings…

 

Yet this is the God ordained beginning of Jesus’ life. Displaced. Homeless. Laying in a manger (feeding trough). Put this in perspective. The creator of the universe, God of all, chose to be born under these circumstances.

 

Certainly, this God must be insane, or motivated by love. What type of God do you want running the universe? Yet, God motivated Caesar Augustus to issue a decree that uprooted a man and his very pregnant fiancé. The force of such a government to require compliance in the far-flung providence of Judea must have been terrifying. Yet, it happened, as proof of prophecy.

 

Which brings me to this thought; did Mary and Joseph understand the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem? I seriously doubt Mary and Joseph understood this… if they did, it would not have taken an edict from the big bad government to force them to Bethlehem. Certainly, this fulfillment was not their idea, or choice.

 

Image a helpless baby, laying in a feeding trough, at a place the Romans considered a wart on the back side of civilization… is the King of Glory. Why? It looks like a greedy government grabbing tax money. However, it was all in the plan of Almighty God.