Luke 2:1-5: a reflection

1Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. 2This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. 4Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant.

The story of Jesus' birth begins not in Bethlehem but in Rome, with a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered for taxation. This imperial order, issued for the empire's own administrative and financial purposes, compelled Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the city of David, because he was of David's line, taking the pregnant Mary with him. And so, through a pagan emperor's census, the Messiah came to be born in Bethlehem, exactly where the prophet Micah had said he would be.

Notice the machinery God used. Caesar was not thinking of prophecy or the Messiah; he wanted a census for taxes. Yet his decree, part of the ordinary, inconvenient bureaucracy of empire, became the very means by which God brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to fulfill the ancient prophecy. God worked his purpose not by dramatic intervention but through the mundane workings of the world, a tax registration, a required journey, the routine machinery of an empire.

That reveals something about how God works his purposes in the world, and in our lives. He often uses the ordinary, even the inconvenient and the mundane, the requirements, the interruptions, the routine machinery of life, to accomplish what he intends. A census that must have felt to Joseph and Mary like an ill-timed inconvenience was, in God's hand, the means of fulfilling his word. When the ordinary demands and inconveniences of life press on you, remember Bethlehem. God directs even the mundane machinery of the world to accomplish his purposes, and what feels like mere inconvenience may be the means of his plan.

Lord, you brought your Son to be born in Bethlehem through a pagan emperor's tax decree, using the ordinary, inconvenient machinery of empire to fulfill the prophet's ancient word. Help me trust that you work your purposes the same way in my life. When the ordinary demands and inconveniences press on me, the requirements, the interruptions, the routine machinery of life, remind me of Bethlehem. You direct even the mundane to accomplish what you intend, and what feels like mere inconvenience may be the means of your plan. Help me see your hand in the ordinary, and trust that nothing, however routine, falls outside your purpose.