Advent: A People Under Occupation

What sent Joseph, and with him Mary, to Bethlehem was a region-wide census ordered by Rome.

Census Decree

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.

Luke 2:1-7 (NRSVUE)

According to Luke’s Gospel, during Augustus Caesar’s reign, a “first,” or “initial” registration was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. History dates the beginning of Quirinius’ actual governorship as 6 CE, but Matthew’s Gospel dates Jesus’s birth within the reign of Herod the Great, who died around 4 BCE. This is an unsettling contradiction until we realize that Quirinius was conducting a war from Syria against the Homonadenses sometime between 12 BCE and 6 CE. Quirinius would have needed soldiers and tax money to continue his campaign, and Caesar would certainly have endorsed a census of subjugated peoples to provide them.

Sent Away Alone

We must also take pause in considering both Joseph’s and Mary’s situation. By this point, there would have been a quiet and hurried signing of the marriage contract so they both could travel together. Whatever her family may have believed about Mary’s story of an archangel, her virginity, and the miraculous conception of God the Son within her, Mary’s own mother, and her extended family, seemed willing to send Mary away to have her first child with whomever might take them in, once they arrived in Bethlehem. We must picture both Joseph and Mary now severed from family and community as they made their way to Bethlehem in the hopes some family on Joseph’s side would have a place for them.

Governmental Oppression

Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed—with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power—with no one to comfort them. And I commended the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive …

Ecclesiastes 4:1-2 (NRSVUE)

A Plea for Mercy

Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to aliens.

With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven;
    we are weary; we are given no rest.

The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.

But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
Why have you forgotten us completely?
    Why have you forsaken us these many days?
Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
    renew our days as of old—
unless you have utterly rejected us
    and are angry with us beyond measure.

Lamentations 5:1-2, 5, 15, 19-22 (NRSVUE)

Suppressed and Subdued

From Mari:

“A census in ancient times was not a mundane event. They were precursors to taxation and warfare – omens of death. The census taken at the time of Jesus’s birth was even worse than a normal census, because it was imposed by the Roman Empire, which had just formally annexed Judea. This census was the representation of Rome’s subjugation of the Jewish people, and their intent to begin extracting taxes from them – taxes which would go to support Rome and its armies’ wars in Europe and Asia, and would doubtlessly be oppressively heavy.

“The census also upended people’s lives, as we can see from Joseph and Mary’s move almost a hundred miles south from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and put them at risk of danger both on the road and in their overcrowded homes of origin.”

(The button above will bring you to Amazon.com to get “Songs for a Savior.”)

Mediations for Advent

So, I have prepared an Advent Devotional that will take the reader through each of the four weeks of Advent, beginning the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with a special reading for Christmas day. I wrote it this way so this devotional could be read in any given year

The first part of this devotional pairs Hannah’s Prayer with Zechariah’s Prophecy, and the names of the Son of God that come out of their prayers.

Hannah’s Prayer

Hannah was the mother of the prophet Samuel, who was the last of the Hebrew Judges and the first prophet to anoint a king of Israel. It was Samuel who anointed King David, recognizing in the young shepherd boy that God does not judge by what the world sees, or by the world’s standards, but rather God looks in the heart. The heart and soul are what matter to God for eternity.

Zechariah’s Prophecy

Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist, who was the last of the Hebrew Prophets, and the Hebrew prophet who heralded and baptized Messiah Jesus, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. John the Baptist was able to identify the Messiah in the unassuming carpenter and stonemason by God’s direct revelation in the form of a dove resting above Jesus’s head. Israel was looking for a royal king but God intended to save the world for eternity.

The second part of this devotional pairs Mary’s Magnificat with Jesus’s Beatitudes, and the names of God the Son which arise.

Mary’s Magnificat

Mary was the birth mother of Jesus, the first to experience the extraordinary reality of God’s very life growing within her. As any mother might do, Mary surely sang lullabies to her baby, and taught Him the scriptures and stories of His people as He grew. It was Mary who heard her Son’s first word, and rejoiced over His first step. It is no wonder she “pondered these things in her heart.”

Jesus’s Beatitudes

As His ministry grew, Jesus’s teaching became famous, and His Beatitudes continue to engage us thousands of years later with the wonder of the Lord’s wisdom.
As you and I meditate on these words, let us think about the names all heaven and earth gave to this tiny, vulnerable baby Who is God the Son. From eternity into our world and then returned to the glory from whence He came, Jesus now opens the way for you and me to be with him in glory forever.

Lamp photographs from the Getty Museum (Menorah lamp) and the Metropolitan Museum (Chi-rho lamp), public domain.

[Image: More details Mary and Joseph register for the census before Governor Quirinius. Byzantine mosaic at the Chora Church, Constantinople 1315–1320.]