Luke 2:3 No Lawyers

Luke 2:3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

Good thing there weren’t lawyers around when Mary was pregnant. If there were, she would have had to carry Jesus longer than nine months. If the timetable matched that of the United States, then she would have been pregnant for years.

The government can demand that we do things, but we have the right to sue. This is played out every day in our political minefield. Political parties have used the court system to slow down and obstruct policies they disagreed with for years. It seems to have been perfected in recent years to an alarmingly destructive degree.

Let’s think about what would have happened if Mary and Joseph lived today. The government demands that they travel, at their own expense, to take part in the census. You had to travel to your family’s ancestral home. So I would have to travel from Florida to Massachusetts. Mary and Joseph had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Now if they lived now, they would have the right to sue. They were being forced to spend their own money for a government requirement. No stimulus payment to cover the expenses. Travel costs would not be reimbursed. This would disproportionally affect the poorest in society, those who could least afford the expense. I can see the lawyers raising their glasses of champaign in celebration.

But Jesus would not have been born in Bethlehem. Prophecy would not have been fulfilled. So, Mary would have had to stay pregnant until after the lawsuit had been litigated fully. But in Roman times, non-Romans didn’t have the rights of Roman citizens. Mary and Joseph did not have standing to sue Rome. They were subjects of Rome, without the benefits of citizenship.

Simeon would not have been there on day eight to praise God for the arrival of the Messiah. Anna would not have been able to speak to those gathered about the redemption of Jerusalem.

Now I know that Mary and Joseph didn’t obstruct the will of God by objecting to the census. They could have joined a militia group to fight against the government bent on tyranny, but they didn’t. They didn’t retreat into a compound, a hill community like Qumran. Instead, they obeyed the order of the government and went to Bethlehem.

It can be hard to know when obeying the earthly government is the right and moral thing to do in a particular circumstance. We ought to be able to have a discussion about the role of government and the rights of citizens to hold government accountable, but we can’t.

Just think of the changes to our Christmas songs that we would have to make if Mary and Joseph had objected to Rome’s demands. “O, medium town of Nazareth, how bustling we see thee move….”

So next time you read Scripture, think about the small obedient sacrifices made by the people of God in order to carry out the mission of God in this world. We might not personally be called to leave all we have and move to another part of the world which is hostile to the Gospel, but some people are being called to this. What sacrifices are you making because you are being obedient?