Luke 2:3-5
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.
The message conveyed by these few lines is simple: Jesus is the child of the promise. The children of Israel had been looking and longing for a messiah – really the Messiah – for generations. And part of that promise is that the Messiah, the new king of Israel, would be descended from Israel’s greatest king, David.
And so we hear in this passage that Joseph took his bride-to-be Mary to his hometown of Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David. Jesus that is, born to Mary and Joseph, is the child of the promise.
But while Luke’s description is as brief as it is simple, two things stand out. First, all these events that culminate in Jesus’ birth in the town of his ancestor David are set in motion by the decree of an Emperor unaware of what is taking place and accomplished through a lowly family of little to no account in the eyes of the world. God’s work, the early Christians confessed, is often hidden, taking place in and through the powerful and lowly alike, and not always evident apart from faith.
Second, while the description is brief, surely the journey was not. Bethlehem was 80 miles from Nazareth, and Mary was pregnant. Indeed, “great with child,” as the King James Version so memorably put it. Little wonder that tradition assumes – or perhaps wishes – that Mary rode a donkey. But whether by donkey, on foot, or part of a caravan, the swiftest we can imagine covering that distance would be in four days.
Jesus, child of the promise, born in Bethlehem because of the unwitting actions of the mighty and the fidelity and endurance of the lowly, is soon to be born. And not just Israel but the whole world will never be the same again.
Prayer: Dear God, bless all those who must travel against their will or in times of danger, stress, or risk – the immigrants, the refugees, the dispossessed – for of such is often born children of promise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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