Be Still And Know

Luke 2:1-3 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. A friend of mine once commented to me that he wasn’t bothered whether the story of Jesus’ birth was historically accurate or not. He was happy to accept it as simply a beautiful story. Dr Luke, who wrote this gospel, would have profoundly disagreed. For Luke, the historical context of Jesus’ birth was of crucial importance, so he supplied us with more information than any of the other gospel writers. It was typical of the Romans to conduct censuses. They liked to have a clear account of what was going on throughout their vast empire. Joseph and Mary made the long and arduous journey from Nazareth, in the north of the country, to the ancestral home of Joseph in Bethlehem, not far from Jerusalem in the south. The meticulous historical details are of