Roman taxation

There is a tendency to relate the things of our world and our culture to other peoples, times and places.  But the idea does not always work.  The place where I live, the United States is a great nation, the mightiest nation in the world.  This assures me of great safety and immunity from foreign attack.  As a citizen of the United States I am given great privileges.

The same was not true for Joseph and Mary.  Their land was occupied by the Romans, and they were subject to this foreign people.  They were forced to pay their taxes, carry their loads, and remain obedient to these pagan rulers - or die.

And so we begin the Christmas story.  Joseph is ordered to go to the place of his nativity to be counted in a census and taxed.  The Syrian governor desired an accurate count of his citizens.  He needed taxes to maintain his military and his lifestyle (and to give a tribute to Rome).  And in the process of the taxation he wanted to push the people a little in order to show them who was boss.  Joseph and Mary were forced to travel for a reason: to prove they were subjects of an occupied nation.

Through their occupation and forced obedience, Joseph and Mary held fast to a dream, a dream which was shared by many of citizens of Galilee in their day: to be free of the occupation.  Galilee was a hotbed for a group known as the Zealots, who desired to throw off the foreign rule and claim freedom.

While for many people emancipation from the occupiers was only a dream, the Jewish people knew with the right leadership the fight for freedom could be a reality.  While Israel was only a small, impoverished nation, this people who shared both a nationality and a faith knew that small, impoverished people can, if allowed by God, defeat the most mighty empire on the earth.  … And how did they know?  Because it had happened for their great grandparents 160 years before Jesus was born.

Here the story intersects (on purpose) with a festival of the Jews which begins tomorrow.  For as we look at the Hebrew Calendar for 2015 (5776), we find tomorrow, December 6, is the first evening of Chanukah.  If you are Jewish (or as a Christian if you want to) it is time to pull out the Menorah, the dreydles, the Chanukah gelt, and make sure you have ingredients for Latkes.

Joseph, Mary, the Shepherds, and the Jewish people today recall through Chanukah of a time past when the nation was under occupation: not to the Romans, but to Greek rulers called the Seleucids.  These rulers demanded taxes, they pushed their culture and their religion, and they made life miserable for the Jewish people.  Especially Antiochus Epiphanes, who not only suggested - but demanded the Jews bow down to idols.

A Jewish Zealot by the name of Mattathias objected.  And with the help of his sons and the people, they threw off the foreign occupation, and became free - until the Romans came.  And the ember of hope which blazed into freedom under the Maccabees was still glowing: if only there would come a leader.

Joseph and Mary held this hope, for a time, because there were many who believed the purpose of the Messiah was to overthrow the Roman occupiers.  During the life of Jesus his family came to understand he did not com to overthrow the Roman Empire - but the empire of Satan.  It is to Jesus we owe our freedom, for He is light of the world.