Welcome to Advent 2025! Each Sunday, we’ll explore the verses of Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55 until we reach its crescendo on Christmas Eve. From 11/30 to 12/27, we’ll read biblical passages that prompt Mary’s praise and prepare us to enter the pageant of the birth of our Savior.
Advent Passage: Luke 2:1-5
Today, we travel with Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Take a moment to picture the trip in your mind. What do you see? Hold that image for a moment.
The verses of today’s short passage provide clues about the lives of God’s people in the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus’ birth. Caesar Augustus ruled Rome, while King Herod presided over the Jewish provinces, including Judea.
Augustus routinely taxed Rome’s residents to raise money for the continual expansion of the Empire. He used a system of census-taking to collect the taxes.[1] It was this program of taxation that required Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem.
Mary and Joseph likely traveled with a group of relatives and other Judeans complying with the census order. The roads they took would not be safe to travel in isolation, especially for a young couple.
Once they arrived in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph needed a place to stay. Most homes in the rural town of Bethlehem likely included one room for the family and an attached space for their livestock. Some homes had one extra room for housing guests.[2] It was not unusual for guests to stay in the stable area, so Mary and Joseph likely stayed in a relative’s home where the animals were housed.
The picture of this journey looks so different in my mind. Instead of a noisy band of travelers, I imagine a lonely couple walking through the night. They arrive in Bethlehem but struggle to find a place to sleep. An innkeeper has mercy on them and gives them shelter in his barn.
This picture matches many Nativity displays. But the real picture was very different.
Instead of a desolate journey in isolation, Mary and Joseph traveled and slept in community. Although she gave birth in a stable, Mary likely had relatives to assist her. The trip must have been dirty, exhausting, and inconvenient, especially for a very pregnant Mary. However, the whole experience was pretty ordinary.
These were ordinary people after all. Somehow, we forget that part. Jesus was born right into the middle of the messy lives of a community of people holding on to their faith in God and persevering together.
It makes the Nativity look and feel a bit different, doesn’t it? For me, it all seems a little more real, a little closer to my actual life: louder, brighter, and messier. Instead of coming into a remote, isolated place, Jesus entered into the daily lives of His people.
Isn’t that remarkable? Jesus’ birth signifies how much God cares about the details of our daily lives, with all its dust and inconvenience and laughter and community. He comes to us right where we hold onto our faith and persevere together. Holiness into messy, Divine into ordinary, Love into living. What an image to behold!
[1] David Garland, Luke, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 117. Logos.
[2] Gary Burge and Gene Green, The New Testament in Antiquity:, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 155.hrow off the things that hinder us and the sin that seeks to divide, distort, and destroy us. May we keep our eyes on the Merciful One before us until our lives bear witness to those who journey beside and behind us, by faith.
© 2025 Lori Myers Berry
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