Begin In A Family Way.

To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

Joseph could not very well leave Mary behind, being great with child as she was. And though in the early twenty-first century as we are you do not often hear the phrase "in a family way" any more referring to someone who is pregnant ... I just liked it. In addition, two thousand years ago a family unit had (and still has, in some human cultures) the capacity of being the only people you could trust. And especially under the occupation that all Jews then were -- Roman occupation for the last two-thirds of a century, at the time of the story we're continuing with the gospel of Luke, chapter two verse five -- to leave anybody behind where a soldier might draw a sword at the slightest provocation was not a good idea. In addition, you had all Jews viewing themselves as a very extended family.

(This makes Jesus' later speaking out against the Pharisees and Sadducees of His day much more poignant -- essentially, he's calling family into question! But I digress.) Back to Mary, who was we would say very pregnant, her having to come with Joseph on the journey to Beth-lehem made economic sense as well, the same as our registering "to be taxed" with our whole families on a federal or state tax return. Nearly all cultures require -- or at least strongly encourage -- men and women to have enough children to succeed themselves, and in the case of Jewish culture where children were seen as a blessing from God, women began, mostly with the help of their husbands, to have children as often as humanly possible when they became old enough TO have them. Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 between them tell us of at least six more children that Mary and Joseph had after Jesus.

Of course, none of them were sheathed in prophecy or died to take away the sins of the world (you and me), but again I digress. (Great story potential: each of these six younger siblings' perspective on growing up with Jesus as their older brother.) So as Mary and Joseph arrive in a long line into Beth-lehem for some kind of temporary living arrangements -- they certainly could not sleep in the street -- at least Joseph is footsore and perhaps a little frustrated that what seemed to be everybody else from Nazareth who claimed and could prove (and if you could not prove your ancestry, see the book of Nehemiah for your fate) they were born in Beth-lehem had arrived ahead of them and were still behind them. It was a rough time, and a rough world, into which Jesus would be born. Family.