Bible Text: Matthew 2:1–14 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
We are focusing on Joseph, Mary’s husband, this Advent series, and how he teaches us to live in the three estates. Again, the three estates are the home, the state, and the church. God instituted each one and we each live out our lives in these realms. Last week we saw that Joseph, though he obviously isn’t the biological father of Jesus – Jesus is the Virgin-born Son of God – Joseph acted as a true father to him, teaching him God’s Word, being good to His mother, protecting him from harm, bringing him to church. That’s what a good father does and in that sense you won’t find a better father in the Bible than Joseph. Today we look at what Joseph can teach us about the state: how do we Christians live as citizens and residents of a country and subjects of a government? And once again, Joseph teaches us a lot.
The first lesson to go to is one we didn’t read tonight, but one you are all very familiar with, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be taxed, and this taxing first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. And all went to be taxed, each to his own town. So Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, unto Judea, to city of David, which is called Bethlehem, for he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was great with child.”
Joseph obeyed his government. He went to register to pay taxes. That is the main way we obey our government, besides simply obeying laws against stealing and trespassing and murdering. We pay taxes. St. Paul, and we just read this in Romans 13, says that the government is God’s minister particularly for this, to collect taxes from you. That’s what he says. So Joseph travels to Bethlehem to pay taxes. What did those taxes pay for?
You could point out that these taxes paid for a lot of bad things. The Roman government was no Christian government. It wasn’t “secular” either, whatever that means, as if there can be a “neutral” government. It was pagan. It promoted the worship of false gods and paid to maintain that worship. Caesar Augustus claimed to be a god himself, and he spread the cult, the worship, of the Emperor all over the Mediterranean world, to increase loyalty to Rome. And he used Joseph’s taxes to do it.
So as good Americans and good Christians we object, my taxes shouldn’t go to pay for welfare for people who refuse to work or to pay for abortions or to pay for healthcare for illegals. And you’re right. And Joseph’s taxes shouldn’t have gone to the upkeep of the imperial cult, the literal worship of false gods. But he paid them. And when St. Paul wrote the words, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities,” who was Emperor of Rome? Nero. And Nero was a transvestite maniac who a short time later would begin the first great Roman persecution of Christians. And Paul said, the Holy Spirit says, pay taxes to the governing authorities, obey them.
Why? Because they are God’s servants for good. Joseph knew that. We should too. It’s our present reality. Let’s look at Joseph. There was no war in Joseph’s time. He lived in the century called the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. From the Battle of Actium in 31 BC till the time of Jesus’ birth there had been no serious wars in the Mediterranean world. For the first time in history. And more than that, the pirates had been cleared from the seas, the robbers from the roads, and the highways themselves made travel possible from one end of the empire to the other, there was food in the markets, and safety at home, and all of that was possible because of a government and because of taxes. The government is God’s institution for good. No government will come close to being perfect. But government is meant to enough good that you can lead a peaceful life and especially worship God in peace. And that good you see today too. Besides 9/11 there has not been war on our soil in our lifetime. We can walk our streets without fear. We can travel across this country on well-built roads. We can buy what we need from the market and we are safe at home. The government is God’s minister for good and we experience it every day. So we pay taxes and obey and respect our government.
We also obey for conscience’ sake. Because when we obey the government we are obeying God. All legitimate authority is established by God. He is the Father from whom all fatherhood is named. Luther calls the government God’s mask – it’s God protecting us from war, God keeping us safe, but He wears the mask of the government to do it. And it is in thanks to our gracious God that we live as obedient and good citizens. Christians have always been the best citizens, because we understand this. It’s beautiful that when Joseph obeyed Caesar Augustus and traveled to Bethlehem, he was also very literally obeying God, not only because Caesar Augustus as Emperor acts in God’s place, but because God ordered that the Messiah, the Leader who would shepherd His people Israel, would be born in Bethlehem.
But there does come the time to resist government. And Joseph teaches us that too. Herod reigned in Judea at that time. You had the Emperor Augustus reigning over the whole Roman Empire, but you also had kings reigning under the Emperor in some places. Herod ruled Judea where Bethlehem was, and Herod was a paranoid madman. He killed two of his own sons because he didn’t want them to take his place. And when he heard that “the King of the Jews” had been born in Bethlehem, he wanted to kill him too.
Joseph resists the king. The wisemen disobey his orders. Because the orders are evil. When the government requires evil of us, we don’t do it. Because then they’re not standing in God’s place. So if the government tells us we can’t meet together and have church, we disobey the government and have church, because God tells us to have church. A pastor of the underground church in China was just recently arrested by communist authorities for “illegally using information networks,” in other words, for preaching Jesus. This pastor broke that communist law, because there is no higher law than the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods.”
It is the greatest right we have to worship Jesus, the true King, who rules us by the power of His blood shed for us and forgives us all our sins. That is not a right given to us by the government. God gives that right. And no government has the right, ever, to take that right away from us. The otherwise nicely patriotic song “God bless the U.S.A.” has it exactly wrong when it says, “and I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me.” Only one Man died to give you the right to worship the true God. And that Man is Jesus, who died and now lives eternally, and gives you the right to become children of God through faith in His blood.
But the government is there to protect that right. And thank God you live in a country where Herods are absent or rare. When Herods arise, Christians do what the wisemen and Joseph did. We disobey. That is always how Christians are to resist evil commands. We just disobey, and like Joseph we don’t need to make a show of it. When there was a plot against St. Paul in Damascus under King Aretas, Paul escaped through a window in the wall, let down by a basket. When Stephen was told to stop preaching Jesus, he did it anyway, and faced the consequences of execution by the Sanhedrin. Peter and John told that same Sanhedrin, when they ordered them to stop preaching Christ, “we must obey God rather than men.” They didn’t try to take the Sanhedrin over, or fight the Temple police. They simply did the right thing, and kept on teaching and preaching Jesus. And when the government for a brief time during Covid told us here in Casper not to drink the blood of the Lord from the chalice, we disobeyed, but not by marching on the capitol, just by doing what Jesus told us to do.
That’s what we do. Joseph left family and country, but he didn’t leave Jesus. That’s the rule for us Christians. We hold on to Jesus no matter what the consequences, even if we have to defy the government in doing so.
Jesus, of course, was put to death by a Roman Governor, a government official, as we confess every Sunday, “and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.” Pilate didn’t know what he was doing. Neither did the leaders of the Jews. But God knew. The true King of the Jews and of all, He knew. He accomplished the salvation of the world on that cross. He put all the sins of conniving politicians and of disobedient citizens alike on Himself. And Jesus established a peace that no earthly government can ever give. A peace between you and God, and a government that is not ruled by laws and force, but by God’s decree that sinners find forgiveness, peace, comfort, life everlasting, status as children of God, citizens of heaven, in Jesus crucified for you.
It is for the sake of this kingdom, the Holy Christian Church, that the government exists. It’s to keep your homes safe, so that God’s word can be heard and confessed there, and to protect the Christian Church’s God-given right, bought by the blood of Jesus, to receive pardon and peace here and everywhere Christ is taught.
One last thing – in each case with Joseph, in his obeying the government and in his disobeying the government, he did it with Jesus and for Jesus’ sake. Let us do likewise. Amen.