The Nativity And Syria

As we read Luke 2 today in our attempt at a family nativity, the verse that stuck out to me was verse 2: “And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.”  There is apparently debate about the accuracy of that statement (the dates according to the scholars don’t quite match up), but what got my attention was the mention of Syria at all in the famous story of Christ’s birth.  As Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, tens of thousands of Syrians in Aleppo are trying to flee the horrendous Civil War in which hundreds of thousands have died.  Surely the Savior grieves over the utter barbarity of those perpetuating the killing and suffering, and if we, like Enoch, could look upon Him we would see Him weeping and hear Him say, “Unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood….  Wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?” (Moses 7:33, 37). 

                The New Testament mentions Syria in a couple of places that I think our significant.  We read in one place that Jesus taught in Galilee “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.”  Matthew then told us that “his fame went throughout all Syria  and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them” (Matt. 4:23-24).    This seems to suggest that Christ healed at least some who were from Syria and shows the love then that He had for their people.  Later after Christ’s death Paul was on the road to Damascus (which is in Syria) when the Savior visited him and he had his miraculous experience.  We read that “Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2).  So this shows that there were at this time converts to Christianity who were living in Syria, and Paul was on his way to imprison them and do them much harm.  So Christ’s intervention saved those people in Syria who would have been taken by Paul, an action which again showed the love of the Lord for the people there.  Surely today that love of the Savior for the people in Syria has not changed and as His disciples we should likewise find ways to show the love to the war-torn people.  Perhaps the only feasible way we can do that as individuals is through prayer, but if anyone in the world needs prayer, it is surely them.