No Room for Jesus (3 of 4)
Series: A Straight-up Christmas
Jeff Strite
Luke 2:1-7
There was a Christmas program at a church and a 7-year-old boy was chosen to be the innkeeper. When Joseph and Mary approached looking for shelter his line was to simply say ''I'm sorry... but we have no room.'' But being a good 7-year-old boy that didn't seem quite right. He looked at Mary and Joseph and said ''I don't have room for you in the hotel, but I'd love to have you come in for milk and cookies.''
That little boy had a part to play.
He knew what his line was supposed to be, but he didn't like the idea of sending Jesus away... so he offered what he could.
Now in my files I have a lot of illustrations that all say Bethlehem was a small town. Have you ever heard of a ''one horse town''? Well Bethlehem was a ''one donkey'' town. It wasn't big enough for a stop-light let alone an Inn or motel.
The word Luke used here for inn was used back not only for inns, but also for ''Guest rooms.'' A spare bedroom in a person's home. Now whether this was referring the AirBnb of the day, or just some room on the floor where guests could sleep, I don't know! But whatever it was, there wasn't any space anywhere to be had.
But why not? Why wasn't there any space for Joseph and Mary?
Well, one possibility was that there had been a lot of out-of-towners who'd showed up for the census. Luke 2:1-5 tells us ''In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.'' So maybe everyplace was just booked.
But even then - Mary's REALLY pregnant - you'd have thought somebody would have vo ...
Series: A Straight-up Christmas
Jeff Strite
Luke 2:1-7
There was a Christmas program at a church and a 7-year-old boy was chosen to be the innkeeper. When Joseph and Mary approached looking for shelter his line was to simply say ''I'm sorry... but we have no room.'' But being a good 7-year-old boy that didn't seem quite right. He looked at Mary and Joseph and said ''I don't have room for you in the hotel, but I'd love to have you come in for milk and cookies.''
That little boy had a part to play.
He knew what his line was supposed to be, but he didn't like the idea of sending Jesus away... so he offered what he could.
Now in my files I have a lot of illustrations that all say Bethlehem was a small town. Have you ever heard of a ''one horse town''? Well Bethlehem was a ''one donkey'' town. It wasn't big enough for a stop-light let alone an Inn or motel.
The word Luke used here for inn was used back not only for inns, but also for ''Guest rooms.'' A spare bedroom in a person's home. Now whether this was referring the AirBnb of the day, or just some room on the floor where guests could sleep, I don't know! But whatever it was, there wasn't any space anywhere to be had.
But why not? Why wasn't there any space for Joseph and Mary?
Well, one possibility was that there had been a lot of out-of-towners who'd showed up for the census. Luke 2:1-5 tells us ''In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.'' So maybe everyplace was just booked.
But even then - Mary's REALLY pregnant - you'd have thought somebody would have vo ...
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