Don’t Miss the Miracle
And she [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7 (ESV)
There were no five-star hotels in first-century Palestine. Travelers who were unable to stay with relatives often found lodging in shelters that were more like truck stops. The inn mentioned in Luke 2:7 could’ve been a family home whose owners offered accommodations during the census. It may also have been a temporary caravansary, “which were often seedy establishments run by shady characters.”[1]
Perhaps the innkeeper was a hospitable Bethlehem resident who opened every available space in his home for visitors. Or he may have been an opportunist trying to make a few shekels off desperate travelers. Either way, he had no room left for Mary and Joseph. And to be fair, the innkeeper had no idea Mary was giving birth to the Son of God that night.
I imagine him telling his wife, “What else could I do but offer the animal shelter? There’s not one inch of sleeping space left in the house [or the caravansary].” She probably nodded and said, “Better than sleeping in the streets or the open fields.”
Maybe the lesson of the innkeeper is more about distraction than rudeness. Yes, he could’ve offered his bed to the strangers. But maybe he was so exhausted by all his other responsibilities he never thought about that option. Or maybe he thought providing the couple with some protection from thieves and the weather was the best he could do.
The saddest part of the innkeeper’s story is that he missed the opportunity to participate in the miraculous—the birth of Jesus, the shepherds’ visit, and the amazing stories Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds could’ve told him.
Many years later, Jesus told another distracted person, “Martha, Martha … you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:41–42 ESV). This Christmas let’s not allow ourselves to be so distracted by the urgent that we miss the necessary: witnessing the miraculous and worshiping our Savior.
Examine your holiday plans. How can you focus more on the miracle of Jesus’s birth and worship him in meaningful ways?
Dig Deeper
Read Luke 2:1–20. Compare the innkeeper’s brief encounter with Mary and Joseph to the experience the shepherds had. What advantage did the shepherds have that the innkeeper didn’t? How can you act on what you know about Jesus and be more like the shepherds?
Envision the events recorded in Luke 10:38–42 happening at your house during Christmas. Would you respond more like Martha or Mary? Why?
What reasons does the psalmist give for praising God in Psalm 145? In what ways will you “tell of his mighty acts” (v. 4) and “speak in praise of the Lord” (v. 21) during the Christmas season and throughout the next year?
Denise K. Loock
[1] Charles Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights Commentary: New Testament, Luke (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2017), 65.