When I was growing up I was part of a Christmas production as a shepherd. In most Christmas productions there is always some sort of innkeeper that tells Mary and Joseph that there is no room in the inn for them to stay. As an adult now I find this character, in our Christmas productions, very interesting. When you read the Christmas story from the book of Luke, there is no character the innkeeper. Luke simply records for us, "she...laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn". See there is no recording of an innkeeper telling Joseph that he has no room in his inn but Joseph can stay in the stable in the back. This has become a 21st century add to make the story more interesting and help us to feel bad about Mary.
But I guarantee there were a bunch of inn keepers in Bethlehem that night, the night that the King of Heaven was born. And I bet these innkeepers were busy guys filled to the full with guest. The decree by Caesar meant that a lot of people were moving around in Judea that day. Many different people would have been coming and going in Bethlehem because they all had to follow Roman rule. Which means that all the inns and places to stay were full of people and very busy. The inn keepers in Bethlehem that day were probably stressed out from all the people. I bet the inn keepers were also happy men as their pockets of money got full from all the guest. These men would have been focused on their jobs, dealing with the stress of the day, and thinking about everything taking place in their inns. And yet, these men were so focused on their work and income that they probably all missed the young pregnant women and her man walking through town. The inn keepers thought about their guest and all the money and missed the extraordinary events happening just down the road in a barn. These men were so focused on their lives and their little worlds that they missed the greatest even to happen up to that point in history. And just like these men, with their inns, are never mentioned in Scripture, they probably missed it all and the events of Jesus coming that day.
But we are just like the inn keepers. We think about our own lives, our jobs, our income, our busy schedules, the stresses of life, and even the people coming and go in our lives. And we, just like the inn keepers, miss Jesus coming into our worlds. We get so self-focused that we miss God working next to us and sometimes even miss God working in us. And we do not even have any excuse. Jesus tells us that He is with us and has give the power of the Spirit to work in us and we still miss it. The inn keepers missed Jesus first coming that night in Bethlehem. God is calling us now, so that we do not become so self-focused that we miss Jesus in our lives every day. Because if we miss seeing Jesus work in our lives every day, will that mean we miss His second coming?
No comments:
Post a Comment