Wednesday, December 16, 2009

No Room In The Inn

Yesterday in staff meeting I was encouraging the staff not to allow Hallmark or Charles Dicken's to dictate for us what Christmas should look like. I was studying the passage in Luke 2: 1 - 7 and became curious about the phrase "No Room in the Inn." The word inn can be translated with two Greek words. The word in Luke 2:7 is "kataluma" and is used in Luke 22:11 as "upper room" or "guest room." The word translated "inn" is also the word "pandocheion" and is the word used in Luke 10:34 when the Good Samaritan puts up the wounded man in a hotel.
What does this mean? It helps us to understand what is going on behind the scenes in the Christmas story when we are told that there is "no room in the inn." The "inn" referred to in this passage is not like what we think of as a Motel 6 but more like there was no room in the guest room. Consider this: they are in Joseph's hometown surely he had a cousin that would have let him stay in his house. I believe the reason there is no room is because Mary and Joseph was rejected by the family. They chose not to make room for this mother who got pregnant out of wedlock. The birth of Jesus in a room where animals lived gives the impression of shame and rejection. So "no room in the inn" speaks more of rejection instead of a lack of accommodation.
The lesson: The whole Christmas message begins with parents who are poor, a mother in labor with no place to go, a newborn child with no crib for a bed, and now rejection. If this is how the Prince of Peace enters the world then there is no person too poor, too uneducated, or too insignificant.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

That's an intriguing thought Jamey! I always rationalized Jesus being born in a stable because the world was/is so fallen, that the purest hearts on Earth lived in the stables and belonged to the animals. LOL Even with the "physical filth" associated with a stable, that stable was obviously much more spiritually clean and filled with love than the "Inn" that Joseph went to. It is clear to me that whomever was in charge of the building they visited wanted NOTHING to do with them...Who would have turned a very young and very pregnant woman away? It could very possibly be family. Cool thoughts!