No Room – Christmas Day, 2022

Luke 2:1-7
Christmas Day, 2022

That’s Luke 2:1-7.  Those are familiar words from the Christmas story.  They are Luke’s words about the birth of Jesus the Messiah.  And again, this is a beautiful, peaceful story that we know and love.

But I want you to think about a couple of things this morning.  I want you to think about this young couple.  They were about to have a child.  Luke tells us that “Joseph went up from Galilee… to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed who was with child.”  And I looked this up in the old King James Version, and it said of Mary that she was great with child!

And I ask you – and maybe you ladies can answer this the best, would anybody make such a journey, “great with child,” unless they had to?  I looked this up on my computer Bible map and found that it was a journey of about 80 miles, over dirt roads, in rocky, hilly terrain!

Can we even imagine Joseph and Mary doing this?  Can we imagine them walking that distance?  I know some artists depictions have at least Mary riding on a donkey.  But we don’t know that for sure.  It had to have been an arduous journey!

And the reason they did this was told us at the beginning of this story.  “There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus…”  And it was a decree that required many, many people to travel to their hometowns to be “enrolled.”  Now granted, many people in those days never left their hometowns.  They were born and raised and died in the same place.  But there were many who were forced to make a similar journey because of this Roman decree.

Last night I talked about how the light of Christ came into a darkened world, just like it still does in our world today.  I said how it was a world with a conquering empire, a world where people were subjugated.  It was a world where things were “peaceful,” but only if you obeyed Rome.  This was what has been called the “Pax Romano” – the “Roman Peace.”

So, the decree went out, and “all the world went to be enrolled, each to his own city.”  And people had to go.  They had no choice.  People had to go even if they were “great with child!”  This was part of the darkened world into which the light of Christ shined!  And Mary and Joseph were caught up in that world.

Then they come to the end of the journey, and their hardships weren’t over yet.  When they got to Bethlehem, there was no place for them to stay.  There was “no room in the inn.”  So they stayed in that stable.  There was no place for them to lay their newborn, so they used the manger – the food trough the animals ate from.  And that is how the Messiah was born!

I want you to think about that picture.  We all have mental images of this.  And we see “manger scenes” everywhere at Christmas time.  And yes, it’s a beautiful, peaceful picture that we love!  But think about why the Holy Family was there in that stable.  They were not sent away in anger.  They were not forced out into the night.  (Or the day.  It doesn’t say night, but we usually assume that!)  They were turned away because there simply was no room.  That seems benign, doesn’t it?  It was just an unfortunate matter of logistics.  Maybe it was because there were so many who were going “each to their own city” for the enrollment.

But I was thinking this week that, whether or not it was intentionally part of this story – that is, intentionally on God’s part – this is a timeless metaphor.  It is an illustration of how many people have “no room” for the Christ child in their lives.  I want you to think about that today.  This story is a metaphor about how many people have “no room for the Christ child in their lives.  And I want you to ask yourself, if that’s ever true of you.

As you do, remember that people then didn’t send away the holy couple in anger.  And that’s true of us.  We don’t reject the Christ child from our lives.  We don’t force him out into the night.  We don’t deliberately hold him at arm’s length.  That’s not usually the case.  It’s much more likely that we simply have no room for him.  We have no room for him in our busy lives.  Or worse, we have no room for him in our understanding of the world, or our understanding of God.  He doesn’t fit into our philosophy of life.

Think about that.  As Jesus grew up, as he began to speak, as he began to work in the world, the people in his world had less and less room for him.  They couldn’t make room in their lives for his unconditional love, and the way he reached out to the outcast.  His teachings didn’t fit into their world view.

Is that ever true of us?  Are there things about him that we have no room for?  Are there things about Jesus that don’t fit into our world view?  Are there things about him that are uncomfortable to us?  If you think about it, there should be!

You know, it’s funny, but this metaphor is almost the opposite for many people today.  They do have room for the Christ child.  They do have room for a baby in manger.  They’re fine with the beautiful, idyllic scene of the holy family in that stable with the animals all around, the shepherds looking on, and the angel overhead.  They’re fine with the beauty of the Christmas story.  But what they have no room for is the Savior Jesus would become.

So think, then, this Christmas day, about the things in your world, and your life, that threaten to crowd out this Christ child.  Is there room for him in your philosophy of life, or even just in your busy schedule.  And remember what I said years ago now, we always make time, we always make room, for things that are important to us!

Have a blessed Christmas day!  Share the love of the Savior with all who are around you.  And be sure there’s room in your heart for him!

Prayer

Eternal God, we thank you for the love you gave us, which we celebrate this day.  Help us to be filled with your spirit, and with the spirit of this day.  May the Holy Child of Bethlehem continue to change us as he changed the world so long ago.  For we pray in his name, Amen!