The Room

Luke 2:7
Christmas Eve Homily

I think the Innkeeper gets a bad rap.  In every Christmas pageant I have ever seen, he’s always grumpy, right?  

“My wife is about to give birth to the Christ Child.”  

“There’s no room, go away!”  

“Please sir, have you no room at all.”  

“Well, there’s the barn; I guess she could have the kid in there.”  

Am I right?  But the fact is, the only mention of an Inn at all, in all of the Gospels, is right here in Luke 2:7.  In the pageant the Gospels portray, not only does the Innkeeper not have a speaking part, the Innkeeper doesn’t even come on stage.  We don’t know he was grumpy; maybe he was apologetic; maybe he wasn’t even a “he”; we don’t know.  

There are some things we do know: we know that decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  We also know that, because of that decree, everyone had to return to their places of origin; in Joseph’s case, that was Bethlehem, the city of King David, because Joseph was a descendant of David.  We also know that, other than being famous for being that city David came from, Bethlehem was not really famous for anything else.  

Bethlehem was what we call “a Podunk town.”  It was not a major crossroads for anywhere.  It was rural, to say the least; a lot of sheep.  A lot like Bayfield, actually.  

We assume the worst of the Innkeeper, like he lost their reservation or something.  But Bethlehem was lucky to have an inn at all; Bayfield doesn’t have an inn.  If the Messiah was to be born here, his parents better at least have a camper.  

And besides, when we look at the bigger picture, we see that humility has been God’s plan in this birth all along: born to nobody parents under questionable circumstances; born in a nowhere, Podunk town; what do you expect, he’s going to be born in the Messiah Suite at the Bethlehem Four Seasons?  In a weird way, the Innkeeper was doing the Will of God.  The Innkeeper kept God’s humble-theme alive.  This story would not be the same if anyone of any importance paid Jesus any kind of respect.  

Of course, good luck keeping angels quiet.  But who did they go to?  Who did they bring this good news of great joy?  Shepherds.  Even the people who were called on to celebrate this event were humble.  Humility was the plan; of course he was going to be lain in a manger.  It turns out, the Innkeeper was God’s hand in all this; grumpy or not.  Other than that, there is a lot about him we don’t know; maybe we should give him some space.  

There is, of course, in our world today a very practical lesson for us in this: because there is also a lot we don’t know about the people around us every day.  We don’t always really know each other’s stories; maybe we can learn to give one another a little room; and in so doing, maybe carry God’s humility plan out a little farther.  

Who knows, maybe God’s got a plan for that girl who got pregnant before she was married.  Maybe the guy she’s with, who isn’t the father, is just doing what God told him to do.  Maybe their refugee child is going to save you in ways you didn’t know you needed saving.  And maybe the grumpy innkeeper is doing the will of God and he doesn’t even know it.  We don’t know, we can never know.  All we can do, in the name of our Savior, is give one another a little room.