"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no
place for them in the inn." Luke:7 2 ESV
Bethlehem was the
ancient equivalent of a truck stop with a hotel just outside of any major city
in America. It was the last stop before Jerusalem on the ancient caravan route.
The people who stayed at the inn were the
ancient equivalent of truck drivers--camel herders, merchants, and traveling
salesmen. Archaeologists tell us that there was a single inn in Bethlehem, near
the center of town.
Having no room in
the inn meant that if they could not find private lodging, travelers would have
to sleep in the streets. Not that the inn was much better. Inside the inn, they might be sleeping in a
room with a dozen or more other people.
If Mary and Joseph had secured a place on the floor at the inn, the
other lodgers would have kept them up most of the night. An inn was a rough place to have a baby.
It is entirely
possible that the stable was considered deluxe accommodations. The stable of the inn was a natural cave
beneath it. It was clean and dry, relatively quiet with a constant temperature
in summer and winter. Straw made the
manger a comfortable place to lay a child.
It may well have been an act of grace on the part of the innkeeper to
let them sleep in the stable. The animals may have been cleaner than most of
the men in the inn.
Whether the manger
in the inn was the worst place to have a baby or the best accommodations
available isn't the point, of course. There's no place on earth good enough for
Christ's cradle. God's Son came from an
infinite paradise where angels attended Him constantly If he had been born in Caesar's palace, it
wouldn't have been grand enough for the King of Kings.
We think in earthly
terms. God thinks in heavenly terms. What we think of as grand and majestic is
nothing in the economy of heaven. We seek earthly rewards, but they are nothing
compared to heaven. People of this world seek for worldly comfort and pleasure.
But these are not good enough for God's people. Here we endure the degraded
squalor of the earth, because we know we are traveling to a heavenly home. For
those who are God's people, a far
greater future home awaits us.
Have you ever been
on a camping trip. It's fun to sleep in tents for a few days, but that is
because we know we have an air conditioned living room to return to at the end
of the journey. We endure the
deprivations of the woods because we will return to some place better. The
journey of a Christian through earth is
just a camping trip in the wilderness compared with the comfort and
peace we will find in our Father's house.
Christ's birth in a
stable was an act of divine condescension. He did not hold on to His heavenly
glory, but came to join us in our earthly squalor. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5 -9
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours
in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in
the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And
being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross."
His love for us is
shown in His willingness to join us where we are, so that we may be where He is
now.
"Father, thank you for your love, to set aside
the glories of heaven and be born as a child on earth, in Jesus' Name,
Amen"
