Removed but Reachable
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:6-7
Various competing interpretations of why there was no room at the inn, whether there was any inn at all, and what that would have been, have cascaded down two thousand years of disagreement. No matter, whether the inn was the guest room of a family house or a communal lodge for weary strangers, it had no place for Joseph, Mary and Jesus.
It does indicate that they were of somewise low status, being sent out to the stable- another point of imaginative disagreement among the contentious class. Joseph was not highly regarded, either because of his youth or his marriage or his pedigree. Though of David, as all the travelers reporting to Bethlehem would be, young builders from the backwoods of Galilee would hardly garner a favorable nod. They were not of noble enough stock to knock anyone out of their pedestaled lodgings.
And so it must have been. Messiah would be a savior for all mankind, unremoved from even the lowest among us. Reachable by everyone from shambling shepherds to prodigals in pig styes to ghoulish Garasenes. To be born even in a family home among the poor would be too lofty. He must be born in the stable among animals, so that even the animals among us might find Him and be redeemed(Mark 5:4).
So too, He finds it necessary to dislodge His disciples. We must be made uncomfortable before we can be made profitable. Soil must be tilled, vineyards pruned, seeds buried, beasts of burden broken, lumber seasoned, and human hearts humbled.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
James 1:2-3
How blessed we are to sit under the master’s humbling hand and learn our lessons well. Not even Joseph and Mary were exempted from these trials. Perhaps to be entrusted with much, is to require the greater degradations. Yet what a comforter we have in Christ, who suffers with us in our trials, and does not impose upon us those he has not already overcome (2Cor 1:5, John 16:33). He gives, He takes away, He humbles and He honors. In Bethlehem He found no space, so the least of us might find His grace.
Does your neck stiffen at the notion of trials appointed to you by Christ?
Has worldly comfort superseded your seeking of God’s Kingdom?
When you consider your seasons of most fruitful growth, was it not also a most uncomfortable season?
