No Room!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. It is the day that a majority of Christians celebrate as the day Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem looking for lodging and received accommodations with the animals.*

"No room for them in the inn" is the way the biblical account reads and this has spawned a number of images of Mary and Joseph going to all of the motels in Bethlehem only to find "No Vacancy!" signs in all of the windows. We have even imagined rude innkeepers turning the couple away.

Dr. David King, who spent 26 years in the Middle East teaching New Testament at the seminary level, told me that "old-time" Palestinian homes had two sections: the dirt floor is the front part of the one-room house that serves as a barn in which to keep the family's animals at night so they will not wander off or be stolen. The back half of the house has a raised platform about four feet high which covers the back portion, wall to wall. The family lives on the platform which is covered with a smooth plaster and this makes for ease in cleaning.

The word translated "inn" in our English translations is a compound word that literally means to "loose down," as to remove the burden from a pack animal for a night of rest. In side the walls of cities and towns of first century Palestine there were courtyard areas where travelers could rest themselves and their animals. These places were the "inns" of the New Testament times. These "inns" were noisy and offered zero privacy.

The word translated "inn" is found two other times in the New Testament (Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11) and refers to the guest room built on the roof of "old-time" Palestinian homes.

Here is Dr. King's explanation of that first Christmas Eve. Mary and Joseph go to the home of one of his relatives - Bethlehem was his "hometown." It would have been an insult of the highest order for Joseph to have by-passed relatives for the public "inn." There was no room for Mary and Joseph in "inn" (guest chamber on the roof) as other family visitors were occupying that facility. So Mary and Joseph stayed in the family house, close to the animals and manger and close to those who loved them.

Mary and Joseph were not homeless refugees when Jesus was born. They had all of the essentials of a home - shelter, family, and lots of love. Home is, after all, the place where we are loved. Home is where family is. Some homes are big and fancy. Some homes are small and modest. Some homes are not even real clean. But if there is shelter, family, and love, that place is home.

My son pointed out that the reverse of the above observation is alarming: "If a home can be a barn, then homeless people can live in mansions." This Christmas I want to be aware of the homeless about me. Some of our homeless lack walls and roof to shelter their family. Some of our homeless have splendid structures, but they are void of family and love.

* For my thoughts I am indebted to my son Gordon in his pastor's column and to my friend, Dr. David King, retired university and seminary New Testament professor.