Do You Have Room?
It’s almost Christmas. That means a busier than usual schedule, jammed parking lots, throbbing stress headaches, and anxiety as the arrival of the “crazy” uncle nears. In the hustle and bustle of the season, one must never forget the central figure of the celebration…Jesus.
Now, it wasn’t by chance that the Bible records there was no room for him in the inn. I mean, this was not incidental and it was not accidental. It was fundamental to something that had been true about the Lord Jesus, was to be true about the Lord Jesus, all of his earthly ministry, and is still true about the Lord Jesus. Born in a stable.
But not only in his birth was no room for him, in his life, as we’re going to see here upon this earth. The only place that Jerusalem had for him was really on a cross. In his death
there was no room for him, he was buried in a borrowed tomb. This world never has had room for the Lord Jesus.
Isaiah chapter 53 prophesied it, “He is despised and rejected of men.” Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 3. And don’t think for a moment, ha, ha, ha, not for a moment that the world has changed. Don’t think that they had no room for Jesus then, but we have room for the Lord Jesus today. The world that had no room for Jesus has not gotten better, and the world has no room for Jesus today.
Now why, was there no room for Jesus in the inn that day? I want to suggest some things. I think one reason that uh, there was no room for the Lord Jesus that day was ignorance.
I don’t think the innkeeper knew that he was the Son of God, about to be delivered, and about to be born. I don’t think he knew that. Well, you say then he’s not to be blamed. Oh, no, I don’t agree with that either. Ignorance is never innocence. There were some who did not know, but there were some who did know.
Mary and Joseph certainly knew. The shepherds knew. The wise men knew. And yet there were some who did not know. Anna and Simeon in the temple knew. Elizabeth knew. But the innkeeper did not know. Don’t excuse yourself today if you don’t know truth. If you want to know, God will reveal himself to you.
I’ll tell you another reason that they may not have known.
Not only ignorance, but I believe just indifference
. Can you imagine what it must have been like? Here’s an innkeeper and he shuttles this pregnant woman about to give birth to a child off into a cow stall. Now, I’ve heard people try to excuse the innkeeper and say, well, you know, I mean, after all, maybe that was the best he could do. Frankly I’ve never agreed with that. I’ve made the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. I know the territory. She traveled about 90 miles. You know, the, the only miracle was not the miracle of her conception, it’s a miracle she was able to make that trip at all. I mean just to come on a donkey over that torturous path just to get down to Jericho. She probably came down the Jordan rift along the course of the river Jordan. And then to go from Jericho all the way up to Jerusalem. And then from Jerusalem, to turn left and go down to Bethlehem.
And here she is, she’d shuttled off to a cow stall. You say, what if he really did not have room. He had room. You say, where? His own room. That right. He could’ve given that. You know the old story ‘bout the man goes into the hotel and he says, I need a room and, and, and the man says, Well, there are no rooms. You can’t give me a room at all? He says, No. He said, I want to ask you a question. If the President of the United States were coming, would you have a room for him? Well, he said, Yes. And he said, Well, he’s not coming, I’ll take that one. I mean, he could’ve given his own room.
Ignorance, indifference, maybe involvement.
Maybe he was so busy, he just did not have time. Like so many of us today, we are so busy doing all of these others things. His rooms are being filled with guests, and his purse is being filled with gold. And like so many of us today, we have no room for the Lord Jesus because the Christmas bells are the ringing of the cash register, and the spirit of the King of kings has been replaced by the spirit of King Midas (Greek mythology god…everything he touched turned to gold).
Do you have room for Jesus this Christmas? Merry Christmas!