Day 18 - Luke 2:6-7
17 Dec 2023
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“And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for him in the inn.”
Probably the most annoying kind of sermon you hear at this time of year is the “here’s why the picture you have in your mind of what went on at the nativity is wrong” sermon. However, I am always very tempted to preach it. It is always important to slow down and pay careful attention to what we are told and what we aren’t told. It’s good to be aware of what we may have picked up from artwork or films rather than the word of God. The problem is it is almost impossible to preach that kind of sermon, especially at a Christmas service, without sounding even a little bit annoying. It can set up a barrier between listener and preacher, without ultimately achieving anything positive.
With this in mind, I do want to pay close attention to what Luke tells us, bearing in mind his purpose statement at the start of the book. This is God’s word and an eyewitness account so it must inform and educate how we think about Jesus’ birth. There are no animals round the crib, and no grumpy innkeeper (much to the disappointment of primary schoolchildren everywhere). There is the simple mention of “swaddling cloths”, which are strips of cloth bound round the baby (a fairly usual sight).
We are told there has been “no place for them in the inn”. As Dr Ian Paul and Kenneth Bailey (“Jesus through Middle eastern eyes”) have informed us, this scene may not be that unusual. Hospitality was important in that culture, far more than a western individualistic culture. This may well have been a relatives house, not a pub/inn in the way we might assume today. As there were a lot of people travelling due to the census, it may not be surprising that the guest room (inn) was full. So Mary and Joseph may have been taken into the main family living room where there would have been hollows round the edge (mangers) filled with hay for animals to graze.
Whatever is exactly going on, the main point is very clear. We have just been told in verses 4 and 5 that this is King David’s greater son, God’s Messiah come into the world. The very next verse tells us that he is born in an ordinary house surrounded by ordinary people in an ordinary place.
This is the kind of king Jesus is. Fully God - the great King the world has been waiting for. Yet a king who comes to really and truly dwell with us. The King who is not ashamed to humble himself. This began before his incarnation - as Philippians 2 tells us. This reveals the kind of God our God is.