Although Luke’s Gospel does not mention the innkeeper in Luke 2, the notion that Joseph and Mary are turned away from the inn implies that someone did the turning away — and that person goes down as the reason the Lord of the cosmos was born in a stable.
This also accounts for an important speaking part in any nativity recreation for churches across the land. “There is no room in the inn” echoes down the annals of my childhood in a billowy bass-baritone voice.
Rob Lee
This year, I feel a little different toward the innkeeper. To make ends meet during the pandemic, I took a job at the local Hilton for the night shift. This enabled me to make some much-needed money while still maintaining the busy schedule of my two girls. It’s a win all around — until you have to tell someone there is no occupancy left in our 104-bed hotel.
That is a gut-wrenching feeling. It tears me apart every time I have to say it to a weary traveler late at night. I trust with every fiber of my being that if the innkeeper in Jesus’ story could have given this pregnant woman and her fiancé a room, the innkeeper would have done it. They might have even thrown in a breakfast coupon realizing the dire nature of this couple’s situation. I wish this would have been an easy win for the innkeeping profession.
Yet that isn’t how the story goes. The invasion of a child into the world does not wait for the occupancy of a hotel. Perhaps the story of the innkeeper is that although there was no room for Jesus, there was enough room for Jesus.
Although here at the Hilton I can’t make more out of nothing, I know a God who is able. That God came near to us that night long ago so that our occupancy might be enlarged from Bethlehem in Judah to the entire creation longing for redemption.
“Although people may not have room for Jesus, Jesus always has room for them.”
This Christmas, it might be easy to dunk on the innkeeper in our imaginative re-telling of the story; I know plenty of people who still are unkind to those in my profession to this day.
But let me challenge you to realize that although people may not have room for Jesus, Jesus always has room for them.
The innkeeper was caught up in the story, but that wasn’t the end of their story. They lived, they were redeemed, they were brought home to that shore where occupancy numbers don’t matter.
Let this be the Christmas miracle for you: When there was no room, room was made for all. Thanks be to God.
Rob Lee is the author of three books and pastor of Unifour Church in Newton, N.C. A graduate of Appalachian State University and Duke Divinity School, he lives in Statesville, N.C., with his wife, two daughters and his poodle.
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