During this busy Christmas
season, you will probably be attending or maybe participating in a pageant. One
thing that I remember about all the plays that I was a part of as a kid is that
nothing goes quite as you practiced it when it’s time to perform. Years ago, a subscriber
to Guideposts magazine submitted one
such story and it has been republished several times.
Nine-year-old
Wally Purling was going to be the innkeeper in a church’s Christmas pageant. Most
people in the church knew that Wally had difficulty keeping up. He was big, awkward
and a slow learner. But what Wally lacked he made up for with a big heart.
The
time finally came when Joseph appeared, slowly, tenderly guiding Mary to the
door of the inn. Joseph knocked hard on the door and out came Wally. “What do
you want?” he said, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture. “We seek
lodging.” “Seek it elsewhere,” Wally spoke harshly. “The inn is full!”
Joseph
pled, “Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child
and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She
is so tired.” Wally, true to his character, looked down at Mary with a long
pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment. “No!
Begone!” the prompter whispered from offstage. Wally struggled with the moral
dilemma, but said his lines anyway, “No! Begone!”
Joseph
sadly placed his arm around Mary and the two of them started to move away. However,
the innkeeper did not return inside his lodging as scripted. Wally stood there
in the doorway, watching the forlorn couple. His mouth was open, his brow
creased with concern, his eyes filling with tears.
And
suddenly this Christmas pageant became different from all others. Wally surprised
everyone. “Don't go, Joseph,” he called out. “Bring Mary back.” Wally’s face
grew into a bright smile. “You can have my room.” Some people in the church thought
that the pageant had been ruined. Yet there were others who considered it the
most Christmas of all Christmas pageants they had ever seen.[1]
Like I said earlier, things
don’t always go as scripted. It didn’t that night of the Christmas play and it
didn’t go the way Mary and Joseph planned either that first Christmas in
Bethlehem.
After a long and difficult
journey from Nazareth, the last thing they expected was to be turned away into
the cold, “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 them in the
inn.” (Luke 2:7)
But, we can’t be too harsh
to judge the innkeeper. Most folks in Bethlehem were ignorant of the fact that
God was invading their small town that night. Not to mention that the little
shepherding town was bulging with travelers who were there to be counted in the
census.
Jesus’ rejection at birth
became a paradigm for his whole life and ministry. John makes the statement in
the prologue of his gospel that, “He came unto his own and his own received Him
not (John 1:11).” Moreover, the prophet Isaiah predicted some 700 years BC that
the Christ would be, “despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,
and we esteemed him not” (53:3).
The rejection that began
at the cradle followed Jesus to the Cross. The ultimate loneliness came when
the Father turned his back on the Son as the sin-debt of the world on him. Jesus
cried out those gut-wrenching words, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
(Matt. 27:46).
At Christmas, God sent a
message of love to the uncaring world. We would not afford him so much as a
cramped closet; no time to stop and worship; no interest in this peasant
child. But Bethlehem’s babe came to find
room for us. He would one day reserve accommodations for each of his children
at the Father’s house that awaits in eternity (John 14:1-3).
Homeless no more, Jesus throws
open the doors of heaven, so that no one might be left in the cold. But He
awaits us to make our RSVP with Him, by repenting of our sin, and trusting in
His life, death and resurrection alone for salvation. Have you made room for Christ?
-DM
[1] Dina
Donohue, “Trouble at the Inn,” Guideposts,
27 October 2014 <https://www.guideposts.org/inspiration/people-helping-people/trouble-at-the-inn>
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