Or Maybe the Unpublishable Script

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

• Luke 2:1-7

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

• Luke 9:57-58

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

• 2 Corinthians 8:9

“One day, when Jesus was an adult, a teacher declared that he would follow the Master anywhere. The Lord’s reply: ‘Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head’ (Luke 9:58). His words bear a touch of wistful sadness. The life of Jesus was a long road that began at the stable and led to the cross and finally, of course, to an empty tomb. The comforts of domestic life weren’t possible, for there was work to be done.
“… Why the stable? Christ chose a stable in order to identify with the least of us, with the poor and the vulnerable. He demanded none of the world’s comforts nor protections. Jesus came exposed, from the first moment, to all the dangers the world could offer, and so he remained until they led him to the cross.”

• Dr. David Jeremiah, Why the Nativity?

One of the adult Sunday School teachers at our church felt something, maybe the calling of the Holy Spirit, but every teacher stopped what they were doing, and we had a large Sunday School class in the fellowship hall at the church, only one room larger, not counting the sanctuary that was larger, and the acoustics are terrible in the Great Room.  We taught 24 chapters of the 25 chapters in Dr. Jeremiah’s book.  We left out the question about when Jesus was born, since there is little doubt that December 25 was simply a day selected for the celebration.  That controversy, if it is one, could wait for another day.

That meant that each presentation of a chapter had to be less than ten minutes, considering administrative announcements including handoffs from one teacher to the next, questions, starting late (the second of the four weeks was the annual Men’s Advent Breakfast, with which we competed and won, in my opinion), etc.  The woman who had been to the Holy Land during the Christmas season, had her experiences to sprinkle throughout.

But understanding that, the teachers covered their topics well in less than the maximum time.  It went smoothly.  Of course, I wrote this before we were done…

When we planned who would teach what, I asked for “Joseph”, “No Room at the Inn”, “The Stable”, and “Why must Jesus Come Again?”  They added to my plate “Why was Jesus born when He was born?” and “Why Do Anna and Simeon Challenge Us?”

With Joseph, I tried to dissuade the idea that he was such an idiot that he left Nazareth and travelled to Bethlehem and he did not have reservations.  He was not that much of a social pariah, and if the family, his cousins, etc., saw him in the barn out back, they would have swapped with him.  People might be that callous, but the family would be gossip fodder if you let the rest of the people in your hometown know you did that to someone who might be king, under different circumstances.

So, from a sociological viewpoint, the present Nativity narrative might need some work.

I quoted two biblical scholars, Kenneth Bailey and his book Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes.  Rev. Bailey was a missionary in the Middle East for most of his career, and since he lived not far away in retirement before his passing, he’s actually spoken at our church.  And I referred to Ben Witherington III, an NT scholar from Asbury Seminary.

Another teacher said that there were only about 300 people in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth.  I asked if there were any financial experts who could run the numbers to see the financial viability of having an inn in a town that small considering that the modes of transportation were limited at the time.  Sure, there were roads, but most people who would want to stop in Bethlehem were family and their primary mode of transportation would be by foot.

Besides, the Greek word ketaluma is best translated as “guest room.”  Experts say that it could be translated as “inn” but the oldest “inn” on record is Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Yamanashi, Japan, opened in 707AD.  There were probably inns prior to that date.  Think of Blaise Pascal’s mass transit system made of horse drawn wagons with bolted benches.  It became unprofitable soon after his death, and that was in Paris, France.  Inns may have sprung up in larger cities and not lasted very long.  But 300 people?

What is a “guest room”?  Do you have a spare room in your home that has a bed and a dresser and closet.  Just in case someone comes to stay for a few days – a “guest room?”

If you go to the Holy Land these days, the tour guide shows you a cave outside Bethlehem.  The guide says this was where Jesus was born, but no one knows for sure.  Besides, I have two questions about the cave.  One is that as an engineer and sensitive to precise measurements, in Bethlehem is different than a cave a few miles (km) out of town.  After all, Genesis is precise in saying that Benjamin was born on the road to Bethlehem, not in Bethlehem, and his mother, Rachel died and was buried next to the road.  My other heartburn is that the only reason we do not place Jesus in a house is the word “manger”, or animal food box (Easy English Bible).  You may have an animal food box for the family dog in your house.  But in a cave?  The only way they could justify a cave is that the shepherds might hide their sheep in a cave and built a manger out of necessity.  But now you have created the cave theory out of necessity and then created the shepherd hiding sheep and needing a manger out of necessity.  Too much.

So now Bailey and Witherington come into play.  They both speak of a three-room home, same layout.  Rev. Bailey spoke of having visited people in remote areas in just such a home.  Rev. Witherington had been to archaeological digs to show those houses existed in the first century.  The animals stayed in the lowest level.  The family stayed in the middle level.  There was no wall between them.  The height difference was high enough to keep the animals from jumping into the human area, but not so high that they could not eat from dished out areas in the floor, animal food boxes all in a row, mangers.

Now to avoid a pageant with an angry inn keeper saying, “No vacancy.  Get lost!  Oh, your wife is pregnant.  There’s a barn out back.”  Let us suggest a script change in the pageant that meets the biblical text of Luke 2:7 – Mary gave birth to a son, wrapped him in cloth and laid him in a manger since the “guest room” was full.  And it would meet with the sociological concept that Joseph would have gone to family, not an inn, and his host would make good any promise that there would be room.  And the family dynamic that family do not live in barns unless absolutely necessary.  AND it meets the criteria that Dr. Jeremiah spoke of – no place to rest His head and a lowly birth (from Heaven majesty to the lowest of lows).  I’ll use “Grandpa” as the host.

Narrator: Joseph approached Grandpa’s door.  It’s very late.  They could not afford another night on the road, sleeping under the stars.  Mary would deliver soon.  He knew where to go.  He had been there before.  Grandpa had told him that he would always be welcome.  Joseph knocked.  And Grandpa, wiping sleep from his eyes answers the door.
Grandpa:  Oh, no, Joseph.  I said you could stay, but the guest room is full. …
Narrator: Joseph slumps his shoulders and starts to walk away.
Grandpa:  Wait, Joseph, our guest room is full.  When we gather for a meal, the family room will be crowded and noisy.  But I made an oath that we would always have room, and God does not deal well with promise breakers.  You cannot stay anywhere else.  You are of the kingly line of David.  This is Jesse’s property, property that was redeemed by Jesse’s grandfather, Boaz, when he married Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi, whose husband, Elimilek, had owned this land.  You are family.  Stay with us.
Joseph:  Thank you, Grandpa.  We will not take up much space.
Narrator: And all was well until the baby started to come.  Mary looked around and there was no place to put the child down for His nap.
Mary: Grandma, where do we place the child?
Narrator:  Grandma was the practical one.
Grandma:  I have been feeding these animals for years.  If there is no food in the manger, they move to the next one.  The animals may look, but they will not disturb the baby, if there is no food for them there.  The baby will be safe.
Narrator: So, Grandma swept the grain and straw out of the closest manger.  She cleaned it the best she could, and when the baby was born, Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in the manger.

This narrative fits the Scripture.  Jesus still has no place to lay His head.  He would at death have no place to lay His head.  From a borrowed manger to a borrowed tomb.  And the fact that it is a borrowed manger seems to me to be near to the lowest of lows.

Yet, Joseph is not the rube people make him out to be by leaving without a reservation.  The family saves face also.  And there is still room for shepherds to come and worship the Lord.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.