Luke 2:1-12, Matthew 1:18-25
Audio file is at the end of this text.
Bethlehem was called the City of David because King David ruled from there and Luke 2 tells us that Joseph was from the "house and linage of David." While Joseph did not live in Bethlehem, he must have owned property there which is why when the Romans demanded a census be taken, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem. Had he not gone, his property could have been considered abandoned and thus confiscated by the Romans. Some scholars believe that Mary also owned property in Bethlehem in her own right which is why she made the rough trip at a very inconvenient time for her. Others say that Mary went because the process of claiming one's property in the census would take some amount of time that could not be predicted and she didn't want to be separated from her husband when the baby came. Others comment that Mary was probably happy to get out of town with her husband and away from the mean neighbors who assumed that she and Joseph had been intimate and that they had to get married. Giving birth out of town then could have been a psychological relief.
Imagine Joseph's courage. He was probably around 20 years old and he had to stand up to the community and face down the people who thought that Mary and whoever it was who made her pregnant should be stoned. That was Jewish law. Leviticus 20 lists the laws about sex outside of marriage and the traditional punishment was death by stoning. So instead of renouncing Mary and unwinding the engagement when she told him she was pregnant, he stuck by her. He wanted to believe her when she said that an angel had told her that she was to give birth to the Son of God.
Matthew 1:18 tells us that God also came to Joseph in a dream and corroborated Mary's story. This must have been when Joseph really trusted. It was personal with him now. He had heard from God and trusted God for himself and he no longer had to rely on another person's experience with God. He no longer had to depend on Mary's story, he could throw in with God.
These young people did not allow the circumstances to determine their faith. They faced the bullying crowd and their faith in God filled them with courage. Mary said, "yes" to God and Joseph said, "yes" to God while then and now so many say, "No." Because two young Jews trusted God, the whole world changed.
When the couple arrived in Bethlehem Joseph knocked on doors to find a room for the night. The could have paid for a decent hotel room because we know they were land owners and not asking for charity. However, the town was packed due to the census so the now infamous innkeeper who sent them to his stable is the one I want you to think about. In the search for a room surely others had already rejected the holy couple but this guy came up with an OK solution so he made it into the story.
What might have happened had the innkeeper made room in his home for the couple? His whole life would have changed. He would have been calling up his friends and telling them, "Hey come quick, God is visiting in my home! I'm cooking up a fresh pot of gumbo." Instead, the innkeeper said he had no room, only a stable they could use.
God was born anyway. God comes in spite of us and here we witness one man's catastrophic "No." Because he said, "No," the innkeeper missed it all. Will you miss it all? God's looking for a room. He is knocking on your heart and asking, "Will you let me in?"
