Rediscovering ChristmasSample

RADICAL WELCOME

You may be surprised to hear that nowhere in the Bible do we find a keeper of an inn refusing hospitality to Mary and Joseph. Instead, Scripture tells of a homeowner in Bethlehem who was out of space but welcomed the couple into his home anyway.

Luke 2:7 says, “[Mary] wrapped [newborn Jesus] in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (Luke 2:7). Out of the phrase “no guest room,” we invented an inn­keeper who ran a motel with no vacancy and who pointed the couple down the road to birth the child in a random barn.

The reality is that, because a census was drawing people like Joseph home, the host was most likely a family member of Joseph’s who did not have a guest room avail­able, because it was already occupied by other relatives. Therefore, Joseph and Mary slept near the animal section of the house and eventually gave birth there.

There’s something else we overlook in this Story, something even more remarkable.

Mary and Joseph were technically married (betrothed) but not yet at the stage where intercourse was practiced. Therefore, the pregnant Mary would have been considered not only unclean but also deserving to be stoned, according to the law. The host was knowingly harboring an unlawful couple. We can only wonder what the villagers thought and whispered about it all.

It’s so fitting that Jesus, the Most Hospitable One, was born under the roof of a man of radical hospitality. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to “not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (13:2).

The man who welcomed the travelers chose to follow the law deeply and love his neighbor as himself (see Leviticus 19:18). Of course, he didn’t know the full extent of what he was doing at the time, but he does now. The “angel” he welcomed into his home that day turned out to be God’s Son.

Radical welcome changes the world. It always has. It always will.

Who might God be inviting you to radically welcome this season?