Christmas Questions
QUESTIONS FOR LUKE
Luke 2:1-7

Intro: Let’s begin our journey into the nativity story by asking some questions to Luke, the storyteller who recorded it for us. Have
you ever wondered about the details of that first Christmas night? Maybe we've imagined a hurried trip to Bethlehem, a desperate
search for shelter, and a birth surrounded by barnyard animals. But what if there’s more to the story? Today, we’ll explore these
familiar verses with fresh eyes, asking Luke some important questions: What really happened when Joseph and Mary arrived in
Bethlehem? Where was the manger? What does the word "inn" mean in this context? Together, let’s take a closer look at the cultural
and historical realities behind these beloved scriptures to uncover deeper insights into the birth of Jesus.
WHAT DO WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND DIFFERENTLY ABOUT THE BIRTH OF JESUS?
1. The text of Scripture does not indicate that Joseph and Mary barely made it to Bethlehem in time for the baby to be born.
2. Neither does it say that Joseph had trouble finding a place to stay.
3. Mary did not give birth alone or with only the help of her husband surrounded by barnyard animals.
Luke 2:4-5 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with
child.
Joseph was returning to the village of his origin. (“Joseph…went…to…Bethlehem…to be registered”)
In the Middle East, historical memories are long. It is a matter of much significance that a person is connected to his extended family
and to his village where he was born.
In that culture, a man like Joseph could have appeared in Bethlehem and told the people, “I am Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of
Mattan, the son of Eleazar” and most every home in town would be open to him.
Joseph was also a “royal.” (“he was of the house and lineage of David”)
That is, he was a descendant of King David. The family of David was so famous in Bethlehem that the locals nicknamed their village
“the City of David.” Being from that notable family, Joseph would have been welcomed anywhere in that small town.
“Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.”
In every culture a woman about to give birth is given special attention. Small communities and villages all over the world always
assist one of their own women in childbirth regardless of the circumstances.
It is typically not even considered an inconvenience but something to be celebrated.
Are we to imagine that Bethlehem was the exception? Was there no sense of honor in city of David?
Surely the community would have recognized its responsibility to help Joseph find adequate shelter for Mary. Indeed, they would
have stopped at nothing to provide the care a young, expectant mother needed.
To turn away a descendant of David in “the city of David” would have been an unspeakable shame on the entire village.
Even if the unthinkable had happened, and Joseph failed to find suitable shelter in Bethlehem, Mary had relatives in a nearby village.
She had recently visited them. A few months prior to the birth of Jesus, Mary had paid a visit to her cousin Elizabeth “in the hill
country of Judea” and was warmly welcomed by her. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
Bethlehem was in the center of Judea. By the time Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, they were only a short distance from the
home of Zacharias and Elizabeth.
If no place was available in Bethlehem, Joseph would have naturally turned to her relatives only a few miles away.

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But did he have time for those extra miles? Did they arrive in Bethlehem at the very last moments before the birth?
Luke 2:6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
Joseph had time to make sufficient arrangements. They “were there” for some “days.”
The average Christian thinks that Jesus was born the same night the holy family arrived – explaining Joseph’s rush and his willingness
to accept even the shelter of a stable. Traditional Christmas pageants reinforce this year after year.
In the text, the time spent in Bethlehem before the birth is not specified. But it was surely long enough to find appropriate shelter or
to turn to Mary’s relatives for help.
This late-night-arrival-imminent-birth myth is so deeply ingrained in the modern Christian mind that we must ask “Why?” Where
did this idea come from?
The source of this misunderstanding appeared approximately 200 years after the birth of Christ. An anonymous Christian wrote an
expanded account of the birth narrative as a novel. It has survived these last 2000 years. It is called The Protoevangelium of James.
James had nothing to do with it. In that period many wrote books claiming famous people as the authors. This work was attacked
and refuted by the famous Latin scholar Jerome and many of the popes. And yet it was published in 8 languages.
illus: In the novel, as they approach Bethlehem, Mary says, “Joseph, take me down from the donkey, the baby presses me to come
forth.” Joseph panics, leaves Mary in a cave, and rushes off to Bethlehem to find a midwife. The baby is born, and then Joseph and
the midwife return. There’s a dark cloud overshadowing the cave and then a bright light. A woman named Salome appears out of
nowhere and meets the midwife. The midwife tells Salome that a virgin has given birth and is still a virgin. Salome doubts this marvel
and her hand turns leprous as a result. The women examine Mary and her claim is vindicated. An angel suddenly stands before
Salome and tells her to touch the child. She does and her diseased hand is miraculously healed – and the novel spins on from there.
This work of historical fiction is the earliest known reference to the notion that Jesus was born the night Joseph and Mary arrived in
Bethlehem. The average Christian, who has never heard of this book, is nevertheless unwittingly influenced by it.
To summarize the problems with the traditional interpretation of Luke 2:1-7: Joseph was returning to his home village where he
could easily find shelter. Because he was a descendant of King David, nearly all doors in the village would be open to him. Mary had
relatives nearby and could have turned to them, but she did not. There was plenty of time to arrange suitable housing. How could a
Jewish town fail to help a young Jewish mother about to give birth?
In light of these cultural and historical realities, how are we to understand the Bible text?
Two more questions arise: one about the manger; the other about the inn.
Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there
was no room for them in the inn.
WHERE WAS THE MANGER?
When we hear the word “manger,” we think stable or barn. But in traditional Middle Eastern villages this is not the case.
Yes, wealthy people would have separate quarters for their animals. But simple villagers kept their animals inside their small homes
at night.
The typical village home had two rooms: a smaller room for guests either on the roof or attached at the far end; a larger family
room where the entire family cooked, ate, slept, and lived.
The end of the family room next to the door was a few feet lower than the rest of the floor (it sloped). There were stairs ascending
to the main floor of the family room.

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illus: Photo drawings of the floor plan of a village house in the Ancient Near East.
The door on the lower level serves as the entrance for both people and animals.
Each night the family cow, donkey, and a few sheep would be corralled into the door to sleep in the area designed “stable” but was
not even a separate room from the family!
The villagers want the animals in the house each night because they provide heat in the winter and it prevents them from being
stolen.
The circles on the floor plan represent the mangers dug out of the lower end of the living room. If the family cow is hungry during
the night, she can stand up and eat from the mangers.
When the witch of Endor prepared a meal for King Saul and his servants, she did not fetch a calf from the field or the barn, but from
within her house.
1 Sam 28:24 Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she hastened to kill it. And she took flour and kneaded it, and baked
unleavened bread from it.
These same simple homes also appear in the NT.
Matt 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a
basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.”
If a single lamp sheds light on “all who are in the house,” that house can only have one room.
William Thompson, Arabic-speaking missionary scholar (1871) – “It is my impression that the birth actually took place in an
ordinary house of some common peasant, and that the baby was laid in one of the mangers, such as are still found in the
dwellings of farmers in the region.”
Where was the manger? In a warm and friendly home, not a cold and lonely stable.
WHAT WAS THE INN?
If Joseph and Mary were taken into a private home for Jesus to be born, how are we to understand the statement “laid him in a
manger, because there was no room for them in the inn?”
Doesn’t it sound like they were rejected by the people of Bethlehem, or at the very least, the innkeeper?
“No room in the inn” has taken on the meaning of “the motel had multiple rooms but they were all occupied.”
That it, the “no vacancy” sign was switched on when Joseph and Mary arrived.
But the word in the original language does not refer to “a room at a motel/inn.” It is the word “katalyma.”
There is a word in that language that is the ordinary term for “commercial place to stay” (hotel/motel/inn). It is the word
“pandocheion.” Luke knows this word because he employs it in one of the most famous parables of Jesus later on.
Where does the Good Samaritan take the wounded traveler in Luke 10?
Luke 10:34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to
an inn, and took care of him.
But Luke does not use that word in Luke 2:7. He uses “katalyma” which means “guest room.”

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It’s the same word Jesus uses when He instructs His disciples to prepare a place for them to observe His last Passover meal.
Luke 22:11 Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the
Passover with My disciples?” ’
Clearly, Luke uses this word, katalyma, to mean “a guest room in a private home.”
In Luke 2:7 he tells his readers that Jesus was placed in a manger (in a family room) because in that home the guest room was
already occupied.
illus: photo of floor plan with guest room attached
Alfred Plummer, noted Bible commentator – “Joseph had relied upon the hospitality of some friend in Bethlehem whose “guest
chamber” was already full when he and Mary arrived.”
Why am I hearing this for the first time today? Because the western church has not noticed the problems we have addressed in this
message.
When the traditional understanding of the story is “not broken” why “fix it?”
What have we learned?
The holy family traveled to Bethlehem, where they were received into a private dwelling. The host family graciously received Mary
and Joseph into the home because they knew him and because of hospitality values in an honor/shame culture. The baby was born
there in the house, wrapped in cloths, and put to bed in a manger which was cut into the main floor of the family room because the
guest room was already occupied. For the birth, the family room would be cleared of men and the midwives and other females
would attend.
When Jesus engaged in ministry as an adult, “the common people heard Him gladly” (Mark 12:37).
He was received by common folks when He was born and when He was grown!
Understanding the story in this way strips away layers and years of interpretive mythology.
Greeting: “The Savior is born.”
Response: “He is born in a manger.”
God shows up in ordinary places to bless common people.

Transcript

All right, find Luke chapter two in your Bibles. Luke chapter two. I'm going to read just a short passage, not going to be on the screens. You know this text though, because it's Christmas story and we're going to have some fun today. Luke chapter two.

I'm going to read verses four through seven. Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Let's pray a short prayer, Father. As worshipers today, we want to know your word in our minds and in our hearts.

This is our prayer. You would open our minds and our hearts in Jesus name. Amen. So today is week number two of our four part series called Christmas Questions. Last week we asked Joseph some questions about the Christmas story.

Today we asked Luke, who wrote the text that we just read, some very important questions because he's the storyteller who recorded it for us. Have you ever wondered about the details of that first Christmas night? I suspect that you've imagined a hurried trip to Bethlehem followed by a desperate search for shelter. And you probably, in your mind's eye, see a berth surrounded by barnyard animals. But what if there's more to the story?

And today I want us to explore these short, familiar verses and I want us to do it with fresh eyes. Take a look at it and forget all you've been taught. Forget all the decorations in your house. They're not helpful right now. And let's ask Luke some important questions.

Questions in the ballpark of what really happened when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem? And where was that manger located? And what does the word inn mean in this context? Does that sound fair? You want to do that?

If you're ready to ask Luke some questions, say yes. Question number one, Luke. What should we understand differently about the birth of Jesus? Well, let me start with three surprises for you. What if I told you the Bible does not and has never suggested that Joseph or Mary and Joseph barely arrived in Bethlehem just in the nick of time before the baby was born?

Not only that, another surprise. What if I told you scripture does not say that Joseph struggled to find lodging for his family in Bethlehem? And a third surprise is Mary likely did not give birth alone or in isolation or only with Joseph's help, and nor was she surrounded by animals in a barn like setting. Is that enough to pique your interest, yes or no? Well, here's verses 4 and 5 of Luke 2.

Let's look at the verse again and see what it says. Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. I know that's not the first time you've heard that verse. That's not even the first time you've heard that verse in this sermon and you probably assume you know what it says. I want to make three comments about it.

The first comment I want to make about those two verses of 4 and 5 of Luke 2 is that Joseph was returning to the village of his origin. Joseph went to Bethlehem to be registered. It was his hometown. It was where his family was born. It's where he grew up.

Now we live in the western hemisphere and we live in the western hemisphere over 2,000 years later than this took place. So the cultures and the context are very different. In the Middle east, historical memories are long and a person cherishes his ties to his ancestral village. They remember those ties over the generations. They never forget, they rehearse them.

They are important. Now some of us leave our hometowns, we couldn't wait to get away and we never went back. This is not the way of the world. In the eastern hemisphere in honor shame cultures, in that culture, a man like Joseph could have appeared in Bethlehem and he could have just knocked on a door and introduced himself this way. I'm Joseph, I'm the son of Jacob, he's the son of Matan, he's the son of Eleazar.

If Joseph goes four generations back, somebody at that house knows or heard of one of those men. They may even be relatives. And that's all it would take. This would guarantee Joseph and his wife hospitality in just about every home. By the way, Bethlehem is not a big town, it's a small village.

The second comment I want to make about these verses is not only is Joseph going back to his original village, Joseph is a royal, not like the British royals. We thank God for this. Yes. More interesting, he's a biblical royal. He was of the house and lineage of David.

Joseph hit the genetic lottery. He's in the right family. He's a descendant Of King David. David and Goliath. King David.

That David, David who wrote the Psalms, lots of them. That David and Bethlehem was so proud. By the way, David's hometown is Bethlehem too. That's where the prophet Samuel went to to anoint a king. And they're in the little cottage of Bethlehem.

And Bethlehem's so proud to be associated with David's family. They even nicknamed their town the City of David. I want you to understand that being a member of the royal line would have made Joseph welcome anywhere in Bethlehem. And here's the third comment I want to make about these verses. The end of the verse reads this way.

Mary, his betrothed wife, was with child. Do we know what with child means? Can we agree? It means she's expecting a baby. There's a pregnancy involved.

And you know as well as I know in every culture, regardless of the circumstances of how that that young girl or that woman became pregnant, a woman on the verge of giving birth is treated with special care and attention. Yes or no? Yes. Small communities and villages around the world rally together to support a woman in childbirth. And the circumstances don't matter.

And it's not even viewed as an inconvenience. It is treated as something to be celebrated in this very room. On Friday morning, the Olive Branch Police Department, all of them, except for the, except for the skeleton crew still on patrol, were in their blues in this room around round tables. They do their department meetings and their end of the year celebrations here free of charge. We love hosting the police pro police here.

So they were here. And what I love about the December meeting every year is that's when they give out their awards for officers of every month and the Officer of the Year. And before the Officer of the Month is named, they tell the story, the narrative of why this person's getting this award. And every year there's always this officer was brave and knew what to do. And a lady who had pulled over on the side of the road, she didn't make it to the hospital.

She was about to give birth. And lady cop or male cop, they just joined in and they helped deliver the baby. And they always get awarded for this because this is something we value. Yes.

Are you telling me that Bethlehem was the exception to this rule? That there's no sense of honor or duty in the City of David? I tell you, no way this community would have felt a deep sense of responsibility to help Joseph secure adequate shelter for his expectant wife. They would have moved heaven and earth to ensure the young expectant mother received all the care she needed. And listen to me very carefully, ladies and gentlemen.

To turn away a descendant of David in the very city of David would have brought unspeakable shame upon that entire village. They would never do that. And let's just pretend that they did. Even if the unthinkable happened and Joseph failed to find suitable shelter in Bethlehem. Did you know that Mary had relatives just outside the village?

In fact, part of the pre Christmas story is Mary went and visited her cousin named Elizabeth. She had a husband named Zacharias. She was also expecting a baby. That baby was born a few months ahead of the birth of the baby Jesus. What was his name?

Do you remember? John the Baptist. So Mary has relatives nearby from the village. In fact, when she visited Elizabeth, the verse says they were in the hill country of Judea. And that's important.

Also, she was warmly welcomed by Elizabeth. And Elizabeth said words that every Catholic friend you have says and prays all the time. She said of Mary, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Can we agree that if she's making declarations like that, that she's happy to see her cousin and this expected baby? Yes.

So Mary had a place to stay built in just in case.

Bethlehem, by the way, located in the center of Judea, Zacharias and Elizabeth lived just outside the village in the hill country there. By the time Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, they were only a short distance away from the household of some family relatives. If there was no place available in Bethlehem, naturally Joseph would have turned to Mary's relatives only a few miles away. You following me so far? The question then is, did Joseph have time to travel those extra miles if he couldn't find a place to stay in Bethlehem?

Or let me say that differently, did they really arrive in Bethlehem at the very last moment before the birth? The answer to that question is found in verse 6. Look at it again as if you're looking at it for the first time. So it was while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. We flip it around in our tradition and we say so it was the days were completed while they were there.

In other words, she was ready to have a baby when they got there. But that's not what the verse says. If this verse implies anything, it implies that Mary and Joseph were already in Bethlehem for some time unspecified before Jesus was born. It doesn't imply this arriving and giving birth on the same night. In other words, when the verse says while they were there, the days were completed tells us that Joseph had sufficient time to make arrangements for them to stay somewhere.

But the average Christian, you and me, thinks that Jesus was born on the same night that the holy family arrived. Our brains, our traditions just suggest that Joseph was in a rush and he was willing to accept anything with a roof and some walls for them to stay in. And the difficulty in this is that all of our decorations, all of our Christmas cards, all of our Christmas pageants reinforce this idea year after year. And it's so magical to us and it's so romantic, we never thought to say, is that what really happened?

So what's reasonable is to think that Joseph would have sought a suitable place to stay for them or he would have reached out to Mary's relatives in the area for their support. But let me let you know, nowhere in the Bible does it indicate a rushed, last minute situation.

Well, Pastor, where in the world did this late night arrival, imminent birth myth that's so deeply ingrained in the modern Christian mind, where did that come from? Don't you want to know?

The misunderstanding originated about 200 years after the birth of Jesus. There was an anonymous Christian who wrote a book. We don't know if it was a man or a woman who wrote it. And they wrote, I'm just going to pretend it was a lady. She's very imaginative and the ladies don't get a whole lot of credit.

So let's just say it was a lady. She wrote a book. You've never heard of it. When she wrote it, it was written as a work of fiction, a novel. It is an expanded fictionalized account of Jesus birth.

She wrote it because she wanted to sell copies of the scrolls. She wanted to be well read. And we know the title of the book. In fact, we have copies of this book. The book's called the Protoevangelium of James.

Amen. Doesn't that just sound religious? The Protoevangelium of James. Well, let me tell you about the Protoevangelium of James. Regardless of the title, the Apostle James has no connection to this work.

It was common in the first century for writers to falsely attribute their works to famous figures. If you put the name of a famous person as the title of your work, more people will read it. It will give it more credibility.

The book though, immediately faced some significant criticism. In fact, it was soundly refuted by no little men or little scholars. Someone, a heavyweight like the man named Jerome. Jerome was a Latin scholar. He gave us what's called the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible.

The first person to translate the Bible from the Hebrew and the Greek text into Latin. This is a brilliant Christian man. He immediately saw this work for what it was, wrote against it, and discredited it. But not only did Jerome do that, several of the popes did it too. It just faced an onslaught.

But here's what's interesting. Even though those guys refuted it, it has endured for over 2000 years. It was even translated into eight different languages, all Eastern hemisphere languages. This thing's just been around. You want to know what it says about the birth of Jesus?

In the novel, as Mary and Joseph approach Bethlehem, Mary urgently tells Joseph, take me down from the donkey. The baby is pressing to come forth. Joseph panics, and he leaves Mary in a cave, and he hurries to Bethlehem looking for a midwife, looking for a lady that can help with the birth. While he's gone, the baby is born. When Joseph and the midwife finally return, they find the cave overshadowed, with thick darkness that gives way to shining, brilliant light.

Not only that, some strange woman appears out of nowhere. Her name is Salome. She meets the midwife on the road, and the midwife informs her that Mary, a virgin, has given birth. And somehow she remains a virgin. Still, Salome is skeptical.

She doesn't believe that's possible. She doubts the claim, and as a result, she's punished by her right hand, becoming leprous and white as snow. So far, so good. Sound like the Bible to you? After the midwife and Salome go into the cave, they examine Mary and they confirm her virginity.

And then an angel appears and tells Salome, touch the baby with your hand. Salome touches the baby with her hand, and what do you think happens? Her hand is healed instantly. And if that's not fantastic enough, the story continues to spin out of control from there. But that's enough to get us where we need to go.

Because this work of historical fiction, this Protoevangelium of James, is the earliest known reference that we have to the notion that Jesus the baby, was born the night Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem. And the average Christian that went to church today has never heard about this book, the Protoevangelium of James, but is nevertheless unwittingly influenced by it. Now, it's not a sin, it's not a right or wrong, it's not an oops. It's just things you didn't know.

Now, let me summarize where we've come so far with some of the problems with the traditional interpretation of Luke 2. Here's what we now know. Joseph was returning to his home village where he could easily find shelter. Because he was a descendant of King David, nearly all the doors in the village would open to him. And if that weren't enough, Mary had relatives nearby and could have turned to them.

But we know that she did not. We also now know that there was plenty of time to arrange suitable housing. And for heaven's sake, how could a Jewish town fail to help a young Jewish mother who's about to give birth? Now that you know some of the cultural and historical realities, it's important that we consider how we interpret the Bible text so that we can be more accurate in our understanding of Luke 2. To do so, there's two more questions we need to ask.

Luke 1 involves that manger, and the other involves the inn. And they're both mentioned in Luke chapter two, verse seven, our last verse. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. Now, second question, Luke. Where in the world was that manger?

It's important that we know this and we can easily find out. Hey, isn't it true that when we hear the word manger, we think stable or barn? Yes or no. But in the traditional Middle Eastern villages, that's simply not the case. It wasn't the case back then.

It wasn't the case in the Old Testament. It wasn't the case all the way up to the middle of the 1900s, the 20th century. This thing lasted. Now, wealthier families, and there was always a few, but not many wealthier families had the resources to build separate quarters for all their animals. But that was few and far between.

The normal peasant, regular, common person, regular villager, kept their animals inside their homes at night. And I'm going to prove it to you. But first I need to tell you about the houses they lived in. A typical village home in the ancient near east contained two rooms. I'll start with the second one first.

The second room is called a guest room. It's located either on the roof of the house or it's a room attached to the far end of the dwelling. The main room is called the family room. It's a larger space and it's where the family did everything, cooked, ate, slept, and lived. And these houses had one and only one door entryway to them.

The family room included a lower section near the door where the floor was lower than the main floor of the family room. And it's a designated area for animals. It was a few feet below the main floor, it was connected to the entry door. And there were steps leading up to the main room. Let me show you this.

I've got a floor plan and an elevation. The elevation's on the bottom. The floor plan's on the top. Can you see on the bottom there's one door. Yes, very simple.

And can you see there's steps going up to the main floor. On the floor plan on the top, you see the door open. And that first room, it's almost like a big closet. It's what they would call the stable. You go up the stairs.

You see that line between the stable and the mangers? That's at maybe three or four, maybe three feet off the ground. The whole room is open to the stable. The family lives in that room. The door on the lower level is the entrance for anybody, human or animal.

And each night, the family cow, the family donkey, a few sheep, they would all be corralled into the door, straight into the stable room. But that stable room was open to the main room. Can you imagine the aroma? Amen. I mean, just lovely.

The villagers want it this way. They want the animals inside for two reasons. Animals are living, breathing space heaters. And in the cold winter night of Israel, you bring as many of them as you can and get in there and they warm the place up. Why else would you bring your animals in for the night?

So that they could not be stolen. Those are the two reasons. This is by design. It's a feature, not a bug. Do you see the circles on the floor plan?

They are dug into the main floor, into the dirt. They represent the mangers. So if the family cow's hungry during the night, she can just raise up and stick her head over the bar and eat from the manger at her head level there. Now, I want to prove these thoughts I'm giving to you from Bible verses, because otherwise I'm just speculating. But I'm not.

So let me show you. In the Old Testament, when King Saul was on his way out as the king and he was in deep rebellion to God, he sought the insight of the witch at Endor. She practiced divination. This was detestable and abominable. He shouldn't do this, but he takes he and his associates there.

He even gets her to conjure up the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel. Kind of a creepy story. But while they were there, the witch at Endor practiced hospitality. She didn't retrieve a calf, the calf that she slaughtered to feed all the men. She didn't retrieve the calf from the barnyard from the field or the barn itself.

It was already in her house. First Samuel 28:24. Now, the woman had a fatted calf. Where? In the house?

That's what it says. And she hastened to kill it. She took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread from it. 1st Samuel 28:24. The calf was already inside.

Not only that, that's Old Testament, but let me take you into the New Testament. These same simple house plans show up even in the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He mentions it when he says, in Matthew 5, 14, 15, you are the light of the world. A city that's set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand.

And here it is. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Did you know that if a single lamp can shed light on everybody in the house, it means that house can have only one room? That light is lighting up the one room. There's a Bible scholar who spoke Arabic, so he did some missionary work in the Middle east, and he wrote a commentary on this in the late 1800s.

That's how late we have. It's actually later than that that we have houses in Israel that look just like this. William Thompson said, it's my impression that the birth of Jesus actually took place in an ordinary house of some common peasant, and that the baby was laid in one of the mangers, such as are still found in the dwellings of the farmers in the region. They just didn't change how they built their houses for 2,000 years. And so we know exactly what it was like.

So what's the answer to the question, where was the manger, my brothers and my sisters? The answer is the manger was in a warm and friendly home, not a cold and lonely stable or a cold and lonely barn. I'm gonna tell you why that's important at the end of the message. I got one more question to ask Luke first, though. Now we know where the manger was.

Luke, what was the inn?

Because, Pastor, if what you're saying is true, if Joseph and Mary were taken into a private home for Jesus to be born, and I've demonstrated that from the Scriptures, then how in the world are we supposed to understand this phrase, Laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Hey, can we talk for a second? No room for them in the inn? Doesn't it sound like they were rejected by the people of Bethlehem, that they knocked on some doors and they went to the hotel and everybody said no. Or at the very least, they ran into an unmotivated innkeeper and it's too late at night and he was too tired.

And. And doesn't it sound like they just ran into a dead end? No room in the inn in our culture has taken on the meaning the motel had multiple rooms, but they were all occupied. Doesn't it sound like that?

Like Mary and Joseph walk into town with a donkey and. And the no vacancy sign was already switched on at the hotel. But what if I told you that the word translated in in the original language does not refer to a room at a motel or an inn? I'm going to put two Greek words up on the screen here in a second. Not because we're going to go to Greek class.

You don't have to know what it means. You don't even have to know how to say it. I just want your eyeballs to see these two words because I want you to see that they look nothing alike. They don't have the same root, they don't have the same prefixes, they don't have the same endings. They are different words.

That's all I want you to see. So the word translated in, in Luke chapter two is the word kataluma or katalima. And katalima is the word for in. In Luke 2. But there is a word in the Greek language that's the ordinary term for a commercial place to stay.

There's a word for. If you pay for a room at a hotel, a motel or an inn, it is not this word katalamo. It's the word pandochion. All right? Everybody say katalama.

Everybody say pandocheon. Now look, now, we've all mispronounced Greek words together, right? So we're all good. We're on the same page. When you look at those words, do they look alike at all?

Can you just see that they're different and probably mean different things? That's all I want you to see. Now, I want you to know that Luke knows all of these words. In fact, he uses both of them in Luke's Gospel. And when he uses them, he defines them for us.

He employs the word pandocheon, the word where you rent a room for the night at a place that does that for a living. In one of Jesus most famous parables later in Luke. Can we agree that Luke chapter 10 comes after Luke chapter 2? But it's in the same book? All right, where does God I mean, excuse me, where does the Good Samaritan in Jesus Parable of the Good Samaritan take the wounded traveler?

In Luke chapter 10, the answer is in Luke 10:34. So he went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, and he brought him to and what? That's not the word in Luke chapter 2. It's not Katalima. It's Pandochion in Luke chapter 10.

Brought him to an inn and he took care of him. And in Jesus parable, there's even an innkeeper. There's somebody at the front desk. In Luke chapter two, he uses katalima. And do you know what katalima means in Luke's Gospel?

It means guest room. That's important. I bet some of you have one of these at your house. Maybe your kids are older, they went off to college. They left a bedroom and a bathroom when they went to school.

And now you fix that up for when Grandma and Grandpa or whoever comes in. They get to stay in that bedroom and use that bathroom. Raise your hand if you are familiar with this concept. Guest room. The word in Luke 2 means guest room.

And I know that because it's exactly how Jesus uses it. In Luke 22. It's the same word Jesus uses when he instructs his disciples to prepare a place for all of them to observe his final Passover meal on the night before he died. Here's Luke 22:11. Then you shall say to the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room?

Do you see guest room? It's the word katalima. It's the same word translated in in Luke chapter two. Where's the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And that guest room is famous.

We even have a nickname for it. It's where the disciples were on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on them. We call it the. What kind of room? The upper room.

It's called an upper room because the guest room that Jesus and the disciples had the Passover in. That guest room was on the roof. It was upstairs. Instead of being connected to the room at the end of the house. You see In Luke chapter 2, verse 7, Luke clearly uses the word katalima to mean a guest room in a private home.

I'm going to show you a floor plan.

Same floor plan, stable, mangers, family room. These folks have a little more money. They built a guest room. They built a katalama on the end of their house. Why is that important?

Because here's all it means. Joseph and Mary get to Bethlehem. They recognize him, he's of the famous family. And they go, wow, the baby could be here soon. And they're like, yeah, where are you staying?

Hadn't found a place to stay. Can we stay at your house? Can we stay in your katalama? They say, oh, our katalum is already occupied. You'll just stay in the main room and get the best hospitality we have to offer.

You'll stay in our house. So that guest room, you could just cross that out and put I n n. It just means the extra room we have for guests in our home. One of the most influential Bible commentaries on the book of Luke for the last hundred years was by Alfred Plummer. Here's what he said.

Joseph had relied upon the hospitality of some friend in Bethlehem whose guest chamber was already full when he and Mary arrived. Now, are you wondering, Pastor, why am I just now hearing this? And what do I do with my Nativity set? All right, well, here's what you do with your Nativity set. You go home and you find some Legos, men, or some other action figures, and you just add some more people.

Everything in your manger seems right. It's just. It's just missing some others. Let me tell you why. The reason you're just now hearing this is because the Western church has largely overlooked the issues that we've discussed today.

We hadn't looked closely at what the text says. We haven't asked any questions about it. Kind of, if it ain't broke, don't what? Yeah. When the traditional understanding of the story seems unbroken, why even question it?

Now, let's review what we've learned. The Holy Family traveled to Bethlehem. They were welcomed into a private home by a host family who knew Joseph and who upheld all the hospitality and the values of their honor. Shame culture. Because the guest room, because the inn room was already occupied.

Mary gave birth to the baby in the house, wrapping him in cloths, placing him in a manger carved into the main floor of the family room. Other women helped with the birth, and afterwards the children and the men were welcomed back into the home to meet the new baby and celebrate. Every one of you seen this, because you've seen a nursery of labor and delivery at a hospital, and you've seen somebody who's just given birth that you knew. Maybe a day or two later, you all went up to the hospital to see them and to get your photo with the baby so you can put it On Facebook and on Instagram. And you saw the little circles of people, and they were there.

And people come to celebrate births. They don't run away from them.

Well, Pastor, why does this fresh perspective on the Nativity even matter? In other words, so what?

Well, I'll tell you why it matters. One single point is all you're going to get from me today. It's all you need, though. In Mark 12:37, when Jesus began his ministry, the people said, the common people heard him gladly. Let me say that again.

When Jesus did his adult ministry, the common people heard him gladly. They couldn't get enough of the things that he said, the things that he did, and the love that they felt from him. So if I'm going to connect the dots, here's the dots I'll connect. From his birth all the way to his death, Jesus was embraced by ordinary people. That means that if you found yourself in this church meeting today and you're thinking, I'm not as religious as all of you, I don't really understand what's going on.

These terms are weird. I don't have a Bible, never read it, don't know the answers to the questions, don't feel like a very good person. You. You guys probably live better lives than me. I am out of place.

I say baloney to that because the Jesus that we know from the scriptures came to earth as a baby to die on a cross for your sins. For you.

He's still being heard gladly by regular people. Or as I like to say it this way, God shows up in ordinary places to bless common people. You know, Jesus never said, remember my birth, but he did say, remember my death and my resurrection. And that's what we did at the table today. We celebrate this birth story.

Now on Easter, the Christian church has had a tradition, and the tradition would be that the minister would say, he is risen, and the congregation would answer, he is risen with, he's risen indeed. Let's try that together. He's risen. I think we need to add one for Christmas. I think we need to celebrate that manger in that regular person's home.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna say, the Savior is born. And I want you to reply with, and I mean with gusto and with gladness in your heart. He's born in a manger. I think I got it for the screens.

Yeah. I'm going to say, the Savior is born, and you celebrate with, he's born in a manger, knowing that when he's born, in a manger. That was for you. A savior is born.

That'll be our last word today. Father, thank you for the truth. That's so rich and so helpful of the birth of your son. Amen.