Luk. 2:7 ... "And she gave birth to her first born Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."
The time was near for Mary to give birth to the baby who was to be the Christ when it became necessary for her and Joseph to journey to Bethlehem to be enrolled for the tax imposed by Caesar. Since everyone had to return to his native village for this purpose, the visitors to the small village of Bethlehem had already filled to capacity its facilities for accomodating them. When Joseph and Mary reached the Bethlehem Inn, there was, so to speak, a NO VACANCY sign posted outside to turn them away. The only alternative was to put up with the livestock, perhaps in one of the nearby caves. One wonders why some kindhearted person did not give his room to the young expectant mother, but then not many people are kind enough to suffer personal inconvenience to help another in greater need.
It is significant that when God's Son was born "there was no place for them in the inn," because it is so revealing of human nature. As the people who crowded into Bethlehem that momentous week had no room for the greatest Person ever to be born into this world, the vast majority of people who inhabit the earth today likewise have no room for Jesus in their lives. They are too concerned about the things they are eager to have and do that they think it too much bother to put up with Jesus. To a large extent youth are too busy trying to have a good time and assert their independence to share their time and energy with Jesus. Young adults feel too committed to marrying, starting their families, and establishing their careers to give Jesus any part in their lives. Middle aged people occupy themselves with the rewards of what they have thus far achieved and the effort to build a good retirement to give much consideration to Jesus. And the elderly concentrate upon failing health and growing weakness to exclude Jesus from the measure of good health and strength that still remains to them.
All along the path of life, in most of its byways and environments, people callously exclude Jesus from their affairs. He is not welcome in our schools, where it is illegal to use His name, solicit His authority, or pray to Him. He is not welcome in our courts, where decisions are often made against Him and His cause. He is not welcome in public, where His name is an offense to growing numbers of people from alien religious backgrounds, people who had no part in creating and developing America's greatness. Jesus is not welcome in our business world, for His standard of decency and honor would stop in its tracks so much of the maneuvering there. He is not welcome in the majority of homes, for the lifestyles we maintain there are too loose for Jesus' requirements of purity, order, and politeness.
We have the sad report that Jesus "came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him," (Jno. 1:11). The Greek text here indicates that He came to His own world (because it was He who created it), but His own people (the Jews, the ethnic group into which He was born) refused to receive Him. Dear reader, will you and I also exclude Him from our lives with the declaration that we have no room for Him in our way of life? Or, will we be willing to welcome Him in and make whatever changes are necessary in our thinking and behavior to make our lives fit for His continued presence? If we are willing, a great reward lies in store for us, since the Scripture says, "But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God," (Jno. 1:12). And, it is only to God's children that His incomparable inheritance will be given in the end.
