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"There was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7). No room for whom? For Joseph and
Mary. Who were they? Mary was the young woman whom God had chosen to bear His Son into this
world. The time for the birth of that babe had come. Joseph, with this expectant mother, had
come to Bethlehem to enroll for Roman taxes.
What about this babe? The angel had told Joseph, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21 ASV). Did not the people know that? They likely neither knew nor cared. True, they were looking for the Messiah, but not for anything like this! So, "man from Galilee, take your wife and move on. There's no room for you here." Yet Jesus was about to come into the world to seek and save the lost. The hotel had all the guests it could take. It was already full. So this man, Joseph, and his wife, Mary, turned into a stable. Why did not the innkeeper give them his own room? Why did not every guest there volunteer to give up his own room? If the king had come from Jerusalem, they would. But the King came from the skies — they did not know Him. "He came unto his own and his own received him not" (John 1:11). Why did they not know Him? Had not the scripture pictured His birth in this very place, and in this very circumstance? Yes, but they did not know that. Why didn't they know that? They had not found it out. Why? Too busy with their own affairs to read it in their own scriptures! Too engrossed in their own selfish interests to understand it! Like some people today, they left their spiritual instruction wholly in the hands of the leaders. These leaders, most of them, were selfish, ambitious politicians. They twisted the scriptures to suit their own selfish aims, and the sheep blindly followed them. It is easy to be oversupplied with selfishness. Take the men of Decapolis, for instance. Jesus cast out two demons and allowed these to go into their hogs. The hogs drowned themselves (Mark 5:1-13). The business of these men was destroyed. But it was an unlawful business. Jews were not supposed to have anything to do with hogs. It was just as bad to raise and sell them to others as to eat them. Instead of being grateful to the Lord that He had thus rid them of their sinful business, they were offended. They asked Him to leave their country. Why? Selfishness! Jesus had crossed their selfish interests, and they would have Him go. Bad folks they were! Yes, but their kind are not all dead yet. Room gets rather scarce in our hearts when keeping Jesus there gets in the way of our selfishness. Once Jesus went back to Nazareth where He had been raised. The folks of His hometown gave Him some honor, but before He had long taught there, they cast Him out of the city. They were full of the mob spirit and threatened to throw Him off a bluff (Luke 4:16-32). It seems likely that this was His last visit to His boyhood home. Neither was Jesus very welcome in Jerusalem, the holy city. Only once was He greeted with any enthusiasm (Matthew 21:1). But even this greeting was changed to bitter hatred when He cleansed God's temple of the selfish interests of the merchants. Here is a characteristic scene. It is from one of the Lord's visits to Jerusalem, to the feast. The Jews, with their leaders, had bitterly assailed His teaching. It all wound up this way: "They went every man unto his own house: but Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives" (John 7:53, 8:1 ASV). Defeat and rejection make men bitter, but not so with Jesus. He was rejected, but not defeated. He had a definite mission. This He had planned with the Father before He came into the world, and this He would carry out to its triumph. Of course, He felt the sting of ingratitude. He wept because of their prejudice and stubbornness. "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not" (Matthew 23:37). They made their own house desolate, but Jesus continued on until death ended in triumph, and He "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). Surely, we are not that way! The Jewish nation — almost the entire nation — rejected Jesus. How is it today? If Jesus were here now, what nation would ask Him to be its king? Yet, we call them "Christian" nations. Far from it! What business corporation would have Jesus come to direct its affairs? Not many! One big business man answered, "Well, that would be financial suicide. Who wants to go broke? Oh, well, if they would all do it, that would be different. But I have to deal with business as I find it." If Jesus were here today, how many religious bodies would have Him? Not many! A few years ago a magazine — one of the biggest in the country — sent a set of questions to a large number of preachers. To one of the questions, many of them answered, "Jesus would not be allowed in any church we know." If He were here, there would be much cleansing of temples if they let Him in. Jesus established the church and it belongs to Him (Matthew 16:18). It is shameful that religious leaders have erected so many gilded substitutes that it's hard for folks to find the church. The church is crowded out, although Jesus bought it with His blood (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:25). Salvation is through His blood and redemption is in Him (Ephesians 1:7). Yet every sort of camouflage that inventive minds can hatch up is out to entice men away from Him, making many sincere inquirers bewildered and disheartened. Don't let selfishness crowd the Lord from your life. Believe the gospel, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins while time and opportunity permit. (John 8:24; Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38). Then live faithfully for Him and heaven will be yours at last. |