Weblog Entry - 12/13/2003: "Any room?"

12/13/2003 Entry: "Any room?"

She gave birth to her first-born, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger - there was no room for them to stay in the inn

It's a scene beloved by nativity players and audiences. Mary and Joseph tramp wearily from one innkeeper to the next: "Have you got any room?" It's a great way to include lots of children - there's always room for another innkeeper's part, and the lines are not difficult to learn. (Except for the play my colleague was telling me about in which the first innkeeper responded, "Course we have! Come in!" It makes a bit of a difference to the plot.) The image we have is of a couple in great need wandering a town of strangers, finding no room until someone offers the use of a poor stable.

There's another possibility, and to me it's a more challenging one. It hinges on the translation of a greek word kataluma. This is the word that's traditionally taken to mean "inn" - you know, the one there was no room at. However, the word can also mean "guest room", and in fact that's exactly how Luke uses it in Luke 22. It was in a kataluma that Jesus and his disciples shared their Last Supper. With this one change, the story is recast. Joseph travels to Bethlehem to fulfill his duty to the authorities. It is the town of his ancestors. What will he do when he gets there? Wouldn't he knock at the doors of his relatives? And, shockingly, they turn him away. Read this way the Christian gospel begins, not with the meaningless apologies of a hotelier who's overbooked, but with the embarassment of a family turning away one of their own. As at the end, so at the beginning: Christ is rejected by those who should most gladly receive him.

And I wonder. In the rush to prepare for Christmas, to get the house ready, to have all the cards sent in time, to have the best possible sermons for the season - do we who should receive him with greatest gladness end up by rejecting him all over again?

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