The Poor Innkeeper

For the past few Sundays we have been looking over the shoulders of different characters in the Christmas story.  What did they see, what did they feel, what did they know as Christ came into the world?  We have looked at Mary, the angels of heaven, the shepherds and the wisemen.

One character I have avoided has been the Innkeeper.

At times I feel sorry for the Innkeeper.  He seems to get worse treatment in the story than even Herod.  John Phillips, who seems to know the actual name of the inn itself, is particularly tough.

"No room!"  That was not true.  There was the innkeeper's own room, but he never once considered that.  No, indeed!

A few pages later, he seems to go out of his way to take another shot at the innkeeper as he describes the excited reaction of the shepherds.

No one seems to have bothered to rouse the innkeeper and his guests.  They had no room for the Lord of glory in their inn.  Why should they be roused?  Let them sleep!

You get the feeling that John Phillips was once shut out by an innkeeper himself and ended up spending a very rough night sleeping in his car on a very cold night in a very bad part of town.  Don't look for Dr. Phillips at the next National Innkeepers Convention!

Yet I have also heard it pointed out that the only shelter Mary and Joseph had that evening had been provided by the innkeeper.  I remember some even pointing out that the manger area was a generous offer as it provided more privacy for the young couple who were imminently about to become a family.

Whole sermons have been preached  in both these directions.

Interestingly the text only tells us this...

⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.  Luke 2:7 (ESV)

Notice...there is no innkeeper even mentioned!  Yet for our preaching convenience we have created him...determined his motives and his just desserts.

The point is we don't know enough for any of this.  Sometimes this makes me think of how I respond to the people in my congregation.  Far too often, I can be tempted to come to entire conclusions about my people -- their lives, their choices, their motives -- with as much information as we have of our unmentioned innkeeper.

There is often more to the story than we know.  In preaching and pastoring, let's be careful about filling in the blanks.