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She…laid Him a manger; because there was no room (αὐτοῖς) for them in the inn.
Merry Christmas!
᛭ INI ᛭
The Creator of the universe fills all things. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17) “He is far above all things.” (Eph 2) “Heaven and even the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.” (2-Chr 2) “Whither shall you go from His presence?” (Ps 139) Christ also “has the Key of David; He opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.” (Rev 3) There’s nothing He cannot do. There’s nowhere He cannot go…except in Bethlehem.
The Blessèd Virgin Mary “laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” The LORD God of the universe, He, “by whom the heavens were made,” wasn’t allowed in the house. He suffered Himself to be rejected, took on the manger as a throne. There wasn’t a place, wasn’t room for Him anywhere else. His royal court consisted of His mother, His guardian, and farm animals. “Great indeed is the mystery of godliness!” (1-Tim 3)
The reason for His exclusion isn’t mentioned. Whether it was an “ungenerous soul” of an inn keeper, or, more like, family who didn’t want that couple around. Oh, the talk surround Mary and Joseph’s relationship! It does seems that it wasn’t just lack of room, for we are not told “there was no room” but rather “there was no room for them.” Whatever the reason, the end result was the same: “He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him.” (Jn 1)
And it was not simply “no room for them” at the Best Western Bethlehem. It was “there we no room for them in the guest room (καταλύματι),” even “the upper room,” where Christ’s ministry winds down with His Last Supper (Lk 22:11). Christ’s ministry begins where it concludes…
All this is written for our comfort and hope. There is no need for us to concern ourselves with our own salvation, or place at the table. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1-Jn 4) Christ has done all things “for us men and for our salvation.” Unlike Santa who is only for the good little boys and girls, Christ came for sinners. He swaps everything around that all bane is His and all blessing yours. “For you know the grace of our Lord ΙΗϹ Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2-Cor 8) “For [God] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2-Cor 5)
“Great indeed is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.” (1-Tim 3) As Mary was told: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Lk 1) He does the impossible things to save. The Son of God becoming man for you. Mary is the Mother of God, that God, the Son of God, would be born an outcast for you. “No room for them in the upper room.” A place the omnipresent God wasn’t allowed to go! An omnipotent God who needed His cross carried. The Son who is “one substance with the Father” was outcast at Calvary: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me!” (Mt 27)
All of this for you. You are welcomed to His table. Where you are flesh of His flesh—the culmination of His incarnation. Impossible for you but not for Him—bread that is His body, wine that is His blood. “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.” Veiled in bread and wine, His body and blood receive! The highest, holiest treasure He gives to you.
The God of the Universe, omnipresent, no room for Him in the Guest Room, and from another Upper Room He does the impossible: institutes the Supper of His body and blood for you, that you would be welcomed not only had His Supper, but welcomed into His eternal mansions. The Christ who had nowhere to lay His head, has gone ahead to prepare a place for you. Even now see the place prepared for you. “Come, adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King,” (LSB 368) as He brings you His body to eat and His blood to drink. Now to live and dwell in you!
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