I’m sure that most of you will now be familiar with the point that there are two mythical places at the heart of your average nativity play. One is the inn and the other, the stable. The presence of the first one in our traditions is perhaps understandable given that the word appears in a lot of our translations. However, disappointingly for all of us who played the role of innkeeper number 5, the local hotel was not likely to have been in Luke’s mind. Rather, the word was more likely to have referred to the guest, or best room in the house. This would make more sense too if as you might expect, Mary and Joseph headed for Jospeh’s family home.
The stable doesn’t get a mention in the text at all, not even a cattle shed. This has been assumed because of the reference to the manger. However, a Jewish home at the time would have had one main room for living space where everything happened, where you ate, did your chores, chatted and slept. That living space would also have been shared with any livestock you happened to own, that would have been why there was a manger present.
What this means is not just that some of our images of the scene and story are a bit misplaced but also some of the implications we have drawn out are distorted too. Whilst we might want to say Christ was an outcaste and stranger, that he was found at the margines and whilst that might be true in other ways when it came to his life story, the text doesn’t actually point us in that direction. You see, pushed out to the margins, Jesus is right there at the centre where he belongs, at the centre of family life. Yes, its at the centre of the mess and chaos of family life, yes it’s away from the grandeur of palaces but its exactly where Jesus needs to be, exactly where he should be.
Is Jesus at the centre of your life and of your family this Christmas?
Faithroots 