Kruse Kronicle

No Room in the What?

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by

mwkruse
in

Christianity Today: No Room in the What? by Ben Witherington

Mary and Joseph weren't trying to check into a hotel—they were staying with relatives.

I am here to tamper with a masterpiece, or better said, to share with you a rather different reading of Luke 2:1-7, one solidly grounded in the facts, but nowhere represented in Christmas carols and pageants. I must tell you that I have heard endless sermons on how there was "no room in the inn" and how it was typical of a cold, fallen world to cast the holy family and Jesus out into the cold, and so on, often preached with great fervor but producing no ferment at all.

We've heard it countless times before. We've all been inoculated with a slight case of Christmas, preventing us from getting the real thing, or in this case, from reading these texts in a more historical way. The problem with the Christmas-pageant version is, this is not at all likely to be what Luke intends to tell us in this much beloved and belabored Christmas tale. …

Comments

4 responses to “No Room in the What?”

  1. Ebenezer Erskine Avatar
    Ebenezer Erskine

    I like what you have to say here, you may have an ally in my blog. Please come and check out my mission, I think you will be in agreement.

    Reply
  2. Brad Cooper Avatar
    Brad Cooper

    Hey Michael,
    Thanks for the link to this article. A great little tidbit of insight into this most important event.
    I’ve recently been studying Roman villas as part of my preparation for a class I have coming up teaching Romans. What Ben Witherington says lines up perfectly for the period.
    Apparently, in a typical Roman villa, all of the family bedrooms were on a second floor and the kitchen, baths and the animals were in rooms directly below the bedrooms. I imagine that this was a natural way to keep the bedrooms heated in the cooler times of the year. In the diagram I studied, the animals were in the back corner of the house and had to walk through the front gate, through the yard, and then through the kitchen!–before entering the “cow shed” (the room at the back left corner.
    The change in the nativity scene is not drastic but it is certainly different….
    Merry Christmas! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    Hmmm, I guess this goes right along with our Western Civilization not understanding the importance of Hospitality in Eastern Civilization, eh?
    Works for me!

    Reply
  4. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Thanks Brad and Peggy.
    The more I learn about the culture, the more Kenneth Bailey’s word ring true for me: “Rescuing truth from familiarity.” We are so entrenched in our Western cultural lenses. Sometimes it is like reading the Bible all over again for the first time.

    Reply

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