The King among the Common People (2)

Luke 2:8-20

In the Armenian sermon I asked these questions:

Why would Jesus be born in a stable?

Why wouldn’t there be room in the inn?

Was Jesus born at night?

We will answer those questions.

1. Let me describe to you a Middle Eastern home in those days.

Those days, families did not have stables. During the day, the animals would be were kept tied outside the house or the shepherds would take them out for pasturing. What would happen at night? Farmers would take in the animals for protection and for heat. Please look at picture (a). Homes had a simple one-room structure. They had flat roofs. The lower layer was the entrance, where everyone came in, including animals at night. There were stairs leading up towards the living room. The family ate there, spent the day there, and slept there. On the right side of the picture you see yellow piles of hays. These are mangers carved in the floor. Animals could eat from it when they were hungry. Please look at picture (b). This is the same house looking from the top.

Also in the Bible there are some examples of one room homes:

-King Saul was hungry. There was a Midianite woman who offered Saul food. We read in the text that she took an animal from the house and made food for Saul. “The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she butchered at once.” (1 Samuel 28:24)

-Judge Jephthah made a bad vow that if he won the war he would slaughter the first thing came out of the door of his house to meet him on his return. Jephthah was not stupid. He knew that animals were in the house, and any animal would be OK. But unfortunately his daughter came out of the house first and the story is tragic (Judges 11).

2. The bible text does not tell which time of the day Jesus was born. And the text says: “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born” (vs 6). “While they were there” could be one day, a week, or a month. So in the text we do not find a nighttime urgent delivery. Usually, Christmas plays present poor Joseph who did not know how to manage a good place for delivery. And we imagine that there was an inn keeper who said, “There is no room, but I have a stable for you.” These are not in the text.

3. Jesus was born in a house, a modest, common house. The biblical text adds, “and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger” (vs 6). Two things were done, wrapped him in cloths, and laid him in a manger. Any Middle Eastern audience will understand that this was a standard procedure for a newborn baby. Ezekiel 16 mentions the practice of wrapping a newborn in cloths. In fact, the tradition is still there. Even my mother did it to me when I was born. The manger is in the house. It is a safe place; they can lay a baby there.

4. How about the fact that there was no room in the inn?

We need to read the text in Greek to realize that the word does not mean inn. The word Luke used is Kataluma, which means a place to stay. The Armenian translation is better, Ichevan. Luke uses the word inn in the story of Good Samaritan (Luke 10). The Good Samaritan took the man to the inn. The Greek word in the Samaritan story is pandocheion. It literally means “all received” meaning hotel. Armenians and Arabs used the same word for inn bantog (Armenian) al fendouq (Arabic).

Luke uses the word Kataluma at the end of the his gospel (Luke 23). Jesus orders his disciples to find the man who will lead them to the kataluma for the Passover dinner. There he explains what kataluma is, “a large upper room, all furnished.” (Luke 22:12)

Therefore, what is Kataluma in our context? Some houses had a second room, a little higher, or in the back. The text wants to say the kataluma was filled with guests so Mary had her baby in the ordinary room.

5. The final observation is to see all this from the shepherds’ perspective.

Two groups of people received the news of the birth of Jesus, the shepherds and wise men. I will focus on shepherds this Sunday.

It is unbelievable that the Good News would be told through the shepherds!

What is striking is that shepherds were not considered the cream of the society. In fact, Jews did not encourage their sons to go to this occupation. Shepherds were considered a lowest and the outcast of the society.

The text is exciting. Luke describes what the angels told them. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."”

The shepherds were afraid. But when they heard about this child and about the sign, they were ready to go. The given sign was very simple: “wrapped in cloths and lying in manger.” “Wow,” thought the shepherds, “so this king, is like us, born not in a palace or mansion, but in an ordinary home, the way our babies are born.” They went and saw the child, and on the way back “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (20)

They were content and satisfied with what they saw. It was exactly like what the angel told them. If they saw the child in a stable, they would probably take charge and invite Jesus into their home. No, they saw exactly what was told to them. This is the Good News, our King, our Lord is born within the common people, like us.

The message is very clear. God talks to us in our language, a language that Shepherds understood. What a humility that God sends His son among the common people. If God can talk to humanity through common people, how come we ignore the common people? How come we delete “common” people from our minds?

Look to the diagram again. The Caesar is at the bottom.

Please look carefully at how God chose the humble and the meek. This is the third advent message for you. Prepare for the coming of the King. Jesus is ready to be born in your “common” house. All these decorations are nothing, even nonsense, when Jesus is not born in your heart. If you are planning to have a family vacation during Christmas it is good, but is nonsense when your sinful heart is not broken, for the coming of our Lord.

Let us leave the sanctuary like the shepherds. They were glorifying and worshiping the Lord. Can you glorify and worship during the week?

Amen