Leave The Light On - The Innkeeper’s Wife

Luke 2:1-7

The story gets enacted every Christmas Eve. Joseph and a very pregnant Mary arrive at an inn in a very crowded Bethlehem. When they ask the innkeeper and his wife for a room, they’re told, “Sorry, there’s no room at the inn.”

In the play, the innkeeper’s wife usually intervenes and convinces her husband to let the couple stay in the stable with the animals. It’s better than nothing.

That entire story comes from one line in the Bible: “she . . . laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7, KJV). Because the manger is a feeding trough for animals, people assume there was a stable. Because it mentions an inn, people assume there was an innkeeper—with a wife. Besides, this couple can create some comic relief in Christmas plays. Since medieval times, church dramas have employed these characters.

And maybe that’s exactly how it happened. Or not. The Greek word used for inn often refers to the guest room of a home (as in Luke 22:11). In some larger homes, rooms were built over courtyards where animals would be kept at night—with a manger for feeding. So it’s a very real possibility that Joseph and Mary didn’t go to an inn, but to the home of relatives who had already given all their spare rooms to other family members—but the couple could stay downstairs in the courtyard, with the animals.

Does that ruin the story? Not at all. Jesus was still sleeping in a feed bin. The holy family was still forced out of normal sleeping quarters. The innkeeper’s wife might be less of a motel manager and more of a sweet aunt, scrambling to find a creative way to show hospitality. She figured out how to make it work.

Do you ever shy away from showing hospitality because your circumstances are less than ideal? Maybe your place is messy or your old car embarrasses you. It’s easy to come up with excuses not to welcome others. That would be the way of the old innkeeper, if there was one. Let’s try to follow the new model, offering even our imperfect resources for the Lord to transform.

She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

Luke 2:7