Crossroads Church Of God

Why was Jesus born in a stable? Before you leap up and scream "No room at the inn," think for a bit. Let me spin it for you in a slightly different way than you may usually think.

Let's start with a simple question: Why did Joseph go to an inn? "Because he was travelling, Duh!" But the answer isn't so simple. Yes he was travelling, but his destination was Bethlehem, so he had actually arrived. And wasn't Joseph, like everyone else clogging the roads up at the time, returning to his familial home to be registered for the census? Surely Joseph had relatives nearby. He was required to come to Bethlehem because that was the land of his ancestors. It's natural for some of the kids to move, but surely some, perhaps even many, of his relatives still lived in the area. Yet he didn't make for their houses, didn't seek shelter with them. He went instead to an inn. Why?

Late at night, an Elder flips through the applications for a leadership position in his church. He finds an applicant who lists multiple prison sentences and who has repeatedly been in trouble for being antagonistic towards civil authorities.

He pauses to reflect a while, then continues. While that history is troublesome, the applicant might still work out. Circumstances can change men, after all. Further on in the application he comes across problems the applicant has had in getting along with his own church leadership, clashing with them twice to the point where he had to be called in to the church headquarters for a discussion with the leadership about his behavior. He even had problems getting along with his own evangelical team: one of his assistants walked out on him and his response was to bar the assistant from travelling with him again.

Ouch. No, this man is definitely not leadership material; the application is put aside. He clearly isn't fit for any sort of a leadership role in God's church.

The young wife casts a coy look at her husband. Instantly, she is reassured that he does. "But how much?"

The young man declares the totality of his love, each sentence growing from the last until he proudly insists he would gladly give up his life for her.

A scene like this brings a smile to our faces. We admire the young lover's willingness to throw away everything in pursuit of his love. It's romantic, it's enviable. We are proud that humans are capable of such devotion.

And how differently we feel about it, when one of the lovers is God. Why are we so willing to sacrifice in the name of love for another human, and yet meet the love of God with such reluctance?

“Hurry! Hurry! Fast and Scurry!” These were the words my mother used to chide me with, when I needed to get something done quickly. As I’ve grown older, I’ve hoped for the pace to slacken, but no such luck. If anything, the pace has increased.

It’s the way of the world. If we stop, if we try and sit still, we start to fidget. We feel restless. All of the tasks we have set for ourselves begin to close in on us. We’re almost ready to scream. We have too much to do; we can’t just sit here and do nothing!

We can rationalize it however we want, claim we’re looking forward to getting started, that we’re eager, excited, that the tasks need to get done, and they won’t get done unless we get started. But behind it all is fear. What are we afraid of?