St. Teresa of Calcutta had said, “There is terrible physical suffering in some countries, starvation and so on. But, that is easier to deal with than the feeling of rejection that the homeless feel. The hardest part for them is not the cold, but the feeling of being unwanted.”
D. L. Moody, one of the greatest evangelists of the 19th century said, “For four thousand years before Jesus was born, the world had been looking for Him. Prophets had been prophesying, and the mothers of Israel had been praying and hoping that they might be the mother of that Child.
And God tried to prepare man for this divine act, but alas, in spite of all God’s revelation, when Jesus came, nobody was prepared to receive Him.”
Not only at His birth, but throughout Jesus’ earthly life, Jesus was rejected by people. I quote D. L. Moody again, “His neighbours didn’t want Him; those Nazarenes didn’t want Him; they would have taken Him to the brow of a hill and dashed Him to the bottom; they would have torn Him limb from limb, if they could. He went down to Capernaum; they didn’t want Him there.
Jerusalem didn’t want Him. To me, one of the most touching verses in the Bible is St. John 7:53: ‘Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.’ ” Perhaps, it was in a lonely moment like this Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Had Jesus come with all the glory of the upper world, He might have been ushered into this world with ten thousand angels; and legions of angels might have come to herald His advent. If He had chosen to, He might have been born in a palace. Someone said, “The only person in history who was able to choose where he was to be born, chose a manger.”
An unknown writer penned these words, “Jesus swapped heavenly royalty for earthly poverty. His bed became at best, a borrowed pallet - and usually hard earth. He was dependent on handouts for His income. He was sometimes so hungry that He would eat raw grain or pick fruit off a tree.
He knew what it meant to have no home. He was ridiculed. His neighbours tried to lynch Him. Some called Him a lunatic. His friends were not always faithful to Him. He was accused of crimes He never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. The jury was rigged. A judge swayed by politics handed down the death penalty. And then they killed Him - because of the gift only He could give!”
The Present Day
Twenty one centuries have passed and still there is no room for Jesus in the hearts of people. Nations have become so materialistic, that wherever you look there doesn’t seem to be room for Him. Consider how most folks spend their money during the Christmas season on wasteful expenditure when an estimated seven hundred people in the world die of starvation every hour. Benjamin Franklin said, “How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!”
A Different Christmas Pageant
A woman was hurriedly doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Her little boy was with her, and she was dragging him from one store to another, looking for particular items on her list.
At one point she saw that her little boy was lagging behind, peering into a store window. She rushed back to where he was and with obvious irritation said, “What are you doing, just standing here?” In the store window was a nativity scene.
He said, “Look, Mama, there’s baby Jesus.” She said, “Come on. We don’t have time for all that nonsense; we’ve got to get ready for Christmas!”
Christ comes at Christmas to change all that. He asks that we welcome everyone whom He welcomes, including the poor, needy, homeless and the neglected. What a different world we will be living in today, if we had room for Jesus!
The following story is adapted from, “Trouble at the Inn” by Dina Donahue in, “Treasured stories of Christmas: A touching Collection of Stories.”
For many years, whenever Christmas pageants are talked about in a certain American town in the Midwest, someone is sure to mention the name of Wallace Purling. Wally’s performance in one nativity play has slipped onto the realm of legend. But the old-timers who were in the audience that night never tire of recalling what happened.
Wally was nine that year and in the second grade, though he should have been in the fourth. Most people in town knew that he had difficulty in keeping up. He was slow in movement and mind. In spite of his mental slowness, he was liked by the other kids in his class even though he was quite a bit taller and bigger than they.
They had trouble hiding their irritation when Wally would ask to play with them. Most often they’d find a way to keep him out but Wally would hang around not sulking, just hoping. He was always a helpful and smiling boy, and the protector of the underdog. If the older boys chased the younger ones away, it would always be Wally who’d say, “Can’t they stay? They’re no bother.”
Wally fancied the ideal of being a shepherd with a flute in the Christmas pageant that year, but the play’s director, Miss Lumbard, assigned him to a more important role. After all, she reasoned, the innkeeper did not have too many lines to remember and, because of his size, he would be able to present a more forceful refusal to the much smaller Joseph. And so the big night came. The usual large audience gathered for the town’s yearly extravaganza. No one on stage or off was more caught up on the magic of the night than Wallace Purling. He stood in the wings and watched the performance with such fascination that Miss Lumbard had to make sure he didn’t wander on stage before his cue.
Then the time came when Joseph appeared, slowly guiding Mary to the door of the inn. Joseph knocked on the wooden door of the inn. Wally the innkeeper was there waiting. “What do you want?” Wally said, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture.
“We seek lodging,” Joseph replied.
“Seek it elsewhere,” Wally looked straight ahead but spoke vigorously, “This inn is filled.”
“Sir, we have asked everywhere in vain. We have travelled far and are weary.”
“There’s no room in this inn for you,” Wally looked properly stern.
“Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired,” Joseph pleaded. Now for the first time, the innkeeper relaxed his still stance and looked down at Mary.
With that there was a long pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment.
“No! Be gone!” whispered the prompter from the wings.
“No!” Wally repeated automatically. “Be gone!”
Joseph looked at Mary, put his arm around her. Mary laid her head upon her husband’s shoulder and the two of them started to move away.
But the innkeeper didn’t close the door and return inside his inn. He stood there in the doorway, watching the forlorn couple leaving his inn. His mouth was open, his brow creased with concern, his eyes unmistakably filling with tears.
And suddenly the Christmas pageant became different from all others. Wally departed from his memorized script ...
“Don’t go, Joseph,” Wallace called out. “Bring Mary back.”
And then with a broad grin lighting up his whole face he spoke out loudly and clearly, “There’s no room for you in this inn. But you can have my room!”
Some in the audience thought that pageant had been ruined. Yet there were others…many, many others…. who considered it the best Christmas pageant they had ever seen!
Let us invite Jesus this Christmas into our hearts and say with the hymn writer, Emily E. S Elliot, “O Come to my heart, Lord Jesus. There is room in my heart for Thee.”
- Hilary Ryan Fernando