Amy C Walters

The Birth of Jesus – Luke 2:1-7

Joseph and Mary faced a lot of interruptions and inconveniences in the days leading up to Jesus’ birth. If I were them I’d be incredibly frustrated! But through their story, we see that God can turn those interruptions into opportunities.

In the previous episode, we focused a lot on the census that Caesar Augustus, kind of the villain in this story, calls. And this census sets into motion the movement of people all over the Roman Empire, from where they were to the town of family origin. For Mary and Joseph, this meant a journey of 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Let’s take some time today to think about how Mary and Joseph might have felt in that situation with these things happening at the worst possible time, or at least what might seem to be the worst possible time.

Mary is days away from giving birth, and this decree happens, and there’s no way to appeal to the government for not having to go. There’s no way to say, “Hey, could somebody else go in our place? This is just not a great time.” 

Instead, they have to comply with the government’s decree. And so they head out on this long journey over difficult roads when Mary is very pregnant.

I don’t know how Mary felt, but I know if that had been me, I would have been really frustrated! It’s hard enough to get comfortable when you’re eight months pregnant, let alone on this difficult journey over dirt roads day after day after day. I’d be frustrated.

I’d be grumbling to God about “Why does this have to happen now? This is not the way that I planned it or pictured how this would go.” 

Mary and Joseph then arrive in Bethlehem and we’re told that “there is no room for them in the inn.” “Ah, great. We’ve traveled all this way, and now there’s not even room for us.” 

It’s funny–it’s such a throwaway statement. It almost is treated very casually in this story. Like, “no big deal. There’s no room for them in the inn.” 

But that would have felt like a very big deal if that were me. To be in labor and to not have privacy, to not have a clean space for that delivery.

You think about when people are planning for the arrival of a child today. There’s so much planning that goes into it. Some people have a birthing playlist of songs that they want to hear during labor. They’re planning what they’re going to wear to the hospital, from the hospital, what the baby’s going to wear. They work so hard to bring all of the details together and to have control over the situation.

And here are Mary and Joseph not in control. The baby is coming. They’re 80 miles away from home. Joseph even has to help deliver this child.

Now, that is probably not something he’s ever prepared for. And yet he is the one in that place with Mary, and it’s time. He’s got to step up and do it.

For Joseph, that’s got to be a feeling of inadequacy and fear. “How am I going to do this? I don’t know what I’m doing here. Is this really the best place for a baby to be born next to these animals, next to a manger where the animals are feeding? Are we really doing this right here, right now?”

Think, too, about how Joseph, as the husband, has taken on the role of protector, of provider for Mary, and yet he is unable to provide for her a room in the inn. Instead, they’re in the barn. He may feel like a failure in this situation. He maybe feels inadequate to the task that’s in front of him.

This baby is coming, and we know from our perspective, from being able to see this story from the outside and see that everything turns out well, we know that this is God sovereignly moving in order to get them from where they were to where they needed to be. But in that moment at that time, it would feel like a major inconvenience, a major interruption to what they would have wanted for the situation.

The reality is that sometimes God uses interruptions as opportunities to show himself and to show his power at work. That’s our key truth for today, that interruptions can be opportunities.

We don’t know how Mary and Joseph viewed this situation. We don’t know what their attitude was about it.

I do know that if it were me, I would have a very difficult time having a good attitude, when so many of the things that I had planned were not happening as I planned them. I am a planner. I am a person who loves a list. A list is such a tidy way to set out all of my plans for the day, to schedule things. I’ll even add things to the list that I’ve already done just for the satisfaction of crossing them off! 

Interruptions throw a wrench into those plans. Interruptions usually keep me from crossing things off my list like I like to. So I don’t have a great attitude toward interruptions. I get frustrated.

But what this story shows us is that when interruptions happen, we need to take a step back and look to see is God doing something in this? Is this an opportunity to see God at work?

That’s a lot easier said than done. That’s not our gut reaction to when interruptions, inconveniences, difficulties, obstacles happen. That’s not how we tend to approach our daily schedule.

And yet we see from this story that God is working in that interruption to take Mary and Joseph from where they were to where they needed to be, to do his work in his way.