What if I told you we got it wrong, The Greatest Story ever told?

That our cultural ignorance and loyalty to tradition have cost us the truth and beauty of our Messiah’s humble birth?

Sometimes in the West we like to think we invented Christmas, that maybe we know the beloved story of Jesus better than anyone, so somewhere along the way we wrecked it by turning it into a myth that is sorely lacking in integrity, and quite frankly doesn’t make a lick of sense.

And it has nothing to do with Luke’s perfect account of it. He was a Messianic Jew—He got it right.

But in America, we pass down a version of The Story that has Jesus being born in a cow patty-filled barn, laid in a filthy feeding trough, because the heartless townspeople slammed their doors in Joseph’s face.

There simply was no room anywhere, even for a young woman about to give birth.

Let me just say right here, every male on both sides of my family would volunteer to sleep on the porch swing before sending a pregnant woman to sleep with the lowing livestock.

I’ve often wished Jesus would’ve been born in the South, because we’d have made room for Him, just like every holiday (before COVID) when we squeezed 800 family members into our grandmothers’ kitchens.

But no one is misleading us on purpose. It’s just that we’ve filled in the blanks with our own cultural filters.

Nevermind that for thousands of years, Middle Easterners have been known for their remarkable sense of community, honor, and hospitality, even to strangers.

Nevermind that Joseph, a descendant of King David, went to his own hometown called The City of David, where anyone and everyone would have welcomed this man of royal bloodline.

Nevermind that Mary had family just a few miles away. Last time I checked, she and Elizabeth were still on speaking terms.

Not so much Zechariah, but that’s another story.

I used to shrug off these details, until I took time to actually look into it.

What I found is a Story more beautiful than we’ve traditionally known, a true story about that Holy Night.

So where was this manger the Bible speaks of, and what was the inn?

This is where it gets fascinating….

When we think of a manger, we think of Papa’s barn where the pigs eat.

But in the Middle East, even until recently, most ordinary Palestinian homes were two rooms: the family room, and a little room built on the end that was dropped down a few feet lower.

This little room on the end was for bringing the animals inside the house at night to protect them. Each morning, the animals were led out and the stable-room scrubbed clean.

Their mangers were built into the family room floor where they could nibble hay during the night.

The roofs of these homes were flat so a guest room could be added to the roof or simply onto the other end of the house.

This room was called a kataluma, or an inn.

There are two words that translate as inn. One is pandocheion, which means commercial inn (like in the Good Samaritan).

The other is kataluma, which means guest room.

Because thousands of people were flooding the city to be counted in the census, everyone naturally opened their homes to accommodate the travelers.

Everyone’s guest rooms were full, so the peasant family that welcomed Joseph and Mary allowed them to sleep in their family room.

How do we know this?

Because that’s where the manger was, and that’s what the women cleaned out, covered with soft new hay, and laid the swaddled newborn Baby Jesus.

He was quite welcome.

So what about the shepherds? How did unclean social outcasts end up visiting The Messiah without being rejected?

They were invited by the Angels, and just so they would know they wouldn’t be shunned, the Angels gave them a sign: You’ll find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.

There was only one other group of people besides peasant families that swaddled newborns this way and had mangers in their houses: Shepherds.

This was their sign, special and significant to them. The shepherds knew peasants would welcome them.

This is where they found Jesus.

It’s where Jesus would often be found, among the shunned and poor.

But the Good News is for everyone… everyone… everyone…

So also invited were the rich and wise, who later appear with precious, symbolic gifts. Three, in fact.

There’s one more little hiccup in the traditional story we’ve been told, and that’s the wonder of the cave. What about the cave those in The Holy Land say Jesus was born in?

Many homes in traditional villages begin in caves and are then expanded outward. It’s a pretty common thing.

When we read the birth of Jesus in the true context of His culture, the Christmas Story comes alive….

And Immanuel is still inviting us into His Story, still asking if we have room for Him in our inn, perhaps hoping our answer will be, No, Lord, there’s no room for You in our inn… because it’s full of souls we’ve welcomed in Your Name, so please, Jesus, come into our Family Room where we live, right in the midst of us.

**********

~ O Holy Night ~

*All information contained in this blog post as well as the cover image are adapted from Kenneth E. Bailey’s book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: cultural studies in the gospels, pp.1-37.

*The gospel reference is Luke 2:1-20.

* Ornament featured in the facebook photo: Awwad’s Bethlehem Olive Wood Art