The Innkeeper in his own words

This blog post is a reading from my book The People Who Knew Jesus: Monologues for Advent and Lent. If you click on the link, you'll be taken to the book's page on Amazon if you want to purchase the book.

The Innkeeper

There were so many people in Bethlehem that day.  They had come to town because of the census that Caesar Augustus had decreed.  I own the only inn in town, and every room was full because of the census.  There were no more rooms left for me to rent out when Joseph and Mary came to the door.  They didn’t get here in time.

Joseph was very angry when I told him that there were no more rooms available.  “Can’t you see that Mary is in pain?” he asked.  “It is time for her to be delivered.  Are you sure there are no rooms available?”

The only other room available was the room my wife and I slept in, and if I gave that up, where would we sleep?  I thought for a moment.  “I do have a place,” I told Joseph, “if you don’t mind staying in the stable with the animals.”  Joseph nodded. 

I took Mary and Joseph to the stable and made them a bed in the hay.  I made sure that there was plenty of hay for them to stay warm.  Then I went back to the inn.

I had trouble sleeping that night, so I put on my robe and went outside.  Some shepherds ran up to greet me.  They told me that the baby Messiah was lying in the manger of my stable, and that angels had told them about the baby. The Messiah? Here in my stable? I had to go and see. And there was Mary and Joseph, with the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger.

I went back to bed and told my wife. She was very angry with me. “A woman was having a baby and you put her in the stable? Tomorrow we will find a place for them to stay. A stable is no place for a baby,” she said.

Especially when that baby was the Messiah, the Redeemer that the Jews had been praying to see for many centuries. And I was one of the first to see the Messiah, lying in that manger bed. I will never forget that night as long as I live.

Stay tuned - the next post will feature the shepherd in his own words. Thanks for reading! See you next time! 

Diane