It is appropriate that one of our series on the great chapters of the Bible should be the first psalm, because this psalm sets before us the doctrine of the two ways and encourages us to walk in the way of the godly. Psalm 1 is also important because it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I notice something else at the end of the story. It is what I would call instructions on how to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ. First, we are told that “when they [the shepherds] had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child” (v. 17). The best way to celebrate Christmas is to make this marvelous story known, which the shepherds did. They spoke to the world about what had happened.
We talk about there being no room in the inn. But the first great question of the story is not: “What is your theology of the person of Christ?” or “What is your theology of God?” or “What is your theology of the atonement?” It is rather: “Do you have room for Jesus?” “Is there room in your heart for the Savior?”
Another related paradox comes in at this point: When Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem, there was no place for them to stay. As a matter of fact, there was no room even in the inn. When Luke says there was no room in the inn we have to understand him to mean there was no room for them anywhere. If there had been a place, they would have gone there. When they could not even get into the inn, they ended up in the stable, and that is almost to say there was no place for them at all.
There are other paradoxes besides the two mentioned yesterday. The one that is most apparent to anyone is that the Lord of glory came in humble circumstances and was presented to us in His first moments upon earth in a manger. Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem where He was to be born. Crowds filled the town, but there was no place for them. They spent their time at an inn and not even within the rooms of the inn, but in an outbuilding where the animals were housed. It was there in the humblest of circumstances that the King of glory was born.
