Kataluma means guestroom. So Joseph took his wife to his family’s house for a guest room. But there was no room. Think of this, what if Joseph had siblings who were already there. Most of the houses at that time had one common room, one guest room where the children usually slept and one room for the parents. That was all. Most families could put up to 8 in the guest room if the children slept in with the parents. This was the typical house of the day. Now, of course, Joseph shows up with a wife at full term, you’d think they would make room. Of course they would. But remember the ritual of the day. A woman who bled or would have a baby would be considered ceremonially unclean and everyone associated would be unclean. She would contaminate the whole household and so they would be taken to the cave under the house or to the stable attached to the house to have the baby. Through the contractions, can you see Mary’s tears? God why? On the floor of the barn; this is not the way the Christ Child is to be born? I thought I was special…You said so! Why did you do this to me!
She didn’t know about the host of Angels, about the Wise Men who were already on their way. She didn’t know that in 2000 years there would be people who would utterly amazed at the work of God. This is a journey that she did not want to take!
Don’t you sometimes have to take journeys that you don’t want to take. Maybe the journey you are on right now is not a journey you wanted to take. Do you think that God wants us to take these journeys…God didn’t want Mary and Joseph to take that Journey the Empire did!
What is your difficult journey: months maybe years out of work. Illness that makes no sense; disappointment; hurt or cruelty? Adversity in your life! Friends, God didn’t say to Mary or Joseph, “I’m not concerned!” God is saying let me have this adversity and make it a powerful act! The emperor thought that he was just collecting money but he was a part of fulfilling prophecy. God had already used that prophecy to prepare the Wise Men to come. He was setting up the redemptive plan. We see such a small part…our own pain. But God, He needs us to go through the fire. Mary and Joseph may not have seen God’s nature. This was a journey they did not want to take! But God used it in fulfilling His redemptive plan for humanity. God was walking with them even when they couldn’t feel it. And what of us, we are still telling that story 2000 years later!
This is what God does. God does not protect us from all the bad things that happen in this world! He doesn’t keep us from having to make journeys that we don’t want to make. He had to take that journey Himself right to that Cross. Seems God’s people always had to take journeys that they didn’t want to take! He promises to take those journeys with us and then to take what is good from them for us to learn from in generations to come. It’s not about what happens to us. (This is so very difficult!), it’s about responding in a way that will make a difference 2000 years from now…100 years from now; 5 years; 1 year. Who is benefiting; who is learning from your journey?
Remember Romans 8:28. What about Joseph in the Old Testament. Before his death he reminds us in Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Friends, the accounts in Bible are one journey after another that no one wanted to take. Life is not easy…the world is cruel but God is faithful even when it doesn’t feel like He is! Listen, whether we like it or not, we are going to take those journeys we don’t like, but we must decide will we trust God in the middle of them?
Some of you are taking the journey now. Divorce, bankruptcy, loss of job, death too young, diagnoses that are shattering! Friends, it is our choice. It’s always our choice? Will you have faith; will you trust God’s workings? Will you choose to believe that he will take the painful things and deliver us to a place where His glory is seen and others will benefit! This is how God works. I know in this congregation that there are some of us walking through tough time and holding on with white knuckles. We all are going to go on Journeys that we don’t want to go on…will you trust God’s work in it? Will you allow your faith to lead to hope! Let us pray!
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