The Innkeeper

By Harry Watts

The innkeeper was closing for the night when at last he sat down for a bite of food and a bit of wine. His first meal of the day had been long in coming. He was an old man. Too old, he thought, to keep working this hard. He should hire someone to help out until the census was finished and things got back to normal. His brother’s grandson might do. But he was too tired to decide anything tonight. It was late and he was going to rest for a moment before heading off to bed to steal a few hours of much needed sleep before arising to help his wife prepare the morning meal.

A heavy rain was falling and the sound relaxed him. He listened quietly for a while with only his thoughts for company until the throbbing ache in his legs and back returned him to reality. Silently he cursed the pain and worried that it might be getting worse. Perhaps a little more wine might help. He poured another full cup and continued musing.

A steady stream of travelers flowed into Bethlehem in response to the latest Roman decree. Caesar Augustus, seeking more taxes, ordered a census of every adult male in Palestine and the order commanded every man to register in his ancestral home. Bethlehem, an otherwise nondescript village like so many others throughout Judea, was the birthplace of King David and beckoned many pilgrims of David’s linage. The inn had been full for weeks and the chest hidden away under the floorboards was bulging. The innkeeper was grateful for the windfall but the added work was exacting a toll on his aging body.

He despised the Romans, especially the soldiers who frequented the inn to eat, drink, and while away the boring hours. He hated the way he and other Jews were abused for the amusement of the soldiers, especially the women. He loathed the traitorous Jewish tax collectors who bought their license from the Roman governor and besieged him for money. They were worse than the soldiers.

He abhorred the census even though it brought him many denarii. A census of any kind was anathema to the Hebrews and added to the growing unrest among the zealots who were fermenting revolt. The nationalists were especially active in the northern province of Galilee, well known as a seething cauldron of rebellion.

The man was not inclined to believe an insurgency of any kind could dislodge the Roman occupiers. He had traveled to Jerusalem and seen the crosses lining the road that bore witness to the fate of rebels who led men to their death in past revolts. The Roman army was swift and merciless and he had no illusions that another rebellion would fare any better.

Like every Jew in Palestine, he prayed for God to send His promised Messiah who would deliver the Nation from bondage and oppression. Only the Messiah could defeat the might of the Roman legions. The man knew that God was faithful to keep His promise but his time was growing short and he hoped to witness the longed-for liberation before his death. He did not understand why God did not act and send the Messiah to drive out the Romans and restore the Nation to its rightful place in the world as God’s chosen people.

He gazed absently out an open window and watched the rain drench an already saturated street that ran past the Inn. Moving to close the window, he caught a glimpse of something moving outside. He strained to see through the rain and made out the figure of a man leading a donkey. Someone appeared to be riding the animal but he could not see well enough to be certain. He closed the window and hoped the man was heading somewhere else when he heard a frantic knocking at the door.

He slowly opened the door and regarded the traveler who stood there soaked through both of his tunics. Water dripped from his beard. He wiped his face with one hand while holding tightly to the rope tied around the donkey’s neck with the other. The innkeeper peered over the man’s shoulder and saw the rider – a woman who was also very wet. Something about her held his attention for a moment but then he looked back at the man standing in the doorway.

Not waiting for the traveler to speak, the innkeeper quickly addressed the man, “I’m sorry but I have no rooms left and I don’t know any other place in town with a vacancy. The census you know.” He made to close the door but the traveler raised his hand and grasped the man’s shoulder. “Please sir, we come from Nazareth and we’ve been traveling for days. As you can see, my wife is heavy with child and I am afraid the long ride has hastened her time. Is there not any place, any place at all that we can shelter out of the storm? And is there a midwife in town? This is our first child and I am worried …” The innkeeper looked at the woman again, more closely this time and saw that she was indeed very pregnant. He was moved by the couple’s plight but he didn’t know how he could help. “I don’t know of any shelter and the only midwife lives on the other side of town. This rain is too much for me to travel that far to fetch her.” The man grasped his shoulder tighter. “Please, anything will do, just a dry place with a roof to get her out of the weather. I will pay double the rate.”

The innkeeper started to send them away but just then he noticed a bright light in the sky. The light seemed to illuminate the couple, but that could not be. “Stars don’t do that”, he thought. He looked at the woman more closely now and in the light he noticed that she was hardly more than a child herself, and she looked very tired and in pain. He could see the rise of her stomach beneath her robe and remembered his own wife and their first child. Finally, he said, “I have a stable in the back of the Inn where I keep a few animals – a cow and some sheep. You could stay there if you …” The traveler did not let him finish. “That will do, oh yes”. Tears arose in the man’s eyes. “Thank you, Thank you. I will be glad to pay anything you ask.” But the innkeeper said, “follow me, there want be any charge”.

Pulling his tunic over his head against the rain the man motioned for the traveler to follow him around to the back of the inn. After a short walk they arrived at the stable and made their way inside. The smell assaulted him but the traveler did not seem to notice. He was busy lifting the woman off the animal and laying her on what appeared to be clean hay. The innkeeper noticed how gentle the man appeared and how he spoke soft, reassuring words of love to his wife.

She seemed to relax a little but suddenly a birth pain seized her and she cried out. The man, who said his name was Joseph, looked searchingly at the innkeeper. There was fear in his eyes and the innkeeper could not leave them like this. He paused for a moment and then offered to summon his wife. He didn’t know if she could help but he thought she might try. Goodness knows he was no help. Joseph nodded his assent and pleaded for him to go quickly. The innkeeper had never felt so helpless.

He ran back to the inn and to the pallet where his wife was sleeping. He knew how exhausted she was and loathed to wake her from a sound sleep but he had no choice. He grasped her shoulder and called her name, “Ruth, Ruth”. She was instantly awake and rose quickly. “Jonathan, is everything alright”, she asked? He looked at her and she could see the fear in his eyes. “What is it, tell me”, she pleaded. “Come with me”, he said and helped her out of bed. She dressed hurriedly and followed him outside and around to the stable. She stopped outside for a moment and marveled at the unusually bright light that seemed to rest over the stable. “How strange, she thought”, then swiftly moved inside.

The light permeated the stable and illuminated a woman lying nearby on a blanket obviously in pain. She saw immediately that the woman was in the early stages of childbirth and understood her husband’s fear. She moved quickly to kneel beside the woman and noticed the man there for the first time. He was older than the woman and panic was evident on his face. She smiled at him and touched his hand to reassure him as best she could. “Thank you” he said. “She is in labor I fear. My name is Joseph and this is Mary my wife. This is our first child…” A cry of pain interrupted him and he stroked her forehead trying to comfort her.

Ruth was not a midwife but she knew instinctively what needed to be done. She directed the two men to go and gather some clean cloths and boil water. When the men left the stable, she took a closer look at the soon to be mother. “Mary, Mary” she gently spoke her name and the young woman opened her eyes and seeing that Ruth was close by grabbed her hand. Ruth carefully parted the tunic covering the woman’s stomach and made to examine her as best she could. The light shone brightly revealing the birth was much further along than Ruth had imagined. It would be very soon now she knew.

The two men hurried back to the stable with a bundle of clean rags and a bucket of hot water. Ruth motioned for them to place everything close at hand and told them to wait outside. The rain had stopped and the men sat down outside the door preparing for a lengthy vigil. Jonathan watched his companion closely and decided to try and distract him with a bit of conversation.

“You come from Nazareth” he asked? The man was deep in thought and looked startled at the sound of the innkeeper’s voice but quickly answered, “Yes. We traveled here for me to register. I wanted her to stay behind but she insisted on coming. She is strong willed” he said and smiled, “and I could not deny her.” The old man understood. His wife was also single-minded and no was a word she seldom accepted. “What do you work at? Nazareth is small and I imagine you must be a farmer or a sheep herder.” “No”, the younger man responded. “I am a woodworker and stone cutter”. Jonathan realized that Joseph was a Tekton, a common laborer and of a lower class even than he. “I imagine work must be scarce in Nazareth for a craftsman as yourself”, he replied. “Yes it is, but Herod is rebuilding Sephoris and I can find considerable work there. It is only a short walk from Nazareth, but I do not like to leave Mary alone. We have no family but our neighbors are very kind to look after her in my absence. The child she is carrying…”, he began but stopped at the sound of a baby crying inside the stable. Both men sprang to their feet and rushed inside

There in the hay of a stable, in the backwater village of Bethlehem, on a rainy, stormy night, Joseph looked upon his wife Mary and the child she bore for the first time. He stopped in his tracks and dropped to his knees. At that moment his heart was so overflowing with love for her and for the child that he could not stand. Tears streamed down his face and flooded his eyes.

So many thoughts raced through his mind. It had happened just as the angel said in his dream. He knew the child was a boy as the angel told Mary it would be. He raised his head and reaching his arms towards heaven, he praised God for this miracle. He did not know why he had been chosen to be the earthly Father of this child. He knew he was not worthy. He was not a priest, not a Rabbi, not a scholar, not a particularly devout man. “Why me oh God, why me”?

He expressed his doubts to Mary many times and she always listened patiently. Then she would softly touch his face and smile into his eyes. “Do not doubt, my love,” she spoke softly, reassuringly. “God knows you heart and He sees what I see. You are a kindly, righteous man. You accepted me and did not turn me away when I told you I was with child. When the angle spoke to you, you believed and obeyed as did I. We have been blessed with a special child whose destiny is in God’s hands but he has much to learn beforehand and God picked you to love and guide him along his path. We must continue to obey God and seek His guidance in our mission as our child’s parents. If we do that, God will provide the wisdom we may lack and the reassurance we may need”.

Joseph opened his eyes and through the fog of tears, he saw a figure he did not know standing over the mother and baby. The figure was of a man dressed in a white robe. The man raised his eyes from the baby and fixed his gaze on Joseph. Joseph met his eyes and the man spoke, “this night is like no other night that has ever been or ever will be again. On this night God has kept his promise since the foundation of the world. His Messiah has at last been born and the world has been changed forever and forevermore. You have done well Joseph. God is very pleased that you have justified His faith in you by your faithfulness to Him. I am Gabriel and I bring this message to you in great joy and thanksgiving. All of heaven is rejoicing”. Then the figure was gone and Joseph rose and went to his wife and child.

The innkeeper was overwhelmed with what he had seen and heard, as was his wife. He was not sure about everything that happened and did not understand all of what the figure in white said to Joseph, but he knew he and his wife were blessed to have witnessed a miracle. “Was this child really the longed-for Messiah? How could that be? He had prayed every day for the Messiah to come and was he here, now, in this place?” He was at once ashamed. The anointed one of God had come to his humble Inn and he had placed him in a stable. “God forgive me” he exclaimed and upon hearing, his wife came to his side and put her arms around him. “What have I done”, he besieged her.

She did not answer and then he suddenly realized that she, of all women, had abetted the birth of the Son of God. He moved to speak to her but she was crying and did not hear. He stopped and putting his arms around her held her closer than ever before. After a time, they arose and made their way over to look upon the child.

The young mother took he eyes off the child for a moment to look at the woman who was by her side throughout the birth. She grasped her hand and drawing it to her lips she kissed it. “Thank you, thank you,” she whispered. “May God bless you for your unselfish act of love. I will never forget you and neither will my son”.

The woman began to cry again and asked, “What is his name”? Joseph answered, “his name is Jesus”. “Jesus”, the woman repeated, “Jesus”. At that the innkeeper moved to retrieve a manager from a nearby stall that was traditionally used to hold newborn lambs. He filled it with clean straw and brought it to Mary’s side. “I am sorry, but that is all we have”, the man said apologetically. Joseph smiled and said, “thank you for providing what you have”. The baby finished nursing and Mary placed him in the manger and swaddled him in clean rags.

Just then they heard what sounded like men outside the stable in the courtyard. The innkeeper went to the door and could not believe his eyes when he was confronted by a group of men who appeared to be shepherds. “Where is he” someone said. “We came to see. The light is so bright, and the angel said we would find him here”.

The innkeeper invited them inside and upon seeing the child in the arms of his mother the shepherds fell to their knees. “We are simple men, merely shepherds and we are not worthy of what we have been blessed to see. Our hearts are full and our legs are weak. We can not stand but we can praise God for choosing us among all men to behold this child”. Joseph spoke, “his name is Jesus and though I am a carpenter, I think that he will also be like you, a shepherd. But his sheep will not be as yours. He will be the sheepherder of a flock that is lost and in need of a good shepherd whose voice they have longed to hear”. At that moment the baby opened his eyes and being hungry he uttered a cry and reached for his mother.

Mary looked adoringly at Jesus resting easily now in her arms and closing her eyes she thanked God for this child. She felt as if her heart would burst with joy and love, but just then she perceived a dark force entering the stable and the light was briefly extinguished. “Joseph”’ she exclaimed “what…” Suddenly the light returned and she did not finish. Joseph nor anyone else seemed to have seen the light disappear. She put the incident aside and returned to tending her child. But in the years to come she would return many times in her mind’s eye to the flickering light and wonder if she had really seen it.

Finally, one day on a lonely hill called Golgotha, she would see the light disappear once again and this time there was no doubt. But as in the stable, she knew the light would return never to be lost again.

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