December 15, 2025

Luke 2:6-7

The Nativity Play

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Dear Readers,

Christmas without the stable in Bethlehem is not a true Christmas. God's salvation for us all begins simply in a manger. Mary gives birth to her firstborn son, Jesus, in a stable.

The German Christmas stamp from the year 2000 shows everything necessary for a nativity play: the newborn Jesus lies in the manger. Mary and Joseph gaze upon him. The star that led the Wise Men or the Three Kings from the East to them shines above the stable. The shepherds have come, praying and marveling. But one person is missing, a person always present in every nativity play: the innkeeper, who sends Mary and Joseph away to the stable. For there was no room at the inn. This innkeeper is not a biblical figure, but I know of no nativity play without him.

I once read the story of a very special nativity play: Children were acting out the Christmas story. Little Mary and a little Joseph set off for Bethlehem. Then they knocked on the innkeeper's door and asked for lodging. According to the script, the innkeeper should have turned them away, because the inn was full. But the boy playing the innkeeper felt so much compassion for them and cheerfully said that they should come to his house. He couldn't bring himself to send them away! In this version of the play Jesus was supposed to be born in his house, not in a stable!

I don't know how the nativity play continued. Did the audience laugh? Was anyone upset? How would you have reacted if that had been your child or your grandchild? Would you have praised or reprimanded your child after the play? A small child, out of compassion, out of love for Jesus, turned everything upside down. A child which didn't follow the rules of the game.

After his birth, about thirty years later, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, traveled through the Holy Land. He didn't play by the rules of the hypocritical religious elite at his time. He had compassion for the poor; he loved the outcast and the despised. The religious elite despised him for this and kept their doors shut for him. They denied him access to their hard hearts. The Evangelist John describes it this way (John 1:11-12): He came into his world, which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. “

This is what Christmas is about: receiving Jesus and becoming a child of God. The question is: do I open the door to my life for the Lord Jesus Christ, or do I cling to my religious beliefs? Do I stick to my pious rules, or do I allow myself to be overwhelmed by God's love and ask Him: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)? Do I let Jesus Christ change the rules of my life?

I wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas. I wish you that your heart may be open to the Savior of this world. I wish you God's peace, which cannot be grasped by the mind. I wish you protection of body, soul, and spirit.

Thank you for visiting and listening to me. I would be delighted if you would join me again for my next short sermon on January 1, 2026.

And Jesus said:

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Mathew. 18, 3