The Christmas Story: Born for a Purpose...Continued from page 1

B. In Both Of These Places We See Outside The Camp. The Greek word for “inn” in Luke 2:7 implies some type of simple building of varying size known as a khan or a kataluma, and these would offer the traveler the protection of walls and a roof, and water, but little more. According to Cunningham Geikie, often the inn would consist of a rectangular outer perimeter of rooms surrounding an open square. If this was the case in Bethlehem, then they were forced to go outside of the rectangular, enclosed area of the inn to accommodate the birth of Jesus. Just as there was no place to receive Him in birth, there was no pardon to release him from death. For “they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him” (Luke 23:21). And the Bible tells us that Jesus “that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). Just as they had gone outside of the rectangular, enclosed inn for his birth – they had gone outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem for his death.

C. In Both Of These Places We See The Overshadowed Circumstances. Then as darkness crept across the Judean hills and valleys around Bethlehem, Mary began to experience the pain and sorrow of childbirth as “she brought forth her firstborn son” (vs. 7). Jesus would later speak of the pains of childbirth when He said, “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:21). He essentially said that in the process of birth, joy follows sorrow. And His particular birth brought joy, not just to a woman, but joy to a world. Similarly, at the time of Jesus’ death in Jerusalem, the Bible says that “there was darkness over the whole land” (Mark 15:33). And “Jesus ... for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). He knew that in the process of His death upon the cross, joy would follow sorrow.

II. Let’s Consider The Personalities Involved In His Birth And In His Death

To read of the Nativity of Christ and the Passion of Christ is to become acquainted with a number of individuals. The categorical diversity of the sexes is not a limitation, for in both of these wonderful events, we find the involvement of both men and women. Cosmological diversity of spheres is not an issue, for we find the inclusion of both human beings and heavenly beings.