#156 - Characters of Christmas Pt 1: Town of Bethlehem

We’ve all seen the Christmas Pageants where Mary and Joseph show up in Bethlehem within minutes of Mary about to birth. In their moment of greatest need, they’re rejected by family and then by the mean, old innkeeper who informs them “there’s no room in the inn!” Relegated to a stable on the far side of town, and all alone, Mary and Joseph give birth to the savior of the world. Sound familiar? But what if that’s not how it went down at all? What if our understanding of the Christmas story is inaccurate and we need to understand it anew in its original context? That’s precisely what we’re doing with the Christmas story in this new series. We’re beginning with the Bethlehem events recorded in Luke 2. As we’ll see, Bethlehem wasn’t a place of rejection, but of reception for Jesus, and how he was welcomed with wonder!