[Geoff Wright]

Meditation – The innkeeper’s wife

Hello!  My name is Esther. Job, my husband, owns the Inn in Bethlehem. We’ve been run off our feet in recent weeks, haven’t had time to catch breath.  Still, we mustn’t complain. It’s good to have a little money put by.

All the extra guests have been due to the census taking place. Who would have thought that David had so many descendants! We were full to bursting when a young couple from Nazareth arrived seeking a room. Poor lass, she was just about full term with the baby. When Job told them that we were full, she started to cry and looked as though she would pass out any minute. I had a quick word with him and we decided that they could sleep in the stable. Not ideal, but better than nothing. Besides the poor young woman didn’t look as if she could walk any further.

They took up our offer and I tried to make the place comfortable for them. We built an alcove out of bales of straw. Joseph, the young man, helped, and the promise of a free jug of wine soon got a few regulars to lend a hand. Mary was almost asleep on her feet. I went to get them some hot stew but when I got back Mary had already fallen asleep. Joseph was happy to tuck in and eat her portion, though!

Later that night, or rather in the early hours, we heard someone banging on the back door. Job went to answer it and then I heard him shout, “Esther! Esther! Come quickly, you’re needed in the stable. I hurried to the door and there was Joseph, white as a sheet. “It’s Mary! I think the baby’s coming! What do I do?” “Help Job to get some water boiling.  Oh, and keep out of the way.” I replied.

Anyway, you don’t want to know the gory details – suffice to say, that she and the baby had a rough time but they both made it though.  Rather, let me tell you what happened the following morning.

It must’ve been just before sunrise.  It was still dark outside but there was a peculiar light – I’d call it starlight but stars never shine that brightly!  There was a dreadful banging at the main door so I ran quickly to see who was making the noise.  I didn’t want it to wake Job!  He can be right nasty if his beauty sleep is disturbed!  Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather!  There were sheep all over the yard and several smelly, dirty shepherds wanting to know if we had given shelter to a mother and baby recently!

Trying to hold my breath, I pointed across the yard to the stable and watched them enter and fall on their knees!  It seemed like they were worshipping him!  I left them to it and when I ventured over to the stable again after serving breakfast at the Inn, they had gone.

A few days later, there came another ruckus at the door – and what do you think I found when I opened it this time?  Camels!  As far as you could see on the road from Jerusalem!  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  The rider at the front dismounted and approached me, asking where the baby was that had just been born.  He spoke with a foreign tongue, so it was difficult to understand, but after several tries, I got the picture, and grabbing a shawl, I led him across the yard to the stable. Two of his companions – men, richly clothed and with strange head coverings, dismounted and followed us and each of them was carrying something – tho’ I couldn’t see what the packages were.

As soon as I got the stable door open, they immediately fell to their knees on the straw!  It was as if they were honouring the baby, too!  I know that sound daft – but that’s what it looked like!  They stayed like that with their heads lowered for many minutes.  I just stood by the door and gawped like a fool!  By now, Mary had picked the child up and was cuddling him – but neither she nor her husband Joseph, seemed to be afraid.  It was so strange – almost like they expected them to arrive!

Each of the visitors in turn, handed over their packages and I later discovered that one of them handed a small chest full of gold coins to Joseph.  I couldn’t quite see what the second man offered Mary but it looked like yellow nuggets in a in a small, wooden casket.  I’ve seen something like it before but I can’t think where…….  The third handed over a large glass jar with a thick brown liquid inside.  Mary removed the stopper and lifted it to her nose and it was so strong that even I could faintly smell it, where I was standing, too!  It also seemed to have a familiar smell but I couldn’t identify it.

I watched the baby whose eyes shone as these visitors offered their gifts – and he was so calm!  I slowly closed the stable door lest he should catch a cold, and crept away, trying to make sense of what I had seen, so that I could tell Job later.

 

I returned to the Inn and watched the stable door from my window, and shortly after, the foreigners left the stable, crossed the yard and mounted their camels again, but the strange thing is – they didn’t go back the way they came.  I stood there for a while and watched them leave Bethlehem on another less-used road!  How odd!

Funny thing is – none of my neighbours saw them or were disturbed by them or their beasts, and when I looked up into the sky the bright starlight that had been there when they arrived, had disappeared now, and all was still….

When it was daylight, Mary, Joseph and the baby – oh yes, I forgot to tell you – they called him Jesus.  Strange name….. – packed up their few belongings and left the inn after paying the bill with some of the gold coins from the chest they had been given – and they left on foot.  I was sorry to see them go and thought of them often over the years and wondered what happened to them.

I never saw or heard from Mary and Joseph again but the baby’s name was such a strange one that several years later – maybe thirty years or more, I remember someone stopping here for a few nights and telling me about a man who had just been cruelly put to death by the soldiers in Jerusalem on the orders of the governor of Judea, and the shock that was the result when the sky turned black and the surrounding rocks split in half!

The traveller told me that before this Jesus died, the soldiers had put a crown of thorns on his head with a sign telling all that he was the king of the Jews!  He then told me that the dead man’s name was Jesus…….and it made me wonder……was he the baby that those shepherds and the strange foreigners came to worship those many years ago?

Was he?   I remembered Mary with her gentle, loving face and ever open arms.  I remembered the baby – this Jesus, with shining eyes!

I had heard many stories about someone calling himself ‘the son of God’ over the years – you do when you spend a lifetime working in an Inn because you hear to the tales of those passing through Bethlehem, – but I never imagined for one moment that the baby and this ‘Son of God’, this ‘King of the Jews’, were one and the same!  And the darkness that the traveller told us all about, when the man had died!  I later heard that the veil of the temple was suddenly torn from top to bottom at exactly the same moment that he died!   Could it be true?  Was he the Son of God?

For some unaccountable reason the tears fell.  It was as if Mary and I were connected in that moment.  If she was still alive, I was sure that she was crying too!

 

Because the Innkeeper’s wife is completely fictitious, it might be difficult to discuss this character in breakout rooms – but if you indicate by putting your hand up, whether you might want to, then Dan the Man can make it happen.  If not, we can end with a prayer, now.

 

 

Let us pray:

May we all be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child. Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit bless us all now and forever.        Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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