| Innkeeper |
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| Written by Roger Born | |
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(( Script of monologue - The Innkeeper of Bethlehem ))
(Walks hesitantly up to microphone and podium) (Blows on microphone) Is this on? Hello. Thanks for inviting me to speak today at your Jewish Innkeepers Convention. It is a great pleasure and honor to be here. . . . Funny. None of you look Jewish to me. Am I in the right place? Actually, if all of you are really Jewish Innkeepers, you already know what I am going to say. It is a most depressing business! Jews always stay with their relatives when they travel anywhere, right? And anywhere they go, they always have relatives to stay with! After all, it's so much cheaper that way, isn't it? . . . Funny. That food we just had. . . . It WAS Kosher, wasn't it? My wife, Ramada. . . she always works so hard, cleaning the rooms, cooking the food, cleaning out the stable. I of course, have the important work to do - greeting the guests and taking their money, keeping the books and trying to make a living for us. It is a hard life in some respects, but it has it's moments. Some day I would like to make enough to hire a maid for my dear wife Ramada, so she won't have to work so hard. But we Innkeepers get no respect, you know? Other Jews, our kind neighbors, do not like us too terribly much. Do you know why? Because we always get the foreigners for guests, and not too many Jews. When we cook for them, our food is always Kosher, but the guests, they complain. They always ask for pork. (They think it is funny to do that to us.) You know we cannot cook both Gentile food and Kosher food in the same pans, or use the same plates, right? So you see how difficult it is for an Innkeeper to appease both their guests and the local Rabbis. Ramada and I are the only children of our parents. Both of our parents are now gone on, so we are alone. We have no children of our own, so it seems fitting that we are the ones who take care of the foreigners, the travelers and the homeless among the Jews. Someone has to do it, right? Our Inn of Bethlehem is a good place, where our guests are treated well, and their animals attended to in a proper manner. Our neighbors have little to actually complain about, really. Besides, we are almost always empty, and our VACANCY shingle is always out. Ah! But you don't really want to hear about the Innkeeper of Bethlehem, do you? I didn't think so. (Innkeeper looks behind himself again) Ramada, my wife, asks me to tell you that Bethlehem is a small but wonderful town. We are right on the main road to Jerusalem. Too bad there is not a sign at the turnoff, so that we might get more visitors to our fair town. Oh, do not mind all the sheep you will find there, loitering in every street. Bethlehem supplies all the sheep and lambs to the Temple in Jerusalem, so you see, we have LOTS of sheep. Don't worry. You will get used to the smell after a while. It's the shepherds - their smell is harder to get used to - shepherds never bathe, it seems. I would tell you that Bethlehem is a very special RELIGIOUS town too. For you see, one of the last prophets of Israel spoke of her. Micah said, "Though you are the smallest of towns in all of Israel, Bethlehem Ephrathah, out of you shall come "He Who Will Rule Over Israel" - whose origins and going forth is from everlasting to everlasting!" We have no prophet or king in Israel today, but someday we will have a great one! And when we do, he will come from Bethlehem! Nor would I fail to remind you that there is news, brought by travelers to us, that in Jerusalem, there is an elderly Priest - named Zachariah, whose wife has been always barren. She conceived a son, and the old Priest became mute over it. When his son was born, he spoke! He said of his son, "You my child, shall be called the Prophet of the Most High, for you shall go on before the Lord to prepare the way for his coming." But you don't really want to hear tales about Bethlehem and Jerusalem either, do you? No! You want to hear THE STORY! You want to hear about the CHRIST CHILD! Am I right? I am the one to tell it to you, for it was I, the Innkeeper of Bethlehem, who was there to witness it all. And it was at my Inn that the Christ Child was born! It was a cold and dark night, not very long ago. My wife Ramada and I were going to bed. She was mad at me again. The Ruler of Rome had declared a Census to be taken. Therefore, everyone had to go to his home village to be counted and taxed, so Bethlehem was full of people! It was a very happy time, and a very sad time. It was happy, because my inn was full! There was no more room at all! It was sad, because I had to turn away so many cash customers! It was happy, because I was charging TRIPLE rates! And putting up three families in each room besides! It was sad, because at the end, a great, wealthy man and his wife had come, and offered me more money than I could refuse - so I rented them our bedroom. This is why my wife was mad at me, for we were sleeping in the kitchen that night. It was late. We had cleaned ourselves and bedded down by the hearth, with a little fire still going, since it was so cold. Our kitchen faces the courtyard, right across from the gate, so it is sort of in the open, and rather drafty. After we had gone to bed, we heard a knocking at our gate. I ignored it. I knew if we did not answer, they would go away. My wife, however, was most insistent that I get up and see who it was! What was the point? I would just have to tell them to go away. We were full up, and there was no more room at our inn! But she insisted, so I got up and ran across the courtyard barefoot, having misplaced my slippers. "What do you want, banging on my gate this time of night!" "Please! We have gone everywhere looking for a room! My wife is expecting a child any minute, and we need a place to stay!" I could plainly see the young man and his wife in the night, for some bright star was overhead, and it was as light as a full moon outside. She was sitting on their donkey, and she may have already been in labor. I thought of their relatives, and somehow, I knew not to ask. What to do? What to do? They needed some privacy, at least. But first, they needed to be out of the cold night air. No place to have a child! "I have a clean stable down below the hill behind this inn. You are welcome to use that." Now, you will not tell on me, right? I did not take the young man's money. He tried to push it on me, but I refused. Besides. I had washed my hands for bed, and did not want to touch money. More than that, I did not wish to offend our God. I had no room for them in the inn, but at least I was not sending them out into the cold. How could I do otherwise? I just did not have anything else to offer them! So they went, and I went back to bed. I did not sleep long, however. Sometime, in the early hours of that morning, a long time before sunrise, there was more pounding on my gate! My wife again insisted that I get up and answer it! By the nature of the noise and pounding, I knew they would not go away, whoever they were. Indignant, I did get up again, but this time I looked for my slippers first, and I put on my heavy coat before going to the gate. "What is it? Who are you banging on my gate this time of night!" "Please. It is us. We are looking for your stable. Do you have one?" Shepherds at my gate! Dirty shepherds! "Why are you not out on the hills with your sheep?!" I asked them, indignantly. "Angels sent us here! We were out on the hills, and suddenly we were surrounded by thousands of Angels! They were singing, and rejoicing - and it was they who told us to come here. We are looking for the Christ Child!" I was beyond amazement at this! Taking a lantern from the wall, I went with them down the winding path to my stables. I had to see this thing for myself! It was as the shepherds had said. There in my stable was the young man and woman that I had sent there. In the woman's arms was a newborn babe, wrapped in strips of cloth, as is our custom to do. Not a word was spoken. None needed to be said. The shepherds took off their hats and knelt down in worship before the child. I did the same! Me! The Innkeeper of Bethlehem! Never before have I seen such a sight as this, for the mother and child were beautiful and peaceful beyond description! It was as if God had come down into that humble place - for he indeed had come down, and we all were bowing before HIM! We did not stay long. After all, we were in the presence of Royalty, and you don't linger there! After the shepherds went back to their flocks, I went to my bed and tried to rouse my wife to tell her what I had seen, but she was in a deep sleep. You can know full well that early the next morning, even before sunrise, I was up and bringing the young couple some bread and cheese, along with what milk I could find. I did not allow them to stay in that stable a minute longer than it took my wife and I the time to clean out our very own bedroom again. Our rich guest was unhappy to be put out at sunrise, but he gladly took back the cost of his room. Then the little Lord Jesus, and his mother Mary, and her husband Joseph became our special guests at our Inn. The Inn of Bethlehem! And you know, more than once I got to hold him. The Christ Child! And I sat in wonder and awe that God should come among us as a tiny, helpless baby... . . . Where are they now, you ask? I cannot know where they have gone. Someone said they went into Egypt. But you see, it does not matter. God is everywhere, and he is all powerful. You all understand this about God, right? Now I know something else about him. He loves us - each and every one of us! I knew this when I saw the Christ Child, and held him in my arms. It does not matter anymore where we might think that he is. Because, since he is God, if we ask him, he will personally come to us, and dine with us, and make his home with us. I know this now, because I have looked upon him, and I also understand why he came to me. It is the same reason that he has come to us all - every one of us! God is Love. He wishes to be close to us, and to bring each of us a great and wonderful blessing! All that is required is that we desire him to come and abide with us. I know he will do so, if we have faith that he will, and if we make room for him in our lives, and if we put away those things that might offend him. God loves such obedience in his children, does he not? Think of it! I am his child! Imagine that! Me! The Innkeeper of Bethlehem! Ahh . . . it has been many years ago since that blessed event. My dear wife is no longer with us. I am very old, but I found that child once more, now fully grown into a strong young man in the prime of life. But it is very wonderful and also very sad to have seen him in Jerusalem, for the Jewish leaders and the Romans had tried him in their court and were putting him to death. I had to see this. How could I not? I had heard marvelous stories about his ministry, and travelers had told me of his sayings and teachings. Truly, he was destined to rule over all Israel. But it was not to be. They were crucifying him that morning before the high Sabbath of Passover. Like many others, we stood a little apart from him, mourning both him and us, for his unkind death, for he was a son of David, and a son of Abraham, like us all. But what moved me most was the look of love on his face. The same look I had seen before, more than thirty years earlier, when he was my guest at the inn, with his mother and Joseph. I have never forgotten his teachings. He died that day, and was buried, but after the Sabbath, word came that he was alive again, and walking among his followers in Galilee! I remember what he told us, that we must be born again of the water and the spirit in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven. That we must repent of our sins and confess his Name before men. That we must love and fellowship one another the way that he loved us. For his death on that cross was a sacrificial atonement for the sins of the world! Oh, my friends, do you believe in the Messiah? Do you trust him to be your Lord and Savior? Though I am now old and alone, and have given the deed to my Inn to my faithful servant and his wife, I have peace with God, and the certainty that I will live forever, and see both my wife and our parents once more - because of the Christ! Because of that little child who came to my Inn so long ago. Because he grew in stature and in good will with both men and God. Because he died on a cross and arose again, and is ascended to the Father in power and glory. Because of the man Jesus, who is both God and the King of all men, and the Savior of the world! Shalom. Shalom. |
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