No Room in the Inn – Rethinking Jesus’ Birthplace
Chapter 5: Saints, Sinners and Scandals: The Real Story of Jesus' Birth
Welcome to Chapter 5 of Saints, Sinners, and Scandals
The Introduction and Chapters 1-3 are a free preview. Chapters 4-14 are available as they are published to PLM+ members. CLICK HERE for more information.
Scripture: Luke 2:7
“She laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
When the King Was Born in Rejection
There is perhaps no more iconic image in all of Christianity than the nativity scene. A cozy stable. Straw scattered like confetti. A peaceful baby in a wooden manger. Gentle animals gazing with serene reverence. It’s beautiful… and almost entirely inaccurate.
The truth, when unplugged from centuries of Christmas card sentimentality, is far more gritty, more human—and more divine. Jesus wasn’t born in a quaint stable because there were too many tourists in town. He was born in rejection, not inconvenience. The text doesn’t describe an overcrowded inn; it points to a deeper and more painful reality: there was no room for them in the family home.
Jesus didn’t just come into poverty—He came into exclusion. And that changes everything.
