Advent means the arrival and coming of something. In the four weeks leading to Christmas, Christians usually pause and remember what it was like for God’s people to wait and wait for the Saviour’s first coming. Advent also prepares our heart to wait for His second return.
This is a text full of activity. Perhaps it’s also not very different from our own busy Christmas season. There are many competing activities and messages around us.
What is filling your heart and mind this Christmas? What would you say the message of Christmas has been for you?
This text shows us the message of Christmas and also helps us to appreciate the messengers of Christmas. The Lord’s messengers are both surprising and also who we expect them to be.
(A) The Lord’s Messengers (Luke 2:8-11)
Luke records for us details about people, place and actions. In Luke 2:8, we see that there are shepherds in the field, in the same region as where Mary was. This is a manual, laborious job, and they are out in the field, working at night when most of the world is asleep. Their work often made them ceremonially unclean, and they were not to be counted as among the elites of the land.
In the previous study, we saw that Mary and Joseph were also poor and Jesus was laid in a manger at his birth (Lk 2:7). This child comes into earth amongst the least of us. Though He hailed from the line of David, Bethlehem was a small town.
See God’s surprising and also consistent way of working. One might expect the announcement to go first to Caesar, or Herod, or at least the faithful religious elite. But God is also very consistent in His ways and He enters the world in poverty, laid in a manger. His first eyewitnesses are also of similar ilk.
We read that the shepherds respond with great fear (Lk 2:9). Out in the fields, it was probably dark and quiet. The smallest movement and sound can spark a large reaction, much less the angel of the Lord appearing to them in great glory (Lk 2:9). This resulted in “great fear”.
Isaiah 6:3-5 gives us a picture of what happens when God and His glory shows up — foundations shake, smoke fills the place, and man sees his sin and acknowledges it in fear before a holy God.
Don’t miss out how Luke is precise in his recounting. The glory of the Lord fills us the dark, night sky. Do not forget that at Christmas, glory came down. And with that, a reckoning of who we really are. All who have behold God’s glory will also see their own sin. God is God and there is none like Him. Nothing in this world is like His glory.
Have you considered what it means that God is God and you are not?
The angel also comes with a message: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). This is also a message for all the people and it was first communicated to the shepherds. The “you” in Luke 2:11 refers specifically to them! Thus, the angel was also addressing the shepherds with this news!
To great fear, the angels bring good news of great joy! God does not just remove the fear, but gives them something to replace and fill it up instead. Great fear is not just dealt with, but great joy is also proclaimed! All that they have been waiting for is here and all of it is good news — not just good advice, counsel or wisdom. God has done something and this has changed everything.
(B) The Message in Sign and Song (Lk 2:12-16)
The shepherds were given a specific sign, because Jesus’ birth was unique. The shepherds were told that they will “find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12).
And suddenly, a multitude of angels appear to accompany the first, lone angel. They begin praising God and said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
These angels, also called “heavenly hosts”, is meant to give us a picture of an angelic army. And they come singing of peace! Christ the King has come, and He has come to save. This was in the time of Caesar Augustus and he ruled for about 40 years. He also ordered a census, and it was not just an administrative exercise. Census can also be a power flex. In 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, we read of how David was rebuked for holding one.
In those days, there was peace that was achieved by ruling with a heavy hand and it certainly was not a peace that lasted. The Priene Inscription, written in 9 BCE said this of Caesar: “The most divine Caesar…who was sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and whereas, having become God manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times…the birthday of the God Augustus has been for the whole world the beginning of good news concerning him.”
He bought peace with violence and yet it is not lasting. Look at where the Roman Empire is now.
And yet, 100 years ago, we had high hopes that world peace could be achieved by innovation and technology and education. That peace was broken by the First World War, then the Second. We reacted by having the right government systems, and placed our hopes in technological advancement and also cooperation between countries.
In our day, we also see that that is just a lie that we have been sold, Yes, there is some measure of peace in our day with peaceful transition of power, or new technological products. But it is a plastic peace — prone to bending and easily destroyed. We spend so much time thinking about this peace and spend so much time pouring our live, energy and efforts into these plastic peace. We have bought into the lie and we too, need to hear this message! We need to hear asgain, that Christ beings us peace, a peace that is unlike anything else. His peace begins with an act of God. Our peace begins with us making promises to others that we can and will fix everything.
After all, it is against God that our hearts are the most restless and the most at war. And here, at the birth of Christ, the armies of God come and sing of peace. Peace is possible because of the baby in the manger.
Do you know this peace? Have you dwelt on it? How do you enter this joy and effusive praise? How much have you beheld this baby in the manger? As much as you strive for other things, have you found your rest in Christ and this perfect peace that this world and its shifting tides can never take away?
You and I would do well to think hard, receive and rest in this peace.
(C) The Treasured Message (Lk 2:17-21)
After this, we are told that the shepherds went to investigate the sign given to them, and went with haste (Lk 2:15-17). Notice that investigation is not a bad thing! Investigation and seeking to understand what God has made known can coexist with faith. We are to also investigate and study what God has already revealed to us. God is delighted to help us see these things.
The shepherds also went out with joy, as the Lord has made it known to them!
And after seeing and verifying the message, they “made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child” (Lk 2:17). They were bearing witness to what they have heard and received. What began with heavenly angelic beings continue on with these lowly shepherds. Shepherds were not allowed to bear witness in the legal courts then. Yet it did not stop God’s plan. There is a continuity to God’s miraculous and marvellous ways. Jesus’ life began with shepherds as witnesses, and at the beginning of his resurrected life, we are told that women were witness (Lk 24:1-11). The women were responsible for telling the 11 apostles and other disciples. This is a God who delights to use the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
Scripture has also shown us the wickedness of our hearts. But it does not stop there. His Word also tells us that He saves, and He desires for us to be the messengers of this good news.
Are you afraid to share this message? Do not forget that we have this treasure of peace with God in jars of clay like ourselves, so that the surpassing power of God might be shown to the world. This Christmas season, remember the shepherds and point outward to God. We do not need to have all the answers but we just need to say that we were once lost in our sin but our Saviour came for us. Ask the Holy Spirit to press in these truths, that we may overflow with great joy and praise to our great Saviour. The shepherds, like the angels, end up praising God!
Luke also records for us two parties’ response to the shepherds’ message. Those who heard the shepherds’ account wondered at what was told to them (Lk 2:18). The wonder of the many often comes up in Luke’s gospel — Zechariah, John’s naming, Jesus’ signs etc. Nowhere does it suggest that wondering translates into a saving faith. And we sort of know how this excitement and wonder can quickly fade, as we merely flit from one wonder to the next.
Mary, on the other hand, treasured up these things, pondering them in her heart (Lk 2:19). Hers is the activity of seeing the preciousness of what has been given to her. She meditates and sets her mind on it. She is the “blessed man” of Psalm 1 who mediates on His word day and night.
What have you made your treasure? What do you occupy your mind and heart with? What did it mean for Mary to treasure and ponder these things? Think about the Mary who raises and nurses the baby Jesus.
Think about the Mary who goes through the bereavement of Joseph, likely when Jesus was twelve to thirty. She had been told that she is highly favoured by God and her son is to be the Saviour of the world and now He has to provide for the family.
Think about Jesus when he went about His ministry. Yes, He did miracles but she would be aware of the threats to His life.
And surely, on that dark night in Gethsamane, when soldiers swarmed Jesus to arrest Him, she would also have been confused that the Saviour of the world to bring is being arrested. And what would she make of Jesus’ words to Peter to lay down his arms, for He had to be arrested for peace to enter this world.
She treasured and pondered these things all the way to the cross, where she saw Him hung on that cross, to win our peace.
Chaos of 2000 years ago is also chaos today. We will also know bereavement and suffering. We will also know some form of persecution, for Christ Himself promises it. Yet He also promises us His peace, peace that is unlike the world and it will not be taken from us.
Will you treasure and ponder these things in your heart today?