As the years march on and you get more and more Christmas’ under your belt, do you feel they all start to blend into one mass of the same traditions and events? We could almost predict how Christmas would look with the adverts starting in October, 'Once in Royal David City' sung at every service, and the mad dash for presents on Christmas Eve. And I think that in all the traditions, all the familiarity, all the predictability we can be at danger of missing the incredible story that is the nativity. There is nothing like it. It is gripping, full of surprise and intrigue and completely unexpected.
The unexpected is right there from the beginning. This story of the birth of Jesus starts with the scandal of a virgin becoming pregnant and an engagement almost broken. It continues with the trauma of a young couple being uprooted from their home town for the sake of a government census. It culminates in the birth happening in a place with no home comforts and the baby being laid in a feeding trough because there was no room anywhere else. However, the most incredible details of this story are not the unusual nature of the birth, the angelic announcement of his arrival or the fact shepherds were the first visitors to the baby. No the most amazing details in this story are the reasons why it happened. It is these reasons that stop the nativity becoming familiar, predictable or just another Christmas tradition. In Luke 2v8-20, the angel's announcement to the shepherds, we discover some of these reasons as to why the nativity is an incredible story.
Firstly, this is an incredible story because it is good news. Why? Because the angel proclaimed it would would bring great joy for all people, as there will be peace for those on whom God’s favour rest. This story is good news because it brings with it the hope of peace with God.
At various points in the Bible our relationship with God is described in terms of extreme enmity. We were his enemies. There was a war raging. In essence the angel’s announcement is like the declaration of armistice of the 11th Nov 1918, and that announcement caused great rejoicing across the land. Rightly so, it was good news. After 4 years of intensive fighting, war was over! Peace was something to be shouted about. Therefore if great celebration was the reaction to the end of an earthly war, how much more is an announcement that peace is possible between the creator God and his rebellious creation good news to be proclaimed?
At various points in the Bible our relationship with God is described in terms of extreme enmity. We were his enemies. There was a war raging. In essence the angel’s announcement is like the declaration of armistice of the 11th Nov 1918, and that announcement caused great rejoicing across the land. Rightly so, it was good news. After 4 years of intensive fighting, war was over! Peace was something to be shouted about. Therefore if great celebration was the reaction to the end of an earthly war, how much more is an announcement that peace is possible between the creator God and his rebellious creation good news to be proclaimed?
But how is this peace possible? Did God decide to ‘let us off the hook’? No, absolutely not. Instead, we read in Luke, God had a plan for peace to be made possible. The birth of a saviour. It was through this baby his plan to change the world came into being. We had to wait over 30 years before we saw its fulfilment. Isaiah 53v4-6 show us what Jesus had to do to achieve that peace, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The baby was to grow up into a man who would die on a cross. It was his horrific suffering and death that enabled God to proclaim peace through his angels to the shepherds and in turn to us. This was not a case of God letting us off the hook, instead he can declare us at peace because the penalty for our crime had been paid. It was paid through Jesus’ death on the cross.
So the nativity is an incredible story of good news about the birth of a saviour whose death promised peace. And if we respond in any other way than how the shepherd’s responded, we have missed the amazing nature of this story. In verses 15-20 we read what they did. Verse 17 says, “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child”. This news was so amazing that they couldn’t keep it to themselves. They were the first evangelists!
But not only did the shepherds tell others, they praised God. Verse 20 says, “The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.” Once they had learnt the truth of the angel’s message, they knew they had to give God glory for the incredible news they had experienced. The overflow of a heart which has met Jesus is a mouth full of praise for God.
But not only did the shepherds tell others, they praised God. Verse 20 says, “The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.” Once they had learnt the truth of the angel’s message, they knew they had to give God glory for the incredible news they had experienced. The overflow of a heart which has met Jesus is a mouth full of praise for God.
So this Christmas I want to encourage you not to let the familiarity of the Christmas story dull you to the incredible message it contains. And if you, like the shepherds have seen the truth for yourself, don’t keep it to yourselves. Look for ways to share with friends, family and neighbours. Tell it out, because people need to hear. Let’s make this time of year one full of praise for God and may we proclaim with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest heaven”.
