Luke 2:1-20: You can relax, Christmas ISN'T over

Its two days after Christmas.  Women, and a few men, are exhaling, vowing to go nowhere near a kitchen for several days.  As enjoyable as Christmas is- the time with family, the meals, the exchanging of presents- we can’t help but feel a sense of relief when it is over.  And yet, is Christmas really over?  There might be a single day where we emphasize Jesus’ birth; His coming into our world, but that doesn’t mean that it should not be something we celebrate all year long.  That’s where the shepherds become important.  Luke actually spends as much time talking about the shepherds in the field, as he does Jesus in the manger.  Why?  Because how we respond to the good news of the incarnation goes a long way in determining whether Christmas is just another day for us, or whether it is something that shapes the way we live all year long. 

The first thing that the shepherds did is hear.  They heard that their salvation, our salvation, comes not from human might, but from God who has come to live among us.  Even in Jesus’ time, there was a temptation to see human might as the ultimate source of salvation.  Paullus Fabius Maximus, the proconsul (governor) of Asia, would say this about Caesar:

“(It is hard to tell) whether the birthday of the most divine Caesar is a matter of greater pleasure or benefit.  We could justly hold it to be equivalent to the beginning of all things...; and he has given a different aspect to the whole world, which blindly would have embraced its own destruction if Caesar had not been born for the common benefit of all.”

We hear the same thing now.  We are called to believe that the person in power, or the person trying to replace that person, will deliver us from all of our troubles.  Luke speaks to us a different gospel.  It isn’t one of human origins, but one whose good news begins with the divine.  You see, while Caesar might have ruled over the “known world”, Jesus is worshipped in every corner of the globe.  Caesar was worshipped as a god for decades, but Jesus has been praised as the Son of God for millennia. 

We hear that there will be salvation, and we also here that there will be peace.  Most importantly, we hear that the peace achieved by the Messiah will be for all.  One of the most famous prophecies dealing with the coming of this Messiah speaks of the ending of conflict, and the ushering in of an era of peace.    

“For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” - Isaiah 9:5-7

We should read “among those with whom he is pleased” as an inclusive term.  In some versions it is translated so as to almost imply that the gift of the Messiah is only for those with whom God is pleased.  But the idea in the original text is that God’s gift of a Messiah is evidence of His favor towards humankind.  In other words God favors the entire earth, with the birth of Jesus the Messiah. 

The second thing that the shepherds did is witness in two distinct ways.  First of all, they witnessed firsthand that God had indeed kept His promise.  The prophet Micah had spoken of the future birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem:

 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.  Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.  And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.  And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.  And he shall be their peace.” - Micah 5:2-5

Now the shepherds knew that the word they heard from the angels was true.  It was not enough for them to hear about what God had done, they had to experience it for themselves before it could affect their faith.  Because they personally witnessed God’s goodness, revealed to them in the form of a manger, they were able to become witnesses themselves.  The shepherds, along with Anna, are the first evangelists.  The shepherds become to others, what the angels were to them, proclaimers of good news. 

Our journey is to go from being shepherds, to being angels.  Our word angel is derived from the word for “messenger”.  Once the shepherds experienced the newborn Son of God in a manger, they stopped being shepherds who had received the good news about Jesus Christ, and became angels who proclaimed the good news. 

Christmas may have passed, but the result of Christmas is as real every day of the year as it is on December 25^th.  Christ has come and lived among us.  May the good news that you hear lead you to the manger, not just in December, but throughout the year.  May what you experience there, lead you to become a messenger, an angel, boldly proclaiming the fact that our Messiah has been born.  May the sounding forth of that message bring the peace to our world that was inaugurated with the birth of Jesus Christ.