A Divine Encounter...

During the next four weeks at the church where I serve we are discovering the answer to the question “what are we counting down to when it comes to Christmas?” by looking at an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the gospel of Luke, which records what happened that first Christmas. Yesterday, we started by talking about why followers of Jesus make such a big deal about Christmas. To understand why followers of Jesus believe that Christmas is such a big deal, we first need to understand a little bit of history.

We discovered that the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. The Jewish people were looking forward and counting the days until God would fulfill His promise to humanity. The Jewish people were engaged in a countdown to an unknown date in the future.

Then around 1000 years after God promised King David that there would be a Messiah, a little over 2,000 years ago, a young Jewish man, named Joseph and his fiancé named Mary, who was pregnant, traveled to Bethlehem in order to participate in a census that required every Jewish family to travel to their ancestral home town to register for the census so that they would be counted for tax purposes. Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Mary went into labor and delivered her first child, a son.

But this child was not just any son; this child was the Son of God. This child was the fulfillment of God’s promise. And in an account of Jesus life called the gospel of Luke, we see Luke records for us how God announced the fulfillment of His promise of the Messiah, beginning in Luke 2:8:

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

You think? Of course they were frightened. Wouldn’t you be frightened? It’s not every day that the angel of the Lord, who was God’s personal servant, named Gabriel, just shows up. And if that was not frightening enough, Luke tells us that the glory of the Lord shown around them. When Luke refers to the glory of the Lord, he is referring to the awesome presence, splendor and radiance of God displayed for others to see. This is God in His greatness revealed.

Throughout the Bible, when we read about the glory of the Lord, we usually discover two things. First, we discover that humans usually cannot handle being in the presence of the glory of the Lord. Usually, people respond to being in the presence of the glory of the Lord by falling on their face or fleeing. Second, when we read about the glory of the Lord, we usually read about God’s glory being revealed either in the tabernacle or the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only church in Mary and Joseph’s day. The glory of the Lord did not just show up in a field in the middle of nowhere.

And the glory of the Lord did not show up around shepherds. The glory of the Lord may have been revealed to kings or priests, or to really religious people; but not to shepherds. You see, during the time of Jesus’ birth, to be a shepherd was almost as socially toxic as being a leper. Shepherds were outcasts. For example, even though shepherds raised animals for use in the temple sacrifices, they themselves were considered “unclean” and, as such, were not permitted to set foot into the temple. Not only were shepherds engaged in a smelly, dirty, and nomadic profession, they were considered to be unreliable witnesses in matters of law. In fact, if you were a shepherd who witnessed a crime, you were unworthy to give testimony in a court of Jewish law.

The shepherds were considered outsiders who spent their time disconnected and distant from Jewish culture. Shepherds were peasants who were located on the bottom of the scale of power and privilege. So of course the shepherds were frightened; this was most unexpected and frightening; “what’s going to happen to us now” was what they probably were thinking. Luke tells us what happens next:

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid;

To which the shepherds probably thought “easy for you to say”…

for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

The angel says “I have good news for you, which is for you to tell all the people. The good news is that the countdown to the fulfillment of God’s promise is over. Down the road from you has been born the savior; you know the promised one that you have heard about since you were a child that is coming to rescue and deliver you and your people from your selfishness and rebellion. This baby that has been born is the Christ, the Messiah, the promised one of God. And this rescuer, this deliverer, this Savior, Christ, that has been born, oh by the way, He is the Lord. He is God in a bod. Now go and check it out for yourself. This is how you will know that you have found your God, your rescuer, your deliverer, your Messiah. You will find your God, your rescuer, your deliverer in the cave on the edge of town, where He is wrapped up in clothes in a feeding trough”.

You see, Bethlehem was a small rural community that was busting at the seams as a result of all the out of town visitors that were required to come to register for the census. Bethlehem was not a destination that up and coming people moved to in order to start their careers; Bethlehem was a departure point that people left as soon as they grew up.  So there was no place for people to reside, unless there were close family that still lived in town. Bethlehem was so crowded that the only place that they could find for Mary to give birth and stay in was with domesticated animals. Most likely this was in a cave on the outskirts of town where animals where kept for their safety. Instead of a crib, all Mary could lay her newborn in was a manger, which was a feeding trough for animals.

Now you are a shepherd. You have just had an encounter with a heavenly being. What would you be thinking? What questions would be running through your mind? Here’s what I think was running through their mind. “Why would God send an angel to tell us? Why us? Why not tell the priests in Jerusalem? Why not tell the religious people like the Pharisees or Sadducees? Why not tell those in positions of power or influence? Why not tell the rest of Joseph and Mary’s family who are in Nazareth? While the shepherds were frightened and were pondering all that they had heard, there were others who had a much different response:

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

Can you imagine what that must have looked like? Can you imagine what it must sound like to hear a multitude of angels worship God in one accord without anyone being off key? But this was not just a multitude of angels; the Heavenly Host is an army of angels. And the chorus line of the worship song that this army of angels was singing was glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. In other words the angels were singing “may God’s reputation be enhanced to the max and may those whom God favors experience a state of well being with Him”.

This army of angels was worshipping the Lord in response to God’s activity of sending His Son as the One who would provide the opportunity for humanity to be rescued from their selfishness and rebellion so that they could experience the relationship with God that they were created for.

Now imagine yourself as a shepherd who have just received this Divine Announcement and have just witnessed this scene of worship. How would you respond? What would you do if the angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord showed up and made that kind of announcement to you?

Tomorrow, we will see what the shepherds did…