I've so been looking forward to today's Advent Bible study, because this passage of Scripture is my favourite part of the Christmas story (other than Jesus being born! You know what I mean, right??!!)
Day 12's Bible reading is Luke 2: 8 - 25 ...
In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough.” Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!" When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
I love how Will Graham describes the scene: 'Imagine you are a shepherd in ancient Israel: Your job is mundane, dirty, and maybe even a little frightening. You’re out in the wilderness, away from town, and the only light you see at night comes from the fire around which you are huddled and the moon hanging overhead. With that small field of vision, you’re supposed to not only keep track of your sheep, but also protect them from attack.
Suddenly, a supernatural brightness—“the glory of the Lord”—blinds your eyes, and there’s somebody there, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Perhaps you immediately realize that it’s the angel of the Lord, or maybe you are so consumed with confusion that it takes a minute to sink in that this being is from the heavenly realm. Either way, you’re so awe-struck that the angel’s first words are, “Do not be afraid.”' (Source: billygraham.org)
Did you catch the echo from yesterday's verses? Again our main characters are told: "Don't be afraid". Why is this?
Think how differently all of this would have played out, if the events of Advent had happened to those who expected it to happen to them ... if respectable and Mrs Pharisee had received the news that they were to bring the Baby Jesus into the world, and the priests in the temple had been the first to see Him in His beautifully carved cot?
Everyone would most likely have nodded their heads wisely, and murmured softly about the news, and congratulated Father God for getting everything "just right" ...
But instead, we have everything we've read about in the past 12 days happening to the least likely candidates you can imagine! Act 1 opens with a couple too old to have children, then in Scene 2 we have a couple too young to be pregnant, followed by the scandalous appearance of heavenly messengers to the unwashed outcasts ... what on earth was Father God doing??!!
Oh, He knew exactly what He was doing ... thank God!! This is why this is the best part of the story!! Because if He only sent His Son to save the washed-in-white, I wouldn't be saved today! If Messiah came only to rescue the good people, I wouldn't be saved today! If Jesus came to earth to reconcile only those with enough good deeds on their scoreboards to the Father, I wouldn't be saved today!
But He didn't - and He doesn't! Because in His eyes, we're ALL the "unwashed masses - and that's who Jesus was born to save. And to prove His point, He is made known first to those on the margins of life, those who've been used up and spat out by life, those who know they're no good and who've reached the point of knowingthat they need Someone GOOD to rescue them.
No-one on earth can earn their salvation by their good looks, or their good works, or their good bloodlines ... Romans 3: 10 - 11 tells us, 'As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God."'
And this is why we call the message of Christ "the Good News": we can't save ourselves, but "being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him" (Hebrews 5: 9).
Thank You, Lord!!
"God chose lowlife shepherds to be the first to hear of Christ’s birth. Once again, the Lord of the universe demonstrated that He intentionally reaches out to the underprivileged, the dispossessed, the shunned, the lowly, and those without hope." (S & J Briscoe)