Christmas Day 2008
St. Luke alone recounts the episode
of the angels and the shepherds, yet through the yearly performance of nativity
plays, and the services of lessons and carols it is among the most familiar
part of the biblical narrative, and a chapter that Anglicans in particular have
taken to heart and celebrate. Luke 2 balances doing and formal worship.
St. Luke wants to make sure that the
reader should know that the events of the gospel are clearly rooted in place
and time, so he takes much of the first four verses to position the events of
the nativity accurately. He knew in writing that one day some would seek to
consign this to the realm of myth and fable, but in fact His–story is rooted in
history. There were shepherds on the hills because the temple sacrifice for sin
required sheep, yet the shepherds work without which the Jewish sacrifices
could not occur, rendered them ritually unclean for much of the year and
especially at pass over. These were sacrifices that would cease a few decades after
the full perfect sacrifice of Jesus.
St. Luke is very concerned to show
that the events of the nativity are fulfilment both of the distant prophecies
of the Old Testament, and the immediate message of the angels to the shepherds.
About a quarter of the bible is prophetic, and the gospel writers want the
reader to understand that in the coming of Jesus ‘the hopes and fears of all
the years are met in thee tonight.’
This is particularly important in
the birth and infancy of Jesus in the nativity accounts, because Jesus the baby
could not consciously fulfil prophecy, and because, until fulfilled, the
prophecies seemed contradictory (comes from
Consider worship. Throughout the
biblical account, Moses and Elijah, David and Solomon, Paul and Barnabus, and even the angels in Genesis and Revelation
refuse to accept worship from mortals, saying this belongs to God alone. When Nebucannzer in the book of Daniel, and Agrippa in the book
of Acts do allow themselves to be flattered into accepting worship it ends very
badly. Yet, the message of the angels to the shepherds is that it is right and
appropriate to worship Jesus.
St. Luke emphasizes that the very
first people that the new born messiah is seen by are those faithfully carrying
out their professional work.
For everyone God calls for a
response-what will we do with the good news v15-16? Although some passionately
hate us and wish to see us driven from the face of the earth and out of the
pages of history, many people and religions, too long to list here, honour
Jesus without accepting him as saviour and lord. Yet, the message of the angels
is to you as well as the shepherds, is “Do not be afraid, the creator of the
earth is come down today.” It’s your choice to come into the warmth of the
stable and put your trust in Him and worship him, or to stay outside in the
dark. Fully human, he understands; fully God he can do something about it, if
you but ask.