Good Christmas Eve to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
How will today and tomorrow mark your life, this year? What lasting and life impacting memories do you have of Christmas’s past?
I think it’s important for us to remember that while the world in our day spends more than a month every year ramping up to Christmas, in every conceivable way; that first Christmas, only a very few people, anywhere on earth, had any idea what was happening! The entire story of the Bible, which we have been calling “The Grand Narrative”, points forward from the Garden of Eden to Bethlehem, and what happened there, which we celebrate tonight. And yet that central event, in all human history, is only reported in a very few verses in Luke 2, does that amaze you?
We understand a decree from the most powerful man in the world at that time, the Roman Caesar, caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem for a tax registration. The entire Roman government had no idea what God was doing! Why Bethlehem? Because it was the ancestral hometown of their family tree going all the way back to David, the shepherd boy who became King of Israel about 1000 years before. And God had spoken through prophets of old that when the God sent Messiah came, He would be born into the royal line of David, in David’s town, Bethlehem! (Micah 5:2) More than that, this Messiah would eventually reign over David’s kingdom and in fact the whole world! (Is. 9:6,7 & 11:1-5) But Joseph and Mary were lost in the census crowd, and no one cared, that first Christmas.
The phrase “While they were there the time came for the baby to be born…” (Luke 2:6) suggests they had not just arrived into town that night and desperately sought a place for Mary to give birth. Rather they may have arrived a few days earlier but due to the census the village of Bethlehem was so overcrowded with visitors no public guest room was available, and evidently, they knew no one in Bethlehem to take them in as guests. So, because Mary laid her newborn son in an animal feeding manger, it appears Joseph and Mary found shelter among the animals in a stable. Now, if you’ve ever spent extended time on a farm with animals, you perhaps understand how comforting that might have been to Joseph & Mary.
Years later, as John the disciple was standing at the cross in Jerusalem watching Jesus die, this same Mary was standing alongside John watching her Son die. In that moment Jesus spoke from the cross, urging John to take Mary home and care for her as if she was his own mother, and John did! (John 19:26,27) Why? Because even Mary’s other children (Mark 6:3) did not believe Jesus was Messiah or Immanuel; and Jesus had been run out of His hometown Nazareth, (Luke 4:14-30) by the men of the Synagogue when He claimed to be the living fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-4!
Therefore, John the disciple and friend of Jesus wrote this in his account of Jesus: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. (John 1:10,11) Have you ever felt rejected, abandoned, unwelcomed by your own family or close friends, as if you don’t belong in your own home or hometown? Maybe even this Christmas?
The Luke Christmas story tells us there was only one group of people to whom God sent angels to announce the birth of that miracle baby born that night in Bethlehem. Shepherds, of all people, out in the fields with their grazing sheep. Why? May I give you three reasons as we close our reflections today?
First… they were quiet men, away from the hustle and bustle of overcrowded Bethlehem.
Their nights were spent gazing up at the stars as they sat around campfires. The angel easily got their undivided attention, and the shepherds paid close attention. They believed the angels and quickly took action, going to find and see the miracle baby for themselves. Would anyone else have done that? Are you so busy this Christmas you might miss a quiet word from God?
Second… These shepherds were likely raising lambs, which if perfect enough, would be sold to be sacrificial lambs for worship in the great Temple of God in Jerusalem.
While yes, it was a business for them, it was much more. Some of them may have considered their shepherding a sacred calling to provide what God required as a very important part of Jewish worship and sin atonement!
About 30 years later, when John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan river, calling them to prepare for their Messiah, Jesus approached one day and John pointed at Jesus and declared in a loud voice: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world… the reason I came baptizing with water was so that He might be revealed to Israel…I have seen and I testify that THIS is God’s Chosen One.” (John 1:29-34) Everyone present that day understood exactly what John was saying about Jesus!
Third… these shepherds became the first wave of ambassadors from God to our world.
Did you know that? How? The Christmas story tells us: “When the shepherds had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told to them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them…the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard…” (Luke 2:15-20) I presume that means they left the manger, Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus, and as they walked through busy Bethlehem, going back to their fields, the shepherds stopped and talked with every person who would listen to them. But more than that, as they got back out to the other shepherds, they told them. And from then on, for the rest of their lives, every and any person who would listen, heard the remarkable story of that Christmas night from these shepherds.
About 60 years later the apostle Paul, a Pharisee turned passionate follower of Jesus, wrote these words to the Jesus followers in Corinth: “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come and all this is from God… You are, therefore, Christ’s ambassadors, as though God is making His appeal [to the world] through you…” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20) Do we understand my friends, this is the great privilege of Christmas… gathering to celebrate and honor Jesus. Inviting Jesus to accomplish ALL His life transforming work in each of us, and the like the shepherds, joyfully sharing the good news and our personal Jesus story with anyone who will listen!
Oh, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas today. Don’t let the Christmas Noise and Busy keep you away from a quiet, wonderful, personal encounter with Christmas Jesus tonight!
More notes for reflection are at the “Grand Narrative” link below and again a wonderful Christmas worship song I found has a link below. What new Christmas story is God writing this year and how is God involving you and me in His 2025 version of Christmas? And yes, I’ll be here waiting for you tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Luke 2.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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